Doping in sport

In sports, doping refers to the use of performance-enhancing drugs, particularly those forbidden by organizations that regulate competitions. Doping is mostly done to improve athletic performance. This is why many sports ban the use of performance enhancing drugs. Another form of doping is blood doping, either by blood transfusion or use of the hormone erythropoietin (EPO). Also considered "doping" by many is the use of substances that mask other forms of doping.Fact|date=July 2007Doping is considered unethical by most international sports organizations and especially the International Olympic Committee. The reasons are mainly the health threat of performance-enhancing drugs, the equality of opportunity of the athletes and the exemplary effect of "clean" (doping-free) sports in the public.

This entry concerns the doping of humans. In horse racing and other equestrian sports, and in greyhound racing, horses and greyhounds can also be doped.

Origin of word

There are many suggestions as to the origin of the word ‘doping’. One is that it is derived from ‘dop’ an alcoholic drink used as a stimulant in ceremonial dances in 18th century Southern Africa [Verroken Baillière’s (2000) Clin Endocrinol Metab; 14: 1–23. cited by A. J. Higgins (2006) From ancient Greece to modern Athens: 3000 years of doping in competition horses Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics V 29 I s1 Pg 4-8.] . Another suggestion is that the word comes from the Dutch word ‘doop’ (a thick dipping sauce) that entered American slang to describe how robbers stupefied victims by mixing tobacco with the seeds of Datura stramonium [Clarke (1962) Med Leg J; 30: 180–194. cited by A. J. Higgins (2006) From ancient Greece to modern Athens: 3000 years of doping in competition horses Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics V 29 I s1 Pg 4-8.] , known as jimsonweed, which contains a number of tropane alkaloids, causing sedation, hallucinations and confusion [Ratsch. (2005) In The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and its Applications. Rochester Ed. Park Street Press.cited by A. J. Higgins (2006) From ancient Greece to modern Athens: 3000 years of doping in competition horses Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics V 29 I s1 Pg 4-8.] . By 1889, ‘dope’ was used in connection with the preparation of a thick viscous preparation of opium for smoking, and during the 1890s this extended to any stupefying narcotic drug. In 1900, dope was also defined as ‘a preparation of drugs designed to influence a racehorse’s performance’ [Barnhart (2003) In Chambers Dictionary of Etymology. ChambersHarrap, Edinburgh. ited by A. J. Higgins (2006) From ancient Greece to modern Athens: 3000 years of doping in competition horses Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics V 29 I s1 Pg 4-8.]

History

Texts going back to antiquity suggest that men have always sought a way to work harder or at least to suffer less as they were doing so. When the fittest of a nation were selected as athletes or combatants, they were fed diets and given treatments considered beneficial Scandinavian mythology says Berserkers could drink a mixture called "butotens", perhaps prepared from the "Amanita muscaria" mushroom, and increase their physical power a dozen times at the risk of "going crazy" [This theory, which goes back to research centuries ago - see main Berserker entry - has been disputed and other causes suggested, mostly that different drugs were involved but also the theory of mental illness] . In more recent times, the German missionary and doctor Albert Schweitzer wrote of Gabon in the early 19th century: "The people of the country can, having eaten certain leaves or roots, toil ["pagayer"] vigorously all day without feeling hungry, thirsty or tired and all the time showing a happiness and gaiety." [ Schweitzer, Albert: A l'Orée de la Forêt Vierge, récits et réflexions d'un médicin en Afrique equatoriale française, Albin Michel, France 1952 ]

A participant in an endurance walking race in Britain, Abraham Wood, said in 1807 that he had used laudanum, or opium, to keep him awake for 24 hours while competing against Robert Barclay Allardyce. By April 1877, walking races had stretched to 500 miles and the following year, also at the Agricultural Hall in Islington, London, to 520 miles. The "Illustrated London News" chided:

:It may be an advantage to know that a man can travel 520 miles in 138 hours, and manage to live through a week with an infinitesimal amount of rest, though we fail to perceive that anyone could possibly be placed in a position where his ability in this respect would be of any use to him [and] what is to be gained by a constant repetition of the fact. [Grajewski, Tadeusw: The Building That Would Not Go Away, Royal Agricultural Hall, UK, 1989 ]

The crowd loved it, however, and 20,000 a day came to watch Woodland, Les: This Island Race, Mousehold Press, UK, 2005] . That encouraged promoters to repeat the races, at the same venue but with cyclists. They were the fastest humans on earth...

:"...and much more likely to endure their miseries publicly; a tired walker, after all, merely sits down - a tired cyclist falls off and possibly brings others crashing down as well. That's much more fun".

The fascination with six-day bicycle races spread across the Atlantic and the same appeal to base instincts brought in the crowds in America as well. And the more spectators paid at the gate, the higher the prizes could be and the greater was the incentive of riders to stay awake - or be kept awake - to ride the greatest distance. Their exhaustion was countered by soigneurs (the French word for "carers"), helpers akin to seconds in boxing. Among the treatments they supplied was nitroglycerine, a drug used to stimulate the heart after cardiac attacks and which was credited with improving riders' breathing. [ Novich, Max M., "Abbotempo", UK, 1964] Riders suffered hallucinations from the exhaustion and perhaps the drugs. The American champion Major Taylor refused to continue the New York race, saying: "I cannot go on with safety, for there is a man chasing me around the ring with a knife in his hand." [ Bearings, US, 24 December 1896, cited Ritchie, Andrew, "Major Taylor", Bicycle Books, US, 1988 ]

Public reaction turned against such trials, whether individual races or in teams of two. One report chided:

:An athletic contest in which the participants 'go queer' in their heads, and strain their powers until their faces become hideous with the tortures that rack them, is not sport, it is brutality. It appears from the reports of this singular performance that some of the bicycle riders have actually become temporarily insane during the contest... Days and weeks of recuperation will be needed to put the racers in condition, and it is likely that some of them will never recover from the strain. [ New York Times, US, 1897, cited McCullagh, James, "American Bicycle Racing, Rodale Press, USA, 1976 ]

The American specialist in doping, Max M. Novich, wrote: "Trainers of the old school who supplied treatments which had cocaine as their base declared with assurance that a rider tired by a six-day race would get his second breath after absorbing these mixtures." [ Novich, ibid. Cited De Mondenard, Dr Jean-Pierre: "Dopage, l'imposture des performances, Chiron, France, 2000 ] John Hoberman, a professor at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, said six-day races were "de facto experiments investigating the physiology of stress as well as the substances that might alleviate exhaustion." [Hoberman, John; Dopers on Wheels: The Tour's sorry history, www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19462071/ retrieved December 2007]

trychnine at the Olympics

These "de facto experiments investigating the physiology of stress as well as the substances that might alleviate exhaustion" weren't unknown outside cycling.

