Problems of Doping in Sports - Essay Example

Outline 0 Introduction Founding of Olympic Games Doping not a threat to sporting alone Doping in sports getting out of hand getting 2.0 Thesis Statement Sportsmen dope for various reasons ranging from personal to psychological reasons and if doping in sports is not stopped in time it will eventually make the entire sporting activity irrelevant 3.0 Scope 4.0 Problems of Doping in Sports 5.0 The Aims and Motivations of the Dopers To optimize their performance hence probability to win To increase the aerobic potential of the athlete The need to not only increase body strength but also enhancing muscular power Individual and cultural factors 6.0 Testing for Doping A preliminary practice in major international sporting activities such as the Olympic Games Sometimes testing is able to detect doping agents used whereas at times it may fail to be reliable; doper may cheat around the test 6.1 Doping Testing strategy riddled with Challenges As the number of tests increase, there is likelihood for errors in the tests Some doping agents cannot be identified by technology There are dozens of steroids that can be used to enhance performance and the dopers are constantly being creative thus inventing new steroids 6.2 Doping Rules (Enforced By the Medical Commission of the IOC) International Olympic Committee, through its medical commission defines doping in terms of the outlawed substances List of outlawed doping substances or agents 7.0 Conclusion Practice of doping in sports is not only unfair to the other contestants but also immoral and unethical Doping agents and substances often used have side effects which require that other drugs are taken to correct these effects Doping agents pose a very formidable threat to the dopers’ health and their general well being It has been established that the dopers dope for a myriad of reasons ranging from physiological to psychological reasons such as low self image The phenomenon of doping in sports continues to grow and it will make the entire sporting activity irrelevant The test for doping is not reliable all the time and is faced with a myriad of technical challenges which need the intervention of strong policies so as to help improve the practice of testing for doping 8.0 Annotated Bibliography 9.0 Bibliography 1.0 Introduction The modern Olympic Games were founded by one Pierre de Coubertin and he was apt to add that these games should be protected from all possible threats that can face the games as an organization or institution. He made this appeal in his 1923 speech delivered in Rome. Within the same speech, he condemned the seemingly political intrusion and the increasingly venal attitude towards sporting championship. Seemingly, he had all figured out. He precisely knew that the venal attitude towards winning excluded the true spirit of sportsmanship and introduced a possibility of cheating, more especially through doping. Indeed, his speech was an act of prophesy because decades after, the sporting activity is saturated with incidences of doping (Burns, 2005). The most hit sporting activity has been the Tour de France cycling competition which drew the full attention of the media to the doping issue (Hoberman, 2007) an issue that had otherwise been covert prior to this. If one ever thinks that doping is a threat to the sporting activity alone then he/she is ultimately mistaken. Based on the sophistication and scope of doping, it poses a threat to more than the world of sport. Initially, doping was considered as a cheating problem but now it has reached proportions that are subject to societal concern. Indeed, as the stakes involved in the sporting activity keep on increasing, the practice continues to be widespread and consequently, the moral values of the sporting activity become questionable and the general health of the sportsmen continue to be under threat and great risk. This paper seeks to assess the issue of doping in sports and how the issue is soon running out of hand and hence the possible remedial steps that can avert the possible doping catastrophe in the sporting world. 2.0 Thesis Statement Sportsmen dope for various reasons ranging from personal to psychological reasons and if doping in sports is not stopped in time it will eventually make the entire sporting activity irrelevant 3.0 Scope This paper deals with the issue if doping in sports. The scope of the paper is as follows: What is doping? Founding of Olympic Games and the urge to prevent doping in sports What is the status of the doping problem presently? Doping as a sporting threat which will eventually make the sporting activity irrelevant What are the aims and motivations of the dopers? How is the testing for doping done? What challenges face doping testing strategy? What are the doping rules as enforced by the medical commission of the IOC? Therefore, in a bid for the paper to embrace the above scope, the paper will have the following headings; The Problem of Doping in Sports, the Aims