Use of performance-enhancing drugs in the Olympic Games
The use of PEDs has had a long history at the Olympic Games. Its origins can be traced even back to the Ancient Olympics where Olympians would eat lizard meat prepared a special way, in the hopes that it would give them an athletic edge.[1] The first documented use of drugs to improve an athlete's performance was the winner of the 1904 marathon, Thomas Hicks. The use of performance enhancing medication has also been attributed to one death during Olympic competition.[2] As rumors of rampant drug use by athletes began to spread the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to act. By 1967, the IOC had banned the use of performance enhancing drugs in Olympic competition. The IOC introduced the first drug use controls at the 1968 Winter Olympics.
These controls eventually evolved into a systematic testing regimen that all Olympic athletes must adhere to. Testing of athletes for performance enhancing drugs includes both urine and blood tests. As of 1999 the authoritative body on the use of performance enhancing drugs is the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This organization oversees the testing of athletes for several sports federations and the Olympic Games. As the creators of these drugs continue to improve their sophistication, potency and transparency, WADA and its constituency also innovate new ways to detect these drugs. Athletes continue to use various medical modifications to their body as a means of improving their athletic performance.
History
The use of performance enhancing tactics, and more broadly, the use of any external device to nefariously influence the outcome of a sporting event has been a part of the Olympics since its inception in Ancient Greece. One speculation as to why men were required to compete naked was to prevent the use of extra acoutraments and to keep women from competing in events specifically designed for men.[3] Athletes were also known to drink "magic" potions and eat exotic meats in the hopes of given them an athletic edge on their competition.[1] If they were caught cheating, their likenesses were often engraved into stone and placed in a pathway that led to the Olympic stadium.[3] In the modern Olympic era, chemically enhancing one's performance has evolved into a sophisticated science, but in the early years of the Modern Olympic movement the use of performance enhancing drugs was almost as crude as its ancient predecessors.
During the early 20th century, many Olympic athletes discovered ways to chemically improve their athletic abilities. For example, the winner of the marathon at the 1904 Games, Thomas Hicks, was given strychnine and brandy by his coach, even during the race.[4] As these methods became more extreme, it became increasingly evident that the use of performance enhancing drugs was not only a threat to the integrity of sport but could also have potentially fatal side effects on the athlete. The only Olympic death linked to athletic drug use occurred at the Rome Games of 1960. During the cycling road race, Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen fell from his bicycle and later died. A coroner's inquiry found that he was under the influence of amphetamines, which had caused him to lose consciousness during the race.[2] Jensen's death exposed to the world how endemic drug use was among elite athletes.[5] By the mid–1960s, sports federations were starting to ban the use of performance enhancing drugs, and the IOC followed suit in 1967.[6]
The first Olympic athlete to test positive for the use of performance enhancing drugs was Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, a Swedish pentathlete at the 1968 Summer Olympics, who lost his bronze medal for alcohol use.[7] Liljenwall was the only athlete to test positive for a banned substance at the 1968 Olympics, as the technology and testing techniques improved, the number of athletes discovered to be chemically enhancing their performance increased as well.
The most brazen case of systematic drug use for athletic achievement is that of the East German Olympic teams of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1990, documents were discovered that showed many East German female athletes, especially swimmers, had been administered anabolic steroids and other drugs by their coaches and trainers. Girls as young as eleven were started on the drug regimen without consent from their parents. American female swimmers, including Shirley Babashoff, accused the East Germans of using performance enhancing drugs as early as the 1976 Summer Games.[8] Babashoff's comments were dismissed by the international and domestic media as sour grapes since Babashoff, a clear favorite to win multiple gold medals, won three silver medals - losing all three times to either Kornelia Ender or Petra Thümer (both from East Germany), and one gold medal in a relay. There was no suspicion of cheating on the part of the East German female swimmers even though their medal tally increased from four silvers and one bronze in 1972 to ten golds (out of a possible twelve), six silvers, and one bronze in 1976. No clear evidence was discovered until after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the aforementioned documents proved that East Germany had embarked on a state-sponsored drug regimen to dramatically improve their competitiveness at the Olympic Games and other international sporting events. Many of the East German authorities responsible for this program have been subsequently tried and found guilty of various crimes in the German penal system.[9][10]
A very publicized steroid-related disqualification at an Olympic Games was the case of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who won the 100 meter dash at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but tested positive for stanozolol. His gold medal was subsequently stripped and awarded to runner-up Carl Lewis, who himself had tested positive for banned substances prior to the Olympics, but had not been banned due to a lack of consistency in the application of the rules. At that time National Olympic Committees had leeway to determine whether a specific athlete met the criteria to be banned from Olympic competition.[11]
Current response
In the late 1990s, the IOC took the initiative in a more organized battle against doping, leading to the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 1999. The 2000 Summer Olympics and 2002 Winter Olympics have shown that the effort to eliminate performance enhancing drugs from the Olympics is not over, as several medalists in weightlifting and cross-country skiing were disqualified due to failing a drug test. During the 2006 Winter Olympics, only one athlete failed a drug test and had a medal revoked. The IOC-established drug testing regimen (now known as the "Olympic Standard") has set the worldwide benchmark that other sporting federations attempt to emulate.[12] During the Beijing games, 3,667 athletes were tested by the IOC under the auspices of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Both urine and blood testing was used in a coordinated effort to detect banned substances recent blood transfusions. While several athletes were barred from competition by their National Olympic Committees prior to the Games, six athletes failed drug tests while in competition in Beijing.[13][14] What follows is a list of all the athletes that have tested positive for a banned substance either during or after an Olympic Games in which they competed. Any medals listed were revoked by the IOC.