Thomas J. Hicks, an American born in England on 7 January, 1875 won the Olympic marathon in 1904. He crossed the line behind a fellow American, Fred Lorz, whose concept of marathon-running extended to riding half the way in a car. But nor did Hicks compete without outside help. His trainer, Charles Lucas, pulled out a hypodermic and came to his aid as his runner began to struggle.

:I therefore decided to inject him with a milligram of sulphate of strychnine and to make him drink a large glass brimming with brandy. He set off again as best he could [but] he needed another injection four miles from the end to give him a semblance of speed and to get him to the finish. [Parenté R, Lagorce C: La Fabuleuse Histoire des Jeux Olympiques, ODIL, France, 1973 ]

The use of strychnine, far from being banned, was thought necessary to survive demanding races, says the sports historian Alain Lunzenfichter. [Lunzenfichter, Alain: "C'est pas du Jeu!", L'Équipe, France, 10 December 2007] The historian of sports doping, Dr Jean-Pierre de Mondenard, said:

:It has to be appreciated that at the time the menace of doping for the health of athletes or of the purity of competition had yet to enter the morals because, after this marathon, the official race report said: The marathon has shown from a medical point of view how drugs can be very useful to athletes in long-distance races.

Hicks hung, in the phrase of the time, "between life and death" but recovered and collected his gold medal a few days later, although he never again took part in athletics. [Woodland, Les: Dope, the use of drugs in Sport, David and Charles, UK, 1980 ]

The Convicts of the Road

In 1924 the journalist Albert Londres followed the Tour de France for the French newspaper, "Le Petit Parisien". At Coutances he heard that the previous year's winner, Henri Pélissier, his brother Francis and a third rider, Maurice Ville, had pulled out after a row with the organiser, Henri Desgrange. Henri explained the problem - whether or not he had the right to take off a jersey - and went on to talk of drugs, reported in Londres' race diary, in which he coined the phrase "Les Forçats de la Route" (The Convicts of the Road):

:"You have no idea what the Tour de France is," Henri said. "It's a Calvary. Worse than that, because the road to the Cross has only 14 stations and ours has 15. We suffer from the start to the end. You want to know how we keep going? Here..." He pulled a phial from his bag. "That's cocaine, for our eyes. This is chloroform, for our gums."

:"This," Ville said, emptying his shoulder bag "is liniment to put warmth back into our knees."

:"And pills. Do you want to see pills? Have a look, here are the pills." Each pulled out three boxes.

:"The truth is," Francis said, "that we keep going on dynamite."

Henri spoke of being as white as shrouds once the dirt of the day had been washed off, then of their bodies being drained by diarrhoea, before continuing:

:"At night, in our rooms, we can't sleep. We twitch and dance and jig about as though we were doing St Vitus's Dance..."

:"There's less flesh on our bodies than on a skeleton," Francis said. [Londres, Albert: Les frères Pélissier et leur camarade Ville abandonnent, "Le Petit Parisien", 27 June 1924, France ]

Francis Pélissier said much later: "Londres was a famous reporter but he didn't know about cycling. We kidded him a bit with our cocaine and our pills. Even so, the Tour de France in 1924 was no picnic. [Woodland, Les: "Yellow Jersey Guide to the Tour de France", Yellow Jersey, London, 2007 ] cite book |author=Dr Jean-Pierre de Mondenard |title=Dopage : L'imposture des performances |publisher=Chiron |location=Wilmette, Ill |year=2000 |pages= |isbn=2-7027-0639-8 |oclc= |doi= |accessdate=]

The acceptance of drug-taking in the Tour de France was so complete by 1930, when the race changed to national teams that were to be paid for by the organisers, that the rule book distributed to riders by the organiser, Henri Desgrange, reminded them that drugs were not among items with which they would be provided. [Maso, Benji:Zweet van de Goden, Holland]

Up to speed with Benzedrine

Benzedrine is a trade name for amphetamine. The Council of Europe says it first appeared in sport at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. [ "Doping of athletes, a European survey", Council of Europe, France, 1964 ] It was produced in 1887 and the derivative, Benzedrine, was isolated in the USA in 1934. Its perceived effects gave it the street name "speed". British troops used 72 million amphetamine tablets in the Second World War and the RAF got through so many that "Methedrine won the Battle of Britain" according to one report. [ Grant, D.N.W.; "Air Force, UK, 1944 ] The problem was that amphetamine leads to a lack of judgement and a willingness to take risks, which in sport could lead to better performances but in fighters and bombers led to more crash landings than the RAF could tolerate. The drug was withdrawn but large stocks remained on the black market. Amphetamine was also used legally as an aid to slimming.

