Doping refers to the use of illicit drugs by athletes to enhance performance. There are five categories of prohibited substances, with stimulants and hormones being the most popular. They are prohibited by the governing organizations of sports because they pose health hazards. The UK Anti-Doping Agency states that drugs and practices are prohibited when they satisfy at least two of the three following requirements: they improve performance, endanger the health of athletes, or go against the spirit of sport. The International Olympic Committee and the majority of other international sports organizations forbid the use of pharmaceuticals to improve performance because it is immoral.
Over the last several decades, there has been a widespread tendency among authorities and athletic organizations to severely limit drug usage in competition. The health risks connected to performance-enhancing drugs, the equality of opportunity for athletes, and the importance of drug-free sports in public education are the main arguments in favour of the ban. Anti-doping organizations forbid the use of performance-enhancing drugs since it goes against the “spirit of sport.”
What Drugs Are People Using?
Androgenic compounds like anabolic steroids are the most often utilized drugs. These enable sportsmen to train harder, recover faster, and gain more muscle, yet they can also increase aggressiveness and kidney damage. Men may have baldness and a decrease in sperm counts, while women may experience an increase in facial hair and a deeper voice.
Typically, anabolic steroids are either injected into muscles or taken as tablets. Some are used as creams or gels on the skin. They are stimulant medications, which increase alertness in athletes and help them combat weariness by speeding up their heart rates and blood flow. But they are habit-forming and, in rare instances, can cause cardiac failure.
To conceal the use of other drugs or to assist athletes in “making the weight” in sports like boxing and horse racing, diuretics and masking agents are used to drain fluid from the body. When used improperly, narcotic analgesics and cannabis can exacerbate injuries while being utilised to cover discomfort brought on by weariness or injury. Moreover, they are addicting. Opiate-derived painkiller promethazine is permitted while drugs like morphine and oxycodone are prohibited.
Peptide hormones come next. These include medicines like EPO (erythropoietin), which boosts muscle mass and strength as well as red blood cell count and energy levels in athletes, and HGH (human growth hormone).
Blood doping, in which blood is taken out of the body and later put back in to increase oxygen levels, is less typical. This practice is prohibited since it might cause renal and heart failure. Because they are anti-inflammatory, alter the metabolism of carbs, fats, and proteins, and control the levels of glycogen and blood pressure, glucocorticoids can conceal major damage.
Beta-blockers, on the other hand, which may be recommended for high blood pressure and heart attack prevention, are prohibited in sports like archery and shooting since they lower heart rates and lessen hand tremors.
How is Doping Detected?
Mass spectrometry is a time-tested method used for the majority of doping product testing. This entails ionizing urine samples with an electron beam, which converts molecules into ions by introducing or eliminating electrons. Since the weight of various steroids, for example, is known to the scientists and each drug in the sample has a distinct “fingerprint,” they can quickly identify doping.
However, there are issues with the system. Some of the by-products of doping agents are so minute that might not provide a signal that is strong enough to be picked up. EPO and artificial oxygen carriers can be found by blood tests, while blood transfusions cannot.
The biological passport is one technique that has been used to assist in the identification of such transfusions. The passport, introduced by Wada in 2009, seeks to identify the consequences of doping instead of the substance or technique itself.
It is a digital record of an athlete that includes specific data points from throughout their career. Officials are notified if there is a significant change in these that suggests doping by the athlete.
Scientists have raised concerns about the passport’s effectiveness as well as its susceptibility to micro-dosing, a little-but-often strategy to doping, particularly when complicating circumstances like training at altitude is taken into account.
Famous Doping Cases
Ben Johnson was perhaps the most well-known drug cheat in the world before Armstrong made his confession. At the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988, the Canadian runner tested positive for anabolic steroids. Johnson set a world record in the 100 meters, finishing in 9.79 seconds, but due to a positive drug test, he lost his gold medal and was expelled in shame.
After being found guilty of using the anabolic steroid THG in 2004, British sprinter Dwain Chamber was given a two-year suspension from competition. Meanwhile, Linford Christie, a fellow countryman, and previous sprinting champion, had his athletic career stopped in 1999 after failing a drugs test.
The American runner Justin Gatlin and Marion Jones are among the other competitors who have been suspended.