and Motivations of the Dopers, Testing for Doping, Doping Testing strategy riddled with Challenges and the Doping Rules as Enforced by the Medical Commission of the IOC. 4.0 The Problem of Doping in Sports The scope of the problem that doping in sports is, can be shown or be illustrated by looking at a few examples. For instance, in 1986, two pharmacists and a physician were indicted for having sold more than 1000 tablets of Tonedron, at 150 times more than their usual price. Secondly, in 1995, in Lille, the customs department was able to seized more than 100,000 tablets of anabolic drugs which were suspected to be targeting the body and muscle-building market is highly saturated by the sportsmen (Houlihan, 2002). The recent doping scandal witnessed in the last Tour de France cycling contest serves to show how serious and widespread the problem of doping is. The issue of doping penetrates even the football clubs. For instance, Everton championship in the 1961-1963 seasons was credited to the use of Benzedrine drug that is able to enhance the players speed and the general performance. According to the investigation conducted by a national newspaper it established the genesis of the drug use in the football club by interviewing the then Everton goalkeeper, Albert Dunlop who confessed that it is true they had been using drugs and that is why they had been winning the 1961-1962 seasons. Further, athletes in Europe have been found to be using drugs. A survey carried out by the European council in 1960 showed that indeed the number of athletes doping was steadily on the rise (Council of Europe, 1964). Presently, the problem of doping n sports continues to expand. In professional sporting, more than 34% of the Athletes engage in doping especially in the use of Performance enhancing drugs (Gabbert, 1964).There is a general lack of objective data concerning the practice of doping and this therefore makes a sociological analysis of the doping issue very difficult enact. Actually, there happens to be more information on the opinions on the possible control of the doping phenomenon than there ids information about doping itself. This is possibly as a result of the difficulty of maintaining anonymity while divulging such information as the sport the informant participates in, the level he/she has attained in the sport, the preceding accidents as a result of the use of the doping agents etc. moreover, the fear of the risk of encouraging the spread of doping as a result of its revelation also contributes to the general lack of objective data and information on doping in sports. 5.0 The Aims and Motivations of the Dopers The main motivation behind the practice of doping is the fact that the sportsmen’s need to optimize their performance hence probability to win (Houlihan, 1999). The dope used helps to maintain and optimize the qualities that are necessary for their success in sports. These qualities are based among other things the biological, psychological and various physiological factors. Based on these factors, there are two types of doping which have been distinguished in the good-evil, heaven-hell style. The up-stream doping is used by the sportsmen to help them have an unfair competitive advantage against the other contestants and it has been found to be not only illegal but also bad and ethically and morally wrong. However, when a sportsman or athlete uses doping to recover physiological and biological balance then this kind of doping is called down-stream doping and it has been labeled good. But what is confusing is how the second type can be good and yet the two types of doping are complementary? Actually, downstream doping is ant to compensate for the negative effects of the upstream doping (O’leary, 2001). Some of the qualities that need to be increased are the aerobic potential of the athlete. This can be increased by increasing the blood’s capacity to transfer oxygen to all parts of the body from the lungs and heart. This is very important in the sporting activities that require large amounts of sustainable energy, rely on the energy metabolism of the body and intense effort. At the end of such sporting activities, the body’s glycogen reserves are often depleted and these reserves must be restored and hence the need for an adapted nutritional plan and use of drugs so as to achieve this through modification of the body’s energy metabolism. Some of the methods used to improve the body’s energy metabolism are the altitude training so as to increase the RBC count in the blood, self-transfusion and the use of drugs such as the EPO, anabolic steroids (Yesalis, 2000) and glucocorticoids among other drugs that help to achieve this end. Another motivation to doping is the need to increase is the need to not only increase body strength but also enhancing muscular power. This aim pushes athletes or sportsmen in general to use a natural protein filled diet or/and synthetic anabolic agents together with body and muscle building exercises inside and outside