Everton have long been one of the top clubs in the English association football league. The club were champions of the 1962-63 season. And it was done, according to a national newspaper investigation, with the help of Benzedrine. Word spread after Everton's win that the drug had been involved. The newspaper investigated, cited where the reporter believed it had come from, and quoted the goalkeeper, Albert Dunlop, as saying:

:I cannot remember how they first came to be offered to us. But they were distributed in the dressing rooms. We didn't have to take them but most of the players did. The tablets were mostly white but once or twice they were yellow. They were used through the 1961-62 season and the championship season which followed it. Drug-taking had previously been virtually unnamed in the club. But once it had started we could have as many tablets as we liked. On match days they were handed out to most players as a matter of course. Soon some of the players could not do without the drugs. Now in Professional sports only 34% of the Athletes use Performance enhancing drugs. Gabbert, Michael: How we uncovered the Everton drug scandal, "The People", UK, 13 September 1964]

The club agreed that drugs had been used but that they "could not possibly have had any harmful effect." Dunlop, however, said he had become an addict.

Benzedrine and its sister drugs were irresistible in other sports. In November 1942, the Italian cyclist Fausto Coppi took "seven packets of amphetamine" to beat the world hour record on the track. [ Brera, G. "Le Géant et la Lime" (French title), Ed. Campagnolo, Italy, 1995, cited De Mondenard ] In 1960, the Danish rider Knud Enemark Jensen collapsed during the 100km team time trial at the Olympic Games in Rome and died later in hospital. The autopsy showed he had taken amphetamine and another drug, Ronicol, which dilates the blood vessels. The chairman of the Dutch cycling federation, Piet van Dijk, said of Rome that "dope - whole cartloads - [were] used in such royal quantities." [ Van Dijk, Pieter: "Doping bestaat en doen we eraan", Het Vrije Volk, Holland, 13 December 1961 ]

The British professional Jock Andrews used to joke: "You need never go off-course chasing the peloton in a big race - just follow the trail of empty syringes and dope wrappers." [ Cited by fellow professional Tony Hewson in Journal, Fellowship of Cycling Old Timers, 158/72]

The Dutch cycling team manager Kees Pellenaars told of a rider in his care:

:I took him along to a training camp in Spain. The boy changed then into a sort of lion. He raced around as though he was powered by rockets. I went to talk to him. He was really happy he was riding well and he told me to look out for him. I asked if he wasn't perhaps "using something" and he jumped straight up, climbed on a chair and from deep inside a cupboard he pulled out a plastic bag full of pills. I felt my heart skip a beat. I had never seen so many fireworks together. With a soigner we counted the pills: there were 5,000 of them, excluding hormone preparations and sleeping pills. I took them away, to his own relief. I let him keep the hormones and the sleeping pills.

:Later he seemed to have taken too many at once and he slept for a couple of days on end. We couldn't wake him up. We took him to hospital and they pumped out his stomach. They tied him to his bed to prevent anything going wrong again. But one way or another he had some stimulant and fancied taking a walk. A nurse came across him in the corridor, walking along with the bed strapped to his back. [Huyskens, P: "Daar was 't, een biografie van Kees Pellenaars", Netherlands,1973]

The miracle muscle pill

In October 1954, John Ziegler, a doctor who treated American athletes, went to Vienna with the American weightlifting team. There he met a Russian physicist who, over "a few drinks", repeatedly asked "What are you giving your boys?" When Ziegler returned the question, the Russian said that his own athletes were being given testosterone.

Returning to America, Ziegler tried weak doses of testosterone on himself, on the American trainer Bob Hoffman and on two lifters, Jim Park and Yaz Kuzahara. All gained more weight and strength than any training programme would produce but there were side-effects. [ Laure, P.: Les répresentations du dopage; approche psycho-sociologique, Thèse STAPS, Nancy, France, 1994 ] Ziegler sought a drug without after-effects and hit on an anabolic steroid, methandrostenolone, (Dianabol, DBOL), made in the US in 1958 by Ciba. [cite journal |author=Yesalis CE, Anderson WA, Buckley WE, Wright JE |title=Incidence of the nonmedical use of anabolic-androgenic steroids |journal=NIDA research monograph |volume=102 |issue= |pages=97–112 |year=1990 |pmid=2079979 |doi= |url=http://www.drugabuse.gov/pdf/monographs/102.pdf] [cite journal |author=Fair JD |title=Isometrics or Steroids? Exploring New Frontiers Of Strength in the Early 1960s |journal=Journal of Sport History |volume=20 |issue=1 |year=1993 |url=http://www.aafla.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1993/JSH2001/jsh2001b.pdf] .

The results were impressive - so impressive that lifters began taking ever more. Steroids spread to other sports where bulk mattered. Paul Lowe, a former running back with the San Diego Chargers American football team, told a California legislative committee on drug abuse in 1970: "We had to take them [steroids] at lunchtime. He [an official] would put them on a little saucer and prescribed them for us to take them and if not he would suggest there might be a fine."

Olympic statistics show the weight of shot putters grew 14 per cent between 1956 and 1972, whereas steeplechasers grew 7.6 per cent. The gold medallist pentathlete Mary Peters said: "A medical research team in the United States attempted to set up extensive research into the effects of steroids on weightlifters and throwers, only to discover that there were so few who weren't taking them that they couldn't establish any worthwhile comparisons." [Peters, Mary: Mary P, Arrow Books, UK, 1976 ]

Jay Silvester, of the physical education department of Brigham Young university in the USA, questioned fellow competitors at the 1984 Olympics. The range of steroid use he found ranged from 10mg a day to 100mg.

Several successful athletes and professional bodybuilders have admitted long-term methandrostenolone use before the drug was banned, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sergio Oliva.Steve Theunissen: [http://hjem.get2net.dk/JamesBond/www/artikler/steroidemisbrug/arnoldandsteroids.htm Arnold & Steroids: Truth Revealed] 2002] [http://www.fitnessprat.no/archive/index.php/t-332.html Interview with Sergio Oliva] ] Dianabol is no longer produced but similar drugs are made elsewhere.

Ziegler's dream turned into a nightmare as evidence increased of the damage done to some athletes who had taken more than the prescribed dose, and he came to regret helping invent anabolic steroids: "I wish I'd never heard the word 'steroid.' These kids do not realize the price they'll pay." [Getz, Bruce: Anabolic Steroids, www.hughston.com/hha/a.11.2.3.htm, retrieved December 2007 ]

The case of East Germany

In 1977, one of East Germany's best sprinters, Renate Neufeld, fled to the West with the Bulgarian she later married. A year later she said that she had been told to take drugs supplied by coaches while training to represent East Germany in the 1980 Olympic Games.

