EPO
One of the commonly abused drugs by athletes is Erythropoietin, commonly known as EPO. EPO is an artificial hormone that allows the blood to carry more oxygen, thus boosting the athlete’s endurance. EPO is much favoured by the long distance runners. EPO is generally administered to an athlete’s body through injection. It is injected under the skin, which in turn stimulates the red blood cell production. The more red blood cells the EPO can produce into the body the more oxygen it can deliver to the muscle – meaning the more an athlete can run without getting tired. It gives an unfair advantage to an athlete over the rest of the field. Some tests that have been carried out on EPO show that an athlete using EPO can improve his/her performance in four weeks of what it will take several years for an improvement on a clean athlete. Detecting EPO in an athlete’s body is difficult as it cannot be traced by conventional drug test. The EPO is detected by comparing the result of blood and urine analysis. The blood test will show if there is an unusual reading of the red blood cells, while the urine will highlight the difference between the EPO the body can produce naturally and the one that has being synthesized into the body through an injection. For an athlete to gain the advantage of the EPO, it needs to have been administered into the body into the body within five to seven days of an athlete running. Due to the fact that the detection rate is quite low, some athlete’s get away with it. The best example of this is the Russian distance runner Olga Yegorova, who had tested positive for the substance earlier in the year but was later cleared on technicality, because her urine test wasn’t taken, even though her blood test shows that she had used the drugs. She went on in the same year and won the 500m world championship in Edmonton, Canada in 2001. EPO pose a danger to an athlete’s health, if it is over used. The athlete’s blood will become thicker and may eventually stop the heart, while the body is resting e.g. sleeping. EPO also increases the likelihood of suffering from blood clots, heart attacks and possibly stroke.
Anabolic steroids
This drug was made famous by the sprinter Ben Johnson in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Anabolic steroids are usually synthesized from the male reproductive hormone testosterone. Anabolic steroids pose a great danger to an athlete’s health, although the kind of threat they pose is a matter for scientific debate. The way anabolic steroids work in an athlete’s body is by improving the capacity to train and compete at the highest level. Anabolic steroids also reduce the fatigue associated with training and it will also reduce the time it will take for an athlete to recover from an injury. Anabolic steroids also help to promote the development of muscle tissue in the body, which in turn increase the strength and power in the body; this is achieved by stimulating the production of protein in the body. The detection rate of people using anabolic steroids is low as they stop using it before a competition, which gives the body the time it requires to break down the compounds. Although this is not the case anymore as the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) in conjunction with World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) have introduced out of competition testing. Anabolic steroids causes a threat to an athlete by disturbing the body’s equilibrium, this can potentially cause damage to many of the body’s major organs. The liver has the most risk as it has to deal with breaking down the breaking down of the compounds. It also poses a danger to the heart which is made of muscle tissue, as anabolic steroids cam lead to an expansion of the cardiac muscle, which in turn can cause heart attacks. It can cause the growth of bones in particular facial bones. It also causes baldness, male impotency, development of breast in men, facial hair in women. An example of the danger that anabolic steroids pose in the body is Andreas Krieger formerly known as Heidi Krieger. She was a member of the East Germany all conquering female swimming team in the 1972 Quebec, Canada Olympics. Due to the drug that was injected to her body, she experienced a reduction in breast size and her body fat decreased. She also experienced the deepening of her voice as well as growth of body hair and lost of scalp hair. All this led to her masculinization before she finally had a sex change. The director of the Human performance centre at the Lilleshall National Sport centre UK, John Brewer, has this to say on anabolic steroids – “The health risk associated with anabolic steroids are as serious as you can get. They greatly increase a person’s risk of dying early or of suffering from long term physical problems. While the rewards of success in sport are getting greater and greater, the temptation to take anabolic steroids is offset by the risk of an early grave”, but this is not always the case.
THG
The tetrahydrogestrinone or THG or commonly known as the “designer drug” are the new form of drugs that have hit the airwaves in recent months. Some of the athlete’s that tested positive to it are household names like Dwain Chambers(British)-the European 100m record holder and champion, Kelli White the 2003 world athlete’s champion in the 100m and 200m respectively. Other athlete’s are also being investigated, like Marrion Jones – the female 100m record holder and the 2000 Sydney Olympic champion, Tim Montgomery – the world 100m record holder. THG is a form of anabolic steroids. And it does the same job which is the increase of muscle strength, encouragement of muscle growth, by duplicating the effects of the male hormone testosterone, which in turn allows an athlete to train harder and improve performance. THG is called a “designer drug” because it is a synthesised version of another anabolic steroid. THG was deliberately designed to evade drug testing. Unlike some other drugs that can be produced naturally by the body, THG cannot, which means they cannot be taken unintentionally as some athlete’s would claim when found out. As I have said earlier that THG are synthesised version of a form of anabolic steroids which are related to Gestrinone and Grenbolone. Gestrinone are used legally in Europe to treat endometriosis, a painful condition caused by uterine tissue growing in the pelvic area of some women, while Grenbolone is a steroid used by cattle rearers to bulk up their herds. THG is designed to remain hidden by dissolving when urine a sample is tested, although a new method has been developed to test for it. Because THG is a new drug and proper reliable studies have not being carried out yet, we cannot be sure of the risk it poses to an athlete’s health, but because it is derived from anabolic steroids, we can assume it will have the same effects. Some of which are baldness, impotence in male, excessive hair growth in women, deepening of voice, masculinization, liver damage, etc to mention but a few. The United States Food and Drug Administrator has this to say on the risk that THG poses “while little is formally known about the safety of this drug, its structure and relationship to better known products leads the FDA to believe that its use may pose undesirable risk to health”.
Conclusion
Drugs abuse in athletics has become a problem, but it is nothing new, earlier traces of drug being used by athletes could be traced back since the Greek’s started the Olympics in 776BC. It was reported that certain substances were being ingested by competitors in order to gain an advantage against fellow competitors. Although it was not seen as doping then, it was regarded as a normal thing for an athlete to do. In the modern day, drug abuse in athletics has become rampant. It is generally perceived that most athlete’s are on drugs, although this could not be true as there are genuine top athlete’s who don’t rely on substance abuse. Because of the rampant abuse of drugs by athletes, it has been suggested that drugs should be legalised in athletics, as it would level the playing field. One of the most notable people in athletics to have called for this is the Australian Ron Clarke, a former athlete himself and he lit the ‘Olympic cauldron’ at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. He made this comment about the defence of drug in 2000-“if its not dangerous, no it should not be banned, it just levels the playing field”. The fear in the athletics world now is that, there is going to be a new drug which will not be detected, although some people are skeptical about this as they think that there is one out there already. The best example of this fear are the new “designer drugs”, the THG case will have remained undetectable if one of the coaches had not reported it to the authorities. The future of drug involvement in athletics is not yet clear. As the commercialisation of the sport continues, there is more pressure to be successful, which could lead to the abuse of drugs. Although saying that, some athlete’s have been able to hold the pressure and remain successful.
Bibliography
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/in_depth/2000/drugs_in_sport/859561.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/in_depth/2000/drugs_in_sport/859458.stm