gyms. As the athletes increase muscle mass it is necessary that thee is a balance between the muscle mass and body fat. This is often achieved by the use of growth hormones and other anabolic drugs besides nutritional supplements (Woodland, 1980). Further, the athletes’ aims may be to delay fatigue so to be able to survive a sporting activity that requires massive effort and energy. This postponement of fatigue means that the body is able to reach its highest limits. This therefore forces the athletes to use cardio-respiratory analeptics, CNS stimulants and antidepressants. Furthermore, the sport requirements can also push the athletes to use doping. Some sports require specific body height, and weight. This therefore motivates the athletes to modify their body shapes and sizes so as to meet these requirements. This kind of body modification can be achieved through the use of hormonal manipulations among other substances. Lastly, individual factors combines with other factors that are cultural contribute to the doping behavior in athletes. Culturally, value is put on specific body type, shape and muscular strengths and mass. These culturally motivated stereotypes about the ideal physique are often propagated by the media besides the athletic subculture. This therefore motivates the athletes to achieve the “ideal” physique. The physical factors that lead to doping include but are not limited to instances of psychological problems associated with body image and a generally low self esteem (Wadler & Hainline, 1989). Whatever the reasons and motivations behind doping in sports, the practice of doping is not only unfair to competition but also unethical (Loland et al, 2006), it threatens the credibility of sporting activities and the health of the athletes continually gets subjected to greater risks because such doping substances will always have their specific side effects. 6.0 Testing for Doping The testing for doping has been a preliminary practice in major international sporting activities such as the Olympic Games and the Tour de France. For instance, the disgraced Floyd Landis was nailed after a routine urine test which showed an abnormally high ratio of testosterone: epitestosterone. The test also showed that the testosterone had a high proportion of a carbon isotope indicating that he may have taken synthetic protein in the form of anabolic steroids. Landis, the newest American athlete to be disgraced (2006) by a doping scandal is only an example of many more athletes who indulge in doping (Walsh, 2007). Sometimes, the testing is able to detect the doping agent used by the athletes. The unfathomable details of anti-doping tests may not be readily palatable to an observer. The process of testing is very complicated and at times it is [prone to mistakes. This therefore implies that inasmuch as it is able to take down the doping culprits, it may also fail at some point, to detect doping agents in an athlete’s system or at times it may nail down an athlete all for the wrong reasons (An athlete may have taken a legal drug which may contain components often present in the outlawed doping agents) or nail down an athlete for a different doping agent. For instance, in 1988 Ben Johnson, a Canadian sprinter was nailed for allegedly using stanazolol, the only illegal doping agent he had never taken though he was using doping agents such as Dixarit, growth hormone, Furazabol, testosterone, and inosine (Sanghavi, 2007). Despite the fact that the testing for doping in sport may not be reliable, it is quite helpful in cracking the doping phenomenon in sporting. Traditionally, the authorities and sporting organizations have been specific in testing the athletes for specific doping agents on regular intervals. For instance, the NFL specifically tests players for specific dozens of anabolic dozens on a yearly basis in a bid to manage the doping menace in sporting. 6.1 Doping Testing strategy riddled with Challenges Testing for doping as intimated earlier is not reliable but at times it does work. Much of the problems that face the tests for doping are as follows: 1 As the number of tests increase, there is likelihood for errors in the tests. This therefore implies that there is a possibility of the tests being inconclusive or making an error 2 There are dozens of steroids that can be used to enhance performance and the steroid are constantly being creative thus inventing new steroids that are not in the list of the outlawed steroids being tested by the authorities. In this way, the dopers test negative when in he really sense they have doped (Minigh, 2007). 