:At 17, I joined the East Berlin Sports Institute. My speciality was the 80m hurdles. We swore that we would never speak to anyone about our training methods, including our parents. The training was very hard. We were all watched. We signed a register each time we left for dormitory and we had to say where we were going and what time we would return. One day, my trainer, Günter Clam, advised me to take pills to improve my performance: I was running 200m in 24 seconds. My trainer told me the pills were vitamins, but I soon had cramp in my legs, my voice became gruff and sometimes I couldn't talk any more. Then I started to grow a moustache and my periods stopped. I then refused to take these pills. One morning in October 1977, the secret police took me at 7am and questioned me about my refusal to take pills prescribed by the trainer. I then decided to flee, with my fiancé. [Sport Information Dienst, W Germany, December 1978 ] [Costelle D, Berlioux M, "Histoires des Jeux Olympiques", Larousse, France, 1980]

She brought with her to the West grey tablets and green powder she said had been given to her, to members of her club, and to other athletes. The West German doping analyst Manfred Donike reportedly identified them as anabolic steroids. She said she stayed quiet for a year for the sake of her family. But when her father then lost his job and her sister was expelled from her handball club, she decided to tell her story. [Sport Information Dienst, W Germany, December 1978 ]

East Germany closed itself to the sporting world in May 1965 In 1977 the shot-putter Ilona Slupianek, who weighed 93 kg - tested positive for anabolic steroids at the European Cup meeting in Helsinki and thereafter athletes were tested before they left the country. At the same time, the Kreischa testing laboratory near Dresden passed into government control, which was reputed to make around 12,000 tests a year on East German athletes but without any being penalised.

The International Amateur Athletics Federation suspended Slupianek for 12 months, a penalty that ended two days before the European championships in Prague. In the reverse of what the IAAF hoped, sending her home to East Germany meant she was free to train unchecked with anabolic steroids, if she wanted to, and then compete for another gold medal. Which indeed she won.

After that, almost nothing emerged from the East German sports schools and laboratories. A rare exception was the visit by the sports writer and former athlete, Doug Gilbert of the "Edmonton Sun", who said:

:Dr (Heinz) Wuschech knows more about anabolic steroids than any doctor I have ever met, and yet he cannot discuss them openly any more than Geoff Capes or Mac Wilkins can openly discuss them in the current climate of amateur sports regulation. What I did learn in East Germany was that they feel there is little danger from anabolica, as they call it, when the athletes are kept on strictly monitored programmes. Although the extremely dangerous side-effects are admitted, they are statistically no more likely to occur than side-effects from the birth control pill. If, that is, programmes are constantly medically monotired as to dosage. [Cited Woodland, Les: Dope, the use of drugs in sport, David and Charles, UK, 1980]

Other reports came from the occasional athlete who fled to the West. There were 15 between 1976 and 1979. One, the ski-jumper Hans Georg Aschenbach, said: "Long-distance skiers start having injections to their knees from the age 14 because of their intensive training." He said: "For every Olympic champion, there at least 350 invalids. There are gymnasts among the girls who have to wear corsets from the age of 18 because their spine and their ligaments have become so worn... There are young people so worn out by the intensive training that they come out of it mentally blank ["lessivés" - washed out] , which is even more painful than a deformed spine." [ "Le Figaro", France, 19 January 1989 ]

Then on 26 August 1993 the records opened with the merger of the two Germanies and the evidence was there that the Stasi, the state secret police, supervised systematic doping of East German athletes from 1971 until reunification in 1990. Doping existed in other countries, says the expert Jean-Pierre de Mondenard, both communist and capitalist, but the difference with East Germany was that it was a state policy. [cite web|url=http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,786574,00.html |title=Sports Doping Statistics Reach Plateau in Germany |publisher="Deutsche Welle" |date=2003-02-26 |accessdate=2007-08-04]

The "Sportvereinigung Dynamo" (English:"Sport Club Dynamo") [Pain And Injury in Sport: Social And Ethical Analysis, Section III, Chapter 7, Page 111, by Sigmund Loland, Berit Skirstad, Ivan Waddington, Published by Routledge in 2006, ASIN: B000OI0HZG] was especially singled out as a center for doping in the former East Germany [cite web|url=http://members.lycos.co.uk/dopingopfer/kommentar_ordner/09_2002/dynamo_liste_web.htm|title=Dynamo Liste (in German)|publisher=[e-mail]|month=September | year=2002|accessdate=2008-03-10] . Many former club officials and some athletes found themselves charged after the dissolution of the country. A special page on the internet was created by doping victims trying to gain justice and compensation, listing people involved in doping in the GDR. [cite web|url=http://members.lycos.co.uk/dopingopfer/taeter/taeter_alle.htm|title=Dynamo Liste: Die Täter (in German)|publisher=[e-mail]|month=September | year=2002|accessdate=2008-03-11] .

State-endorsed doping began with the Cold War when every eastern bloc gold was an ideological victory. From 1974, Manfred Ewald, the head of the GDR's sports federation, imposed blanket doping. At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, the country of 17 million collected nine gold medals. Four years later the total was 20 and in 1976 it doubled again to 40 [cite web|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2048448|title=Jenapharm says drugs were legal|publisher=ESPN|date=2005-04-28|accessdate=2008-03-11] . Ewald was quoted as having told coaches, "They're still so young and don't have to know everything." He was given a 22-month suspended sentence, to the outrage of his victims [cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20021025/ai_n12658822|title=Obituary: Manfred Ewald|publisher=The Independent|date=2002-10-25|accessdate=2008-03-11] .

