The use of drugs to assist sporting performance has a long history. From 400BC, the role of sport in Greek society was as prominent as today. Mass spectator sport was the order of the day and rich prizes for winners led to the demise of amateurism and the emergence of professional athletes.
Victory in the ancient Olympics ensured rich rewards in the form of money, food, housing, tax exemptions and release from army service.Not surprisingly, bribing and cheating became commonplace and there is evidence than competitors were willing to take performance-enhancing substances, including mushroom and plant extracts. Drug use was ultimately one of the major reasons for the dissolution of the ancient Olympic Games.There is also evidence of drug taking in other ancient empires. In the Roman Empire, gladiatorial co petitions and chariot races were a major source of public entertainment.
Chariot racers fed their horse substances to make them run aster, while many Gladiators were "doped up" to make their fights sufficiently vigorous and bloody for the paying audience.The Christians found the bloody nature of many Roman sports unacceptable, and all form of pagan competition, including the ancient Olympics were banned. The idea that physical development hindered intellectual development was widely encouraged and accepted and sport did not re-emerge until the nineteenth century in rural England.Unfortunately, with this emergence, came the use of newer, more enhanced drugs. The first athlete in the modern Olympics who was known to take drugs was American Marathon runner Thomas Hicks, at the 1904 Games in St.
Louis, Missouri. At that time there was no concept of drugs and so no further action was taking into detecting their use. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, however, Swedish cyclist Knut Jenson took compound drugs to compete in the road race, during which he collapsed and died. This incident shocked the international sports world and the International Olympic Committee established a mandatory dope test for all Olympic athletes in 1967.There are further examples of how taking performance enhancing drugs can ruin lives, such as that of Lyle Alzando. He took anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, which eventually resulted in his death and was quoted as saying, " it was addicting, mentally addicting.
I just didn't feel strong unless I was taking them". However, even with these examples, athletes today still take drugs to improve their performance, which leads to the question of why?The reasons that athletes give for taking drugs vary. For many, it is that they want to be the best in the world in their chosen sport and will use whatever methods they can to achieve that goal. Evidence of this is given in a survey conducted on 100 top runners in America, which showed that 50% of them would take a certain drug knowing that, although it could make them Olympic champions, it could also kill them within a year.Top athletes are also under a lot of pressure to perform well at major events by the media, their families and their coaches. This pressure can cause them to cheat to win, especially if they are encouraged or even not discouraged from taking drugs by their coach or family.
Material rewards such as money and medals can also be an incentive for some athletes to take drugs. There is also now a wide belief among athletes that drugs are widely used and so if they do not use them then they will be at a disadvantage. Unfortunately, this view has been widely adopted by not only athletes, such as Steve Holman, a 1500m runner, who believes he is now competing in a drug culture, but also by spectators. This view is very damaging to competitors as suspicion and rumour taint winners' successes but it has also been reinforced by the increasing availability of drugs.
Drugs can be defined as chemical substances which, when introduced to the body, can alter the bio-chemical systems of the body. All drugs however produce their own side effects. There are many different types of drugs with different effects on the body available for athletes to use to improve their performance.Stimulants e.g. amphetamines, effect the central nervous system and the cardiovascular system and are used to reduce tiredness and increase alertness, competitiveness and aggression.
They occur naturally in substances such as caffeine and nicotine but are banned in sport as they give competitors a physical and mental advantage.On the other hand, there are also many disadvantages to taking stimulants. They can cause dehydration and blood circulation can decrease. There can also be a rise in blood pressure and body temperature and an increased and irregular heartbeat can occur as a result of using them and in extreme cases the heart and lungs can stop working. Psychologically, they can cause an increase in aggression and anxiety and can also be addictive.Athletes also use narcotic Analgesics.
Narcotics put people to sleep and analgesics are used as painkillers e.g. morphine, methadone. These can give athletes an advantage by giving them plenty of sleep the night before an event so that they are fit for the next day. They can also stop an injury from hurting as so they can still take place in the event.