Prohibited drugs
Summer Olympic Games
1968 Mexico City
1972 Munich
1976 Montreal
1980 Moscow
No athletes were caught doping at these Games.
1984 Los Angeles
1988 Seoul
1992 Barcelona
1996 Atlanta
2000 Sydney
2004 Athens
2008 Beijing
"Zero Tolerance for Doping" was adopted as an official slogan for the Beijing Olympic Games.[16] A number of athletes were already eliminated by testing prior to coming to Beijing.[16]
Out of the 4,500 samples that were collected from participating athletes at the games, six athletes with positive specimens were ousted from the competition. It is possible that further positive tests may still be found as samples are sealed and frozen for eight years. It is unclear who remains in charge of these samples, the host or the IOC. The quality of testing was questioned when the BBC reported that samples positive for EPO were labeled as negative by Chinese laboratories in July.[17] The rate of positive findings is lower than at Athens four years ago, but it cannot be deduced that the prevalence of doping has decreased; possibly, doping technology has become more sophisticated and a number of drugs cannot be detected.[16][17][18]
Winter Olympic Games
1968 Grenoble
No athletes were caught doping at these Games.
1972 Sapporo
1976 Innsbruck
1980 Lake Placid
No athletes were caught using performance enhancing drugs at these Games.
1984 Sarajevo
1988 Calgary
1992 Albertville
No athletes were caught using performance enhancing drugs at these Games
1994 Lillehammer
No athletes were caught using performance enhancing drugs at these Games
1998 Nagano
No athletes were caught using performance enhancing drugs at these Games
2002 Salt Lake City
2006 Turin
2010 Vancouver
See also
References
- ^ a b Lovgren, Stefan. "Ancient Olympics mixed Naked Sports, Pagan Partying". National Geographic Society. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/63532314.html. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
- ^ a b "A Brief History of Anti-Doping". World Anti-Doping Agency. http://www.wada-ama.org/en/dynamic.ch2?pageCategory.id=312. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
- ^ a b Gibson, Candace. "How the First Olympics Worked". Discovery Communications. http://history.howstuffworks.com/ancient-greece/first-olympics3.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
- ^ "Tom Hicks". Sports-reference.com. http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/hi/tom-hicks-1.html. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- ^ Maraniss, David (2008). Rome 1960. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 1-4165-3407-5.
- ^ Begley, Sharon (2008-01-07). "The Drug Charade". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/86079/output/print. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- ^ "Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall". 123explore.com. http://www.123exp-biographies.com/t/00034345906/. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
- ^ Brennan, Christine (2004-07-14). "Babashoff had Mettle to Speak out about Steroids". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2004-07-15-brennan_x.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
- ^ Longman, Jere (2001-04-22). "Just Following Orders, Doctors' Orders". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A02E3D71330F931A15757C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
- ^ "Sports Doping Statistics Reach Plateau in Germany". Deutsche Welle. 2006-02-26. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,786574,00.html. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
- ^ Magnay, Jacquelin (2003-04-18). "Carl Lewis's positive test covered up". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/17/1050172709693.html. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
- ^ Coile, Zachary (2005-04-27). "Bill Seeks to Toughen Drug Testing in Pro Sports". San Francisco Chornicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/27/MNGMICG0SS1.DTL. Retrieved 2008-09-03.
- ^ "Doping: 3667 athletes tested, IOC seeks action against Halkia's coach". Express India Newspapers. 2008-08-19. http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Doping-3667-athletes-tested-IOC-seeks-action-against-Halkias-coach/350677/. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
- ^ "A Brief History of Anti-Doping". World Anti-Doping Agency. http://www.wada-ama.org/en/dynamic.ch2?pageCategory.id=312. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
- ^ Associated Press (September 26, 2000). "Raducan tests positive for stimulant". ESPN. http://assets.espn.go.com/oly/summer00/news/2000/0925/776388.html.
- ^ a b c "Beijing Faces Big Challenge in Keeping Olympics Drug-Free". Deutsche Welle. 08-03-2008. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3530852,00.html.
- ^ a b McGrath, Matt (2008-07-21). "Concerns over Olympic drug test". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7516484.stm.
- ^ KNA; Reuters (2008-08-23). "Ukrainischer Gewichtheber Razoronov positiv getestet". Der Spiegel. http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,573934,00.html.
- ^ "Spanish cyclist Moreno tests positive for EPO". guardian.co.uk. 11 August 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/11/olympicscycling.olympics20083?gusrc=rss&feed=sport.
- ^ "Greek champion fails drugs test". BBC Sport. 17 August 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/athletics/7566017.stm.
- ^ "Blonska stripped of silver medal". BBC Sport. 22 August 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/athletics/7571867.stm.
- ^ "Ukrainian lifter fails dope test". BBC Sport. 23 August 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/weightlifting/7578247.stm.
- ^ a b c d e Wilson, Stephen (July 8, 2009). "Backup samples positive for 5 Olympians". Associated Press. http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=8032799.
- ^ Scislowska, Monika (March 17, 2009). "Test confirms Polish skier Marek doped at Olympics". Associated Press. http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/alpine_skiing/news;_ylt=AteL_RFSnudgkDtTzgM_8emNsbV_?slug=ap-ski-doping-marek&print=1.
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