Often, doping was carried out without the knowledge of the athletes, some of them as young as ten years of age. It is estimated that around 10,000 former athletes bear the physical and mental scars of years of drug abuse [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4341045.stm|title=GDR athletes sue over steroid damage |publisher=BBC News Europe|date=2005-03-13|accessdate=2008-03-11] , one of them is Rica Reinisch, a triple Olympic champion and world record-setter at the Moscow Games in 1980, has since suffered numerous miscarriages and recurring ovarian cysts.

Two former Dynamo Berlin club doctors, Dieter Binus, chief of the national women's team from 1976 to 80, and Bernd Pansold, in charge of the sports medicine center in East-Berlin, were committed for trial for allegedly supplying 19 teenagers with illegal substances [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sport/34496.stm|title=New doping charges against East German doctors|publisher=BBC News|date=1997-11-25|accessdate=2008-03-07] . Binus was sentenced in August [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sport/161913.stm|title=East German coaches fined over doping|publisher=BBC News|date=1998-08-31|accessdate=2008-03-11] , Pansold in December 1998 after both being found guilty of administering hormones to underage female athletes from 1975 to 1984 [cite web|url=http://www.svl.ch/doping/ddr_doping_minderjaehrige.html|title=Doping of underage athletes in the former GDR (in German)|publisher=Schwimmverein Limmat Zürich |date=2000-03-23|accessdate=2008-03-10] .

Virtually no East German athlete ever failed an official drugs test, though Stasi files show that many did, indeed, produce positive tests at Kreischa, the Saxon laboratory (German:"Zentrales Dopingkontroll-Labor des Sportmedizinischen Dienstes") that was at the time approved by the International Olympic Committee [cite web|url=http://www.ergogenics.org/ddrroids2.html|title=Drug claim could be a bitter pill|publisher=Times Online|date=2005-03-02|accessdate=2008-03-13] , now called the "Institute of Doping Analysis and Sports Biochemistry" (IDAS) [cite web|url=http://www.wada-ama.org/en/dynamic.ch2?pageCategory.id=333|title=Accredited Laboratories|publisher=World Anti-Doping Agency|month=January | year=2004|accessdate=2008-03-13] .

In 2005, fifteen years after the end or the "GDR", the manufacturer of the drugs in former East Germany, "Jenapharm", still finds itself involved in numerous lawsuits from doping victims, being sued by almost 200 former athletes [cite web|url=http://sport.guardian.co.uk/athletics/story/0,10082,1605761,00.html|title=Forgotten victims of East German doping take their battle to court|publisher=The Guardian|date=2005-11-01|accessdate=2008-03-11] .

Former Sport Club Dynamo athletes who publicly admitted to doping, accusing their coaches [cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3883/is_199807/ai_n8790764|title=Drugs update|publisher=Sports Publications|month=July | year=1998|accessdate=2008-03-11] :

*Daniela Hunger
*Andrea Pollack

Former Sport Club Dynamo athletes disqualified for doping:

*Ilona Slupianek [cite web|url=http://www.milano2007.org/html_eng/storia_coppa.asp|title=1977: Here comes Mr. Doping
publisher=European Cup - Milan 2007|year=2007|accessdate=2008-03-11] ("Ilona Slupianek was tested positive along with three Finnish athletes at the 1977 European Cup, becoming the only East German athlete ever to be convicted of doping")

Based on the admission by Pollack, the United States Olympic Committee asked for the redistribution of gold medals won in the 1976 Summer Olympics [cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A05E0DE173CF936A15753C1A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3|title=OLYMPICS; U.S. Seeks Redress for 1976 Doping In Olympics |publisher=The New York Times|date=1998-10-25|accessdate=2008-03-12] . Despite court rulings in Germany that substantiate claims of systematic doping by some East German swimmers, the IOC executive board announced that it has no intention of revising the Olympic record books. In rejecting the American petition on behalf of its women's medley relay team in Montreal and a similar petition from the British Olympic Association on behalf of Sharron Davies, the IOC made it clear that it wanted to discourage any such appeals in the future [cite web|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/1998/12/16/medals.t.php|title=Despite Doping, Olympic Medals Stand|publisher=International Herald Tribune|date=1998-12-16|accessdate=2008-03-12] .

Doping in association football

Unlike individual sports such as bicycling, weight-lifting, and track and field, football (soccer) is not widely associated with performance enhancing drugs. Like most high-profile team sports, football suffers more from an association with recreational drugs, the case of Diego Maradona and cocaine in 1991 being the best known of those.

Anabolic steroids - the details

Anabolic steroids are a class of steroid hormones related to the hormone testosterone. They increase protein synthesis within cells, which results in the buildup of cellular tissue (anabolism), especially in muscles. Anabolic steroids also have androgenic and virilizing properties, including the development and maintenance of masculine characteristics such as the growth of the vocal cords and body hair. The word "anabolic" comes from the Greek: "anabole", "to build up", and the word "androgenic" comes from the Greek: "andros", "man" + "genein", "to produce".

Anabolic steroids were first isolated, identified and synthesized in the 1930s, and are now used therapeutically in medicine to stimulate bone growth and appetite, induce male puberty, and treat chronic wasting conditions, such as cancer and AIDS. Anabolic steroids also produce increases in muscle mass and physical strength, and are consequently used in sport and bodybuilding to enhance strength or physique. Some claim that serious health risks can be produced by long-term use or excessive doses of anabolic steroids. Known side effects include harmful changes in cholesterol levels (increased Low density lipoprotein and decreased High density lipoprotein), acne, high blood pressure, liver damage, and dangerous changes in the structure of the left ventricle of the heart. Some of these effects can be mitigated by exercise, or by taking supplemental drugs. However it should be noted that there are few peer-reviewed medical data showing that anabolic steroids have long-term health effects once the user stops taking them. A recent review [cite journal |author=Kanayama G, Hudson JI, Pope HG |title=Long-term psychiatric and medical consequences of anabolic-androgenic steroid abuse: A looming public health concern? |journal=Drug and alcohol dependence |volume=98 |issue=1-2 |pages=1–12 |year=2008 |month=Nov |pmid=18599224 |doi=10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2008.05.004 |url=] focuses on this concern and includes some studies reporting on higher incidences of certain consequences, such as suicide and persistent cardiopathology, after drug cessation.

