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The DayAfter
Story: Win More Votes, Lose More Seats
The Beautiful World of So Young Kim |
| DRUG USE NOT UNCOMMON IN SPORTS | |
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by K. R. Wadhwaney | |
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In the last 100 years or so, the drug menace became quite widespread, particularly with the growth of foreign participation and the influx of "big money" in sports. Reports, dating back to the 1860s point to doping cases among swimmers in Amsterdam and during the six-day bicycle races, which were popular in the late 19th century Europe. In the 1950s, positive proof of doping in the Olympic Games came to light. Knut Enemark Jensen, a Danish cyclist, died on the opening day while competing in the 100-metres trial race. The official verdict gave "sunstroke" as the cause of death. But the post-mortem revealed that Jansen had been administered a mixture of amphetamines and nicotinyl tartrade. The incident led to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) setting up the first Medical Commission in 1961 under the chairmanship of Sir Arthur (now Lord Porritt) of New Zealand. Three years later, in the 1964 Tokyo Games, the IOC decided to collect and examine urine samples from athletes. While these tests were conducted, rumours began to circulate about some competitors taking a different kind of drug that affected the hormones without showing up in the urine. These were anabolic steroids. Weightlifters and bodybuilders were particularly guilty of resorting to steroids, methadienone (dianabel) being the most widely used among them. Since they used the same gymnasium as other athletes, the unholy practice spread to different areas of sports. As John Goodbody wrote in The Times, London: "What was now fully appreciated in the 1960s was that hormone drugs could not only benefit competitors wanting to add muscle weight when combined with a heavy weight training programme, but they could also aid individuals to recover more quickly from intensive training sessions. For instance, Marttl Vainio, the Finn who was second in the 10,000 metres at the 1984 Games, tested positive for taking anabolic steroids in Los Angeles, as was Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter, in Seoul. The drugs probably helped Vainio to train harder more frequently and Johnson to run faster. The drugs therefore had relevance across most sports at the Olympic programme." A breakthrough in the detection of anabolic steroids came in 1973 when a team led by Prof. Raymond Brooks at St Thomas Medical School in London analysed urine by radiomunossay and then, by mass spectrometry and gas chromatography. Following this success, the Medical Commission carried out tests on athletes at the 1976 Montreal Games. Eleven of them, mostly weightlifters, tested positive. By 1988, the General Assembly of International Sports Federations (GAISF) had arrived at the conclusion that some drugs taken by sportspersons, serve a "double" function: they stimulate performance during the day and induce sleep during the night owing to the presence of sedatives. Thus, anti-doping checks, both during training and in competition, have intensified, promoting Sir Arthur Gold of the British Olympic Committee to observe : "Drug tests at major competitions only caught the careless and ill-advised. They should form as much part of the rules as the size of a hurdle or the measurement of a tennis court." Today, it is well-recognised that while athletes guilty of drug abuse can be caught and penalised, doctors, more often than not, manage to get away scot-free. The GAISF has therefore suggested that doctors responsible for drug trafficking should be banned from the sports arena, their licences taken away and prevented from practising or serving. "Much work remains to be done on changing altitudes generally," the GAISF stated. There have also been cases of athletes who fail in drug tests, but are not really criminals or cheats. They are merely victims of circumstances. One such innocent sportsman was Rick DeMont (United States) who was stripped of his 400 metres free style Olympic gold after failing a drug test. As it turned out, the ace swimmer was an asthmatic since the age of four. A night before the final event, he repeated a pill he had been taking to keep his asthma at its lowest level. The pill contained ephedrine, a banned drug. Pleading "not guilty," he explained why he took the tablet. But ignorance of the law failed to acquit him and he had to return his medal. During the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, three weight lifters, Subrata Kumar Paul (India) and two Welshmen, Ricky Chaplin and Ganeth Hives, tested positive and were stripped of their medals. Paul went on record to say he was innocent and that he had been "given the substance by a doctor on the ground that it would not reveal anything after three days." | |
Fortunately
Indian athlete Sunita Rani has been cleared of dope charges and her
medals won at Busan Games restored to her, but the use of drugs in
sports is not a recent phenomenon. During the ancient Olympic Games
in Greece, sportsmen were known to take a variety of stimulants to
improve performance and gain an unfair advantage over rivals.
However, such instances were few and no one in authority bothered
much about it. 