One of the proudest moments an athlete can experience in their career is reaching the pinnacle of their sport and winning a championship. That sense of pride can quickly disappear if the athletes use banned substances to enable them to soar to such heights. As Canadians, we know this all too well. At the 1988 summer Olympics, sprinter Ben Johnson destroyed everyone in his field to become the world’s fastest human with a time of 9.79 seconds. He quickly went from hero to goat, after testing positive for anabolic steroids.
There is always a lingering suspicion that the majority of elite sprinters are using some form of banned substance, as they are constantly getting bigger and faster. In 1999, former gold medallist Linford Christie, who hails from Britain, tested positive for steroids. Maurice Greene of the United States recently set the “clean” world record for the 100-meter sprint, tying Ben’s 1988 mark of 9.79. One would assume that at some point the human body’s ability to improve upon performance has to plateau. Such monumental gains, however, are attributed to improved training and dieting.
This (training and diet) is how the Bulgarians explained their domination of the weightlifting world in the 1970s and 80s. True, they trained hard, but it has now become common knowledge that they were using various drugs to assist them. They were able to cheat because they knew how to beat the tests. One such method was fasting 2-3 days before a competition. Fasting lowers production of testosterone and increases the rate at which the body eliminates drugs.
Another anabolic nightmare that reigned supreme in the sporting world before the fall of the iron curtain was various East German teams. One of the many pharmaceuticals that these athletes were exposed to was the drug known as androstenedione.
This is a type of anabolic steroid which helps build muscle mass without producing such undesired side effects as a deep voice and unwanted body hair. A column by Stephen Kane in “The Community Pharmacist” detailed a former East German doctor’s account of his athlete’s use of drugs. He spoke of “drug holidays,” when athletes would stop using drugs for a period of time before competition to avoid detection.
These nations’ athletes knew how to avoid detection. Eventually the committees who test athletes improved upon their methods to catch more athletes using banned substances.
One such improvement included widening the net of the substances that were banned. Athletes knew they could hide the fact that they were using steroids or other banned substances by using diuretics. These drugs help the athlete to quickly shed weight due to excessive water loss.
This drastically reduces the amount of steroid left over in the body, which lowers the chance of detection. We now know that this is one of the techniques used and diuretics are now a banned substance. They are just one of 90 drugs that are currently tested for by the International Olympic Committee.
Athletes in the Para Olympics have also come under supicion. There is a chance that some of the wheelchair athletes who participate in the sprint events artificially increase their adrenaline by sitting on a nail during the race. This causes their body to produce more adrenaline to fight the pain that it feels (though the athlete feels nothing), thus improving their performance.
Athletes have developed a deep-seated need to win at any cost. There is tremendous pressure put on athletes by coaches, fans and media to be the absolute best, not to mention the millions of dollars available to an athlete who is successful in his or her field. With such demands placed on athletes these days, it is easy to see why some become blinded by the potential harm they may do to their body in order to be a winner.