The non-medical use of anabolic steroids is controversial because of their purported adverse effects and their use to gain potential advantage in competitive sports. The use of anabolic steroids is banned by all major sporting bodies, including the WTA, ITF, International Olympic Committee, FIFA, UEFA, all major professional golf tours, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the European Athletic Association and the National Football League. However drug testing can be wildly inconsistent and, in some instances, has gone unenforced.

Anabolic steroids are controlled substances in many countries, including the United States (U.S.), Canada, the United Kingdom (UK), Australia, Argentina and Brazil, while in other countries, such as Mexico they are freely available. In countries where the drugs are controlled, there is often a black market in which smuggled or counterfeit drugs are sold to users. The quality of such illegal drugs may be low, and contaminants may cause additional health risks. In countries where anabolic steroids are strictly regulated, some have called for less regulation.

Modern times

Currently, tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) and modafinil are causing controversy throughout the sporting world, with many high profile cases attracting major press coverage as prominent United States athletes have tested positive for these doping substances. Some athletes who were found to have used modafinil protested as the drug was not on the prohibited list at the time of their offence; however, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) maintains it is a substance related to those already banned, so the decisions stand. Modafinil was added to the list of prohibited substances on August 3, 2004, ten days before the start of the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Sports lawyer Michelle Gallen has said that the pursuit of doping athletes has turned into a modern day witch hunt. [ [http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/?id=2004/witchhunt1 Witch hunting in the 21st century] ]

Reaction from sports organizations

Many sports organizations have banned the use of performance enhancing drugs and have very strict rules and consequences for people who are caught using them.The International Amateur Athletic Federation, now the International Association of Athletics Federations, were the first international governing body of sport to take the situation seriously. In 1928 they banned participants from doping, but with little in the way of testing available they had to rely on the word of the athlete that they were clean.

It was not until 1966 that FIFA (soccer) and Union Cycliste Internationale (cycling) joined the IAAF in the fight against drugs, closely followed by the International Olympic Committee the following year.

Progression in pharmacology has always outstripped the ability of sports federations to implement rigorous testing procedures but since the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999 more and more athletes are being caught.

The first tests for athletes were at the 1966 European Championships and two years later the IOC implemented their first drug tests at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Anabolic steroids became prevalent during the 1970s and after a method of detection was found they were added to the IOC's prohibited substances list in 1976.

A handful of commentators maintain that, as outright prevention of doping is an impossibility, all doping should be legalised. However, most disagree with this assertion, pointing out the claimed harmful long-term effects of many doping agents. However, with no medical data to support these claimed health problems, it is questionable at best. Opponents claim that with doping legal, all competitive athletes would be compelled to use drugs, the net effect would be a level playing field but with widespread health consequences. However, considering that anti-doping is largely ineffective due to both testing limitations and lack of enforcement, this is not markedly different than the situation already in existence.

Another point of view is that doping could be legalized to some extent using a drug whitelist and medical counseling, such that medical safety is ensured, with all usage published. However, under such a system, it is likely that athletes would attempt cheat by exceeding official limits to try to gain an advantage; however, this is pure conjecture as drug amounts do not always correlate linearly with performance gains. Thus, to police such a system could be as difficult as policing a total ban on performance enhancing drugs.