Narcotic analgesics also have harmful effects on an athlete. Due to them not being able to feel an injury it can be made worse by competing on it and permanent damage may be caused. Other physical side effects associated with their use are nausea and vomiting and breathing problems. They also cause psychological problems such as a loss of concentration, balance and co-ordination, which can be vital in everyday life as well as in events. As with stimulants, narcotic analgesics are also very addictive.A third type of drug that is used by athletes is Androgenic anabolic steroids.
These are mainly used during training periods, prior to competitions to help build power and boost recovery rates. However, these also have many drawbacks. Athletes who use these drugs are at an increased risk of liver and heart disease and act in a more aggressive manner. There are also different disadvantages for males and females.In males, using these drugs can cause acne, kidney damage, development of breasts and premature baldness. In females, their use can cause the development of male features, irregular periods, more hair on their face and body and a deepening of the voice.
One of the most famous athletes who took anabolic steroids was Ben Johnson. He was caught at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, even though he later admitted to using them since 1984, and was striped of his gold medal and banned from the Olympics for life. Johnson has since tested positive for drug use and is now one of the most tested athletes in the world.Another types of drugs used by athletes are beta-blockers. These act on the sympathetic nervous system and prevent adrenaline being distributed throughout the body. They have been successfully used in sports such as skiing and are also good for aiming sports such as snooker or darts as they reduce anxiety.
Harmful effects of beta-blockers are that they cause low blood pressure and a slow heart rate. They can also cause fatigue.A newer form of enhancing performance illegally is blood doping or the use of EPO. Blood doping involves the intravenous administration of blood to the athlete to increase their number of red blood cells thus increasing their aerobic athletic performance.
Although it is hard to detect, all governing bodies for sports have banned blood doping.Even though blood doping is relatively new, harmful effects have already been found. These include allergic reactions, kidney damage, blood clots, over loading of the circulatory system and the risk of catching diseases such as hepatitis or AIDS.One more major type of drug that is used are diuretics.
These are taken to lose weight in sports such as Judo and also to try and avoid drug detection. As they cause the body to lose more water than normal they can cause dehydration and faintness and dizziness as well as muscle cramps and nausea. Long term effects can be the failure of the kidneys and heart.There are also a number of other substances that are used by some athletes such as local anaesthetics, which are allowed for medical purposes only, corticosteriods, which are medically used for asthma and are allowed in special cases and alcohol and marijuana are used to steady nerves. Both of these substances are tested in some, but not all sports.
Overall, there are many advantages to be gained from taking drugs to enhance performance but the disadvantages of each of the individual drugs, show that the athletes put themselves at great risk in using them both physically, mentally and professionally.As well as the physical disadvantages of taking drugs there are also many ethics involved. Those that believe taking drugs is purely beneficial to both athletes and sport use ethics such as "everyone else is doing it so why shouldn't I?" and they believe it is acceptable as everyone will have the same advantage. Also, seeing other athletes using drugs and not getting caught can be a sign of encouragement to use them, as they believe they too will not get caught.It is the introduction of these ethics as opposed to believing that having an advantage by taking drugs is wrong and that using them is damaging both to athletes and the image of sport that has helped lead to an increase in the use of drugs in sport.
Statistically speaking, the use of performance enhancing drugs has risen over the past 50 years. There have been a number of reasons given for this increase including advances in biology and medicine, the use of drugs in World War II and the increase in their availability at lower prices.Alternatively, the increase could be accounted for by the advancement of testing procedures, therefore the number of athletes using drugs may have stayed the same and it is the number that are caught that has increased.As previously stated it was the IOC that started doping tests across all sports. However, it is only recently that an international organisation has been established in the form of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
This organisation was established on 10 November 1999 in Lausanne. Its mission is to promote and co-ordinate at international levels the fight against doping in sport in all forms.