3 Some doping agents cannot be identified by technology. For instance synthetic growth hormones which cannot be distinguished from the natural growth hormones 6.2 Doping Rules (Enforced By the Medical Commission of the IOC) International Olympic Committee, through its medical commission defines doping in terms of the outlawed substances. If an athlete tests positive for a given outlawed substance, then that athlete is guilty of doping (Siekmann et al, 1999). The definition also rules out synthetic substances developed in the laboratories for the specific purpose of doping. Taking France as an example, a list of substances banned is shown below: 1 Natural and synthetic Narcotics 2 Anabolic steroids 3 Diuretics 4 Peptide and glycoprotein hormones 5 Growth hormones Other substances such as Local anesthetics, Alcohol, Corticosteroids Marijuana, and Beta-blockers are only restricted but not banned. 7.0 Conclusion In conclusion, the practice of doping in sports is not only unfair tot h other contestants but also immoral and unethical (Mottram, 2003). These doping agents and substances often used have side effects which require that other drugs are taken to correct these effects. It is for this reason that doping agents pose a very formidable threat to the dopers’ health and their general well being of the dopers. It has been establishes that the dopers dope for a myriad of reasons ranging from physiological to psychological reasons such as low self image. Such motivations besides the need to win may be so strong to an extent that an athlete becomes a habitual abuser of the doping agents thus putting his/her health at risk. It was realized that the test for doping is not all time reliable and is faced with a myriad of technical challenges which need the intervention of strong policies so as to help improve the practice of testing for doping. The substances that can be used to dope are discovered every day and this calls for vigilance of the medical commission of the International Olympic Committee to ensure that these substances are included in the list of outlawed doping substances almost immediately they are discovered. The phenomenon of doping in sports continues to grow or it will make the entire sporting activity irrelevant. The evolution of the practice of doping has recently moved on to genetic modification of athletes to achieve their sporting goals (Miah, 2004). Genetic modification is now gaining popularity fast enough that soon it will as well get out of hand. The ethics of this practice of genetic doping has been questionable (Jo’Anne & Friedman, 2006). Today, the dopers may be only 34% of all the athletes in the world but if the situation is not managed by more stringent policies and regulations, the proportion may have hit more than 50% by 2015. 8.0 Annotated Bibliography Burns N C, (2005): Doping in sports, Nova Science Publishers The book sets out by highlighting the history of the use of performance –enhancing drugs by the athletes showing the major 20th century concerns on the issue which led to the legislation of anti-doping policies especially by the international sporting organizations and other professional sports leagues in the US. Among the leading international sporting organizations leading in the anti-doping legislation was the International Olympic Committee (IOC) (employed testing during the 1968 Olympic Games in France, and Mexico), the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Generally, the book compares the existing anti-doping policies in the NBA, NBL and IOC among other local and international sporting organizations Siekmann C R, Soek J, Bellani A & Asser T M C, (1999): Doping rules of international sports organisations, Cambridge University Press The book contains a basic document concerning the international regulation of the practice of doping in sport and how such regulations are implemented mainly through testing for doping before or even after participation in sporting activities Sanghavi D, (2007): Detecting doping in sports, The Boston Globe October 2, 2007, Globe Newspaper Company The author deals with the very challenging task of testing for doping in athletes before and even after sporting activity. It highlights the challenges faced by the practice of testing for doping saying that sometimes it is not reliable thereby nailing the athletes for the wrong reason or failing to nail the athletes at all. The tests for substances such as testosterone, epitestosterone steroids or human growth hormone among other doping agents are also featured in the article. Mottram D R, (2003): Drugs in sport (3rd Edition), Routledge Publishers The book authoritatively and in a detailed manner highlights the science behind the major classes of doping agents. The book also highlights both the ethical and social dimensions of the doping issue. The book, apparently targeting sport science students, coaches, policy makers and other sport professionals accessibly examines and analyzes the topics on the use of substances such as anabolic steroids, EPO, alcohol and social drugs, human growth hormone, creatine and nutritional supplements among other doping agents Houlihan B, (2002): Dying To Win: Doping In Sport and the Development of Anti-Doping Policy, Council of Europe, The book focuses entirely on the issue of drug abuse in sports otherwise called doping. It asserts the fact that doping has now become an international problem. It also consider the new forms of doping agents used in sports nowadays besides the concepts of genetic engineering and gene therapy given to athletes as a form of doping. Wadler G I & Hainline B, (1989): Drugs and the Athlete, F.A. Davis Company The book tackles the concept of drug abuse among the athletes thereby highlighting as few examples of the abused drugs. Examples of such drugs include: anabolic steroids, disulfiram, benzodiazepines, cocaine, amphetamine, marijuana, caffeine, testosterone, ephedrine, barbiturates, nicotine and catecholamine among others. The book just as well ventures into the issues to do with drug testing among the athletes. Yesalis C, (2000): Anabolic Steroids in Sport and Exercise, Human Kinetics The book deal entirely with all aspects of the use of anabolic steroids in sport’s doping. The book which is apparently meant for a wider audience including the coaches, sport science students and practitioners, health educators, medicine specialists, researchers among others proves to be a potent, formidable and comprehensive reference text on issues and topics to do with the use of Anabolic steroids by the athletes. The book presents an up to date clinical researched data on the use or abuse of the anabolic steroids by the professional, college level, high school and even the Olympic level athletes and other sportsmen. The book which is structured into three parts offers an historic perspective of anabolic steroid usage in the Part I and proceeds to explore the physical results and effects of steroid usage especially on the body composition, performance and health effects in Part II. Part III deals with the evolution of anti-doping testing and the general political controversies that surround the use of anabolic steroids. The same part, Part III also offers alternative approaches of dealing with the athletes’ anabolic steroids abuse. Minigh J L, (2007): Sports Medicine, Greenwood Publishing Group, The book targeting the sport science medicine and other professionals, even the common criticize provides an in-depth and unbiased introduction to the medical and the legal, cultural and scientific issues as far as sport medicine is concerned. Section II of this book is particularly relevant to the topic of doping because it assessment of the current issues and discussions that rouse the most heated disagreements on the issue of doping Houlihan B, (1999): Dying To Win: Doping In Sport and the Development of Anti-Doping Policy, Council of Europe, The book explains the motivation behind sport doping. The author achieves this by highlighting an example of an athlete who broke a world record in the5, 000-metres swimming by 0.01 seconds (a margin which is less than the accuracy of the measuring device) after a very tedious and highly involving physical training. The example illustrates the fact that diminishing returns are being experienced from training by elite competitors and this pushes them to resolve into doping to enhance their performance and thereby post improvements. Miah A, (2004): Genetically Modified Athletes: Biomedical Ethics, Gene Doping and Sport, Routledge Publishers, The book uniquely ventures into the genetic engineering of athletes. The book also examines the ethical issues on doping and the ethical issues raised by genetic technologies in sports where by the natural physiological and biological capacities are supposed to be essential. Walsh D, (2007): From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France, Ballantine Books The book ventures into the American athletic doping controversy witnessed in the Tour de France. The book explains the controversy by considering the cases of Lance and Landis, both leading American cyclists who have been associated with doping Gabbert M, (1964): How We Uncovered the Everton Drug Scandal, The People, UK, 13 September 1964 The article sets out to explain how the doping at Everton was unearthed. The championship of Everton in the 1906- through the 1962 seasons had been as a result of doping and the national newspaper sought to investigate and that when an interview with then Everton goalkeeper, Albert Dunlop who managed to say everything concerning the doping secret at Everton. Hoberman, J, (2007): Dopers on Wheels: The Tours sorry history, retrieved on 8th April 2009 from www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19462071/ The sit talks about doping in the Tour de France and how the cyclists have been doping all along. Woodland L, (1980): Dope, the Use of Drugs in Sport, United Kingdom: David and Charles Publishers The book tries to highlight the problem of doping by first offering a definition of doping and elaborates the definition by looking at the use of drugs in sporting activity Council of Europe, (1964): Doping of athletes, a European survey, France: Council of Europe The survey looks at the degree of use of drugs such as anabolic steroids in sports. It shows the seriousness of the sport doping phenomenon. Loland S, Skirstad B & Waddington I, (2006