Notable drug scandals and use in professional sport

*The World Weightlifting Championships of 1954 featured the first unconfirmed attempt at doping. Testosterone injections by Soviet Athletes resulted in the Soviets winning the gold medal in most weight classes and breaking several world records.
*In early 1960s Dr. John Ziegler (who was the US Team Coach in the 1954 Soviet-dominated World Weightlifting Championships) administered his weightlifters Dianabol tablets and the US dominated the 1962 World Championships.
*During the 1967 Tour de France, Tom Simpson collapsed during the ascent of the Mont Ventoux. Despite mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and the administration of oxygen, plus a helicopter airlift to a nearby hospital, Simpson died. Two tubes of amphetamines and a further empty tube were found in the rear pocket of his racing jersey.
*A famous case of illicit drug use in a competition was Canadian Ben Johnson's victory in the 100 m at the 1988 Summer Olympics. He subsequently failed the drug test when stanozolol was found in his urine. He later admitted to using the steroid as well as Dianabol, Cypionate, Furazabol, and human growth hormone amongst other things [ref?] . Johnson was stripped of his gold medal as well as recognition of what had been a world-record performance. Carl Lewis was then promoted one place to take the Olympic gold title. Lewis had also run under the current world record time and was therefore recognized as the new record holder, even though Lewis had technically been disqualified under IOC rules for testing positive for a banned substance.
*In 1998 the entire Festina team were excluded from the Tour de France following the discovery of a team car containing large amounts of various performance-enhancing drugs. The team director later admitted that some of the cyclists were routinely given banned substances. Six other teams pulled out in protest including Dutch team TVM who left the tour still being questioned by the police. The Festina scandal overshadowed cyclist Marco Pantani's tour win, but he himself later failed a test. More recently David Millar, the 2003 World-Time Trial Champion, admitted using EPO, and was stripped of his title and suspended for two years. Still later, Roberto Heras was stripped of his victory in the 2005 Vuelta a España and suspended for two years after testing positive for EPO.
*Six members of the Finnish cross country skiing team (four men and two women) were disqualifed for taking hemohes, a blood plasma expander, at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2001 in Lahti, Finland. These six skiers became known as the "Lahti six".
*At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, the "SoHo trio" (named for the Nordic skiing venue where they competed, Soldier Hollow) consisting of Johann Mühlegg of Spain, Olga Danilova, and Larisa Lazutina (both of Russia) were caught during routine doping tests. All forfeited Olympic medals.
*2003 saw U.S. sprinter Kelli White stripped of her two gold medals from the World Track & Field Championships for testing positive for Modafinil, four-time U.S. 400 hurdles champ Sandra Glover, 2000 Olympian Eric Thomas, Olympic 4x400 meter Gold Medalist Calvin Harrison, hurdler Chris Phillips, and Olympic and World Champ 4x100 meter relay Gold medalist Chryste Gaines all tested positive for Modafinil, while 25-time U.S. middle distance national champion and two-time 1,500 meter World Champ silver medalist Regina Jacobs, 2003 U.S. national shot put champion Kevin Toth, hammer thrower John McEwan, and four members of the 2003 Super Bowl Oakland Raiders football team (Bill Romanowski, Dana Stubblefield, Chris Cooper, and Barret Robbins) all test positive for designer steroid THG.
*Also in 2003, baseball star Barry Bonds testified before a Federal Grand Jury empaneled to investigate allegations of illegal steroid manufacturing and distribution by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) athletic supplement labs. Bonds was promised immunity from prosecution for testifying truthfully about steroids he may have received from his strength trainer, BALCO client Greg Anderson; instead, Bonds gave evasive and carefully worded statements denying he had ever knowingly accepted, used, or been treated with any steroids from Anderson. It was this testimony that is believed to form the basis for the U.S. Government's indictment of Bonds on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice, filed on November 16, 2007.
*In July 2005, founders of California's Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative pleaded guilty to steroid distribution and money laundering. Those implicated or accused in the ensuing scandal include sprinters Dwain Chambers, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, and shotputter C.J. Hunter, baseball players Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield, and several members of the Oakland Raiders.
*At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Walter Mayer fled from the police when, acting on a tip, the Italian authorities conducted a surprise raid to search for evidence of doping.
*The 2006 book "Game of Shadows" alleges extensive use of several types of steroids and growth hormone by baseball superstar Barry Bonds, and also names several other athletes as drug cheats.
*In 2006, Spanish police arrested five people, including the sporting director of the Liberty Seguros cycling team, on charges of running a massive doping scheme involving most of the team and many other top cyclists. Several potential contenders in the 2006 Tour de France were forced to withdraw when they were linked to the scheme. Operación Puerto was mainly linked to doping in football, tennis and athletics, but the press concentrated on a small number of cyclists as Le Tour de France was about to start. For more details, see "Operación Puerto" doping case.
*Less than a week after the 2006 Tour de France it was revealed that winner Floyd Landis had tested positive for an elevated testosterone/epitestosterone ratio (with normal levels of testosterone and deficient levels of epitestosterone) after his stunning stage 17 victory. Secondary tests have also confirmed the preliminary findings of deficient levels of epitestosterone resulting in a skewed T/E ratio, though his defense has cast significant doubt on the credibility of the laboratory that did the testing. The decision to strip him of the title was finally upheld in 2008.
*On April 22 2006, American Olympic and world 100-meter champion Justin Gatlin failed a drug test when steroids were found in his system. Special testing done both before and after this positive result came back negative, suggesting the results came from application of a steroid cream rather than steroid ingestion.
*In September 2006, some former teammates of cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to taking EPO during the 1999 Tour de France. While they did not state that Armstrong had done the same, the article printed did attack Armstrong, who throughout his career has been a target of doping allegations. Armstrong denies any use of steroids and has defended Floyd Landis stating that the evidence of Landis using substances is too weak for conviction. [http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/cycling/articles/2007/10/03/armstrong_blasts_landis_decision/]
*On May 25 2007, 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis of Denmark admitted to having used EPO from 1993 through 1998, including his winning Tour, and also admitted to having used cortisone and growth hormone. The day before, two of his teammates on Team Telekom during that time, Rolf Aldag and six-time Tour de France green jersey winner Erik Zabel, had admitted to EPO use during the 1996 Tour. Riis has offered to give back his Tour de France victory. [cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/6692779.stm |title=Riis confesses to doping offences |publisher=BBC |date=2007-05-25 |accessdate=2007-05-25]
*For a full discussion on the collective bargaining clauses in the four major North American sports relating to steroids testing and detection, see "Illegal Muscle- A Comparative Analysis of Proposed Steroid Legislation and the Policies in Professional Sports' CBA's That Led to the Steroid Controversy. Paul A. Fortenberry and Brian E. Hoffman. 5 Va. Sports & Ent. L.J. 121 (2006)
*The 2007 Tour de France was rocked by a series of doping scandals:
**German rider Patrik Sinkewitz, who had pulled out of the Tour after a crash on Stage 8, was later revealed to have tested positive for elevated testosterone levels before the Tour. He asked for his B sample to be tested. His T-Mobile Team immediately suspended him, and German prosecutors opened a criminal investigation.
**Pre-race favorite Alexander Vinokourov (Kazakhstan) tested positive for an illegal blood transfusion after winning the Stage 13 time trial. The incident led his Astana Team to quit the Tour after Stage 15.
**Italian Cristian Moreni tested positive for testosterone after Stage 11. When his positive test was announced after Stage 16, his entire Cofidis team pulled out of the Tour. Moreni acknowledged his offense, choosing not to have his B sample tested. He was detained by French police, who searched the hotel rooms where the Cofidis team was to spend the evening after Stage 16.
**The race leader, Michael Rasmussen of Denmark, won Stage 16. However, shortly after the stage, his Rabobank team pulled him from the Tour for violation of team rules. According to reports, he had lied about his whereabouts during pre-Tour training to both the team's directeur sportif and the sport's governing body, the UCI, and had missed two tests during the run-up to the Tour. Denmark's cycling federation had already removed him from the national team over this issue.
**After the end of the Tour, it was revealed that Spanish rider Iban Mayo tested positive for EPO late in the race.
*On July 19 2007 the California State Athletic Commission announced that both competitors in the lightweight title fight at UFC 73, Sean Sherk and Hermes Franca, had tested positive for banned substances in post-fight drug tests. Franca tested positive for drostanolone while Sherk tested positive for nandrolone. Both fighters were suspended from competing in California until June 2008 but Sherk has filed for an extension to his appeal hearing.
*30 November 2006 to September 11 2007: the case of testing positive for amphetamine by Tunesian swimmer Oussama Mellouli. A few weeks after the conclusion of the 2007 World Aquatics Championships in Melbourne on 28 March 2007, reports began to surface that Oussama Mellouli had tested positive for a banned substance at the US Open in November, 2006. These reports surfaced because FINA, the international governing body of the sport, had discovered that Tunisian authorities had known about the positive test, and had only given him a warning. The rules state, that when an athlete tests positive for a banned substance, he or she must be given a 2 year ban from the sport. FINA had therefore taken the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. On September 11 2007, Oussama Mellouli lost his case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, receiving a competition ban for 18 months, retroactive to 30 November 2006. As a result of this sanction, all of his results from the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne have been vacated, including his gold medal in men's 800 m freestyle and his silver medal in men's 400 m freestyle. He will no longer be considered the first Arab world champion swimmer. However, he will have a chance to swim competitively again by the time of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
*On October 5 2007 multiple Olympic and World Championship track gold medalist Marion Jones pled guilty to lying to federal agents about her use of steroids prior to the 2000 Olympic games, admitting to using the steroid tetrahydrogestrinone - known as "The Clear" or "THG" - beginning in 1999. She voluntarily returned her Olympic medals from 2000 and later before the IOC formally acted to strip her of the medals; the IAAF later voided all her results from September 2000 onward, including her World Championship medals during that time.

Anti-doping Convention

The Anti-Doping Convention of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg was opened for signature on 16 December 1989 as the first multilateral legal standard in this field. It has been signed by 48 states including the Council of Europe non-member states Australia, Belarus, Canada and Tunisia. The Convention is open for signature by other non-European states. It does not claim to create a universal model of anti-doping, but sets a certain number of common standards and regulations requiring Parties to adopt legislative, financial, technical, educational and other measures.

The main objective of the Convention is to promote the national and international harmonisation of the measures to be taken against doping. In their constitutional provisions, each contracting party undertakes to:

* create a national co-ordinating body;
* reduce the trafficking of doping substances and the use of banned doping agents;
* reinforce doping controls and improve detection techniques;
* support education and awareness-raising programmes;
* guarantee the efficiency of sanctions taken against offenders;
* collaborate with sports organisations at all levels, including at international level;
* and to use accredited anti-doping laboratories.

Furthermore the Convention describes the mission of the Monitoring Group set up in order to monitor its implementation and periodically re-examine the List of prohibited substances and methods which can be found in annex to the main text.

An Additional Protocol to the Convention entered into force on 1 April 2004 with the aim of ensuring the mutual recognition of anti-doping controls and of reinforcing the implementation of the Convention using a binding control system.

Drug testing

Statistical Validity

Professor Donald A. Berry has argued that the closed systems used by anti-doping agencies do not allow scientific (statistical) validation of the tests. [cite journal |author=Berry DA |title=The science of doping |journal=Nature |volume=454 |issue=7205 |pages=692–3 |year=2008 |month=Aug |pmid=18685682 |doi=10.1038/454692a |url=] . This argument was seconded by an accompanying editorial in the magazine Nature (August 7, 2008) [cite journal |author= |title=A level playing field? |journal=Nature |volume=454 |issue=7205 |pages=667 |year=2008 |month=Aug |pmid=18685647 |doi=10.1038/454667a |url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7205/full/454667a.html] .

ee also

*Blood doping
*Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), a sports nutrition center in California allegedly linked to doping of many high-profile athletes.
*Cheating at the Paralympic Games
*Doping at the Olympic Games
*List of sporting scandals
*List of doping cases in cycling
**Doping at the Tour de France
**Festina affair, a major doping scandal at the 1998 Tour
**Doping at the 2007 Tour de France
*List of doping cases in sport
*Marion Jones
*Mitchell Report (baseball)
*Stem cell doping

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.wada-ama.org/en/ World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Homepage]
* [http://www.wall-protect.com/uk/index.php WALL-Protect: The anti-doping descriptive of food supplements]
*List of Drugs Prohibited by the WADA for years [http://www.wada-ama.org/rtecontent/document/list_2005.pdf 2005] and [http://www.wada-ama.org/rtecontent/document/2006_LIST.pdf 2006] (PDF)
* [http://www.iaaf.org/antidoping/index.html IAAF Anti-Doping Page.]
* [http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_21.pdf Olympic Movement Anti-doping Code] (PDF)
* [http://www.GMathletes.net Genetically Modified Athletes, by Dr Andy Miah.]
* [http://bioethics-sport.blogspot.com Bioethics & Sport blog.]
* [http://dopingjournal.org Doping Journal (ISSN 1812-948x), free scholar journal on doping science and anti-doping]
* [http://www.totalbike.com/October1999/drug_use.html Doping in Cycling - an historical perspective]
* [http://www.steroid.com/steroids-in-sports.php Steroids in Sports]
* [http://www.scq.ubc.ca/?p=186 In the Name of Fair Game...] - a review from the Science Creative Quarterly
* [http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-41-1409/sports/drugs_sport/ CBC Digital Archives - Going for Dope: Canada and Drugs in Sport]
*Poniewozik, James. [http://www.time.com/time/columnist/poniewozik/article/0,9565,1006842,00.html This is Your Nation on Steroids] . Time Magazine.
*http://www.cpld.fr
* [http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/ancham/79/i15/pdf/0807feature_mukhopadhyay.pdf Out! Catching doping athletes] from [http://pubs3.acs.org/acs/journals/toc.page?incoden=ancham&indecade=0&involume=79&inissue=15 the August 1, 2007 issue of "Analytical Chemistry"]

Further reading

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* [http://www.pumpthatiron.wordpress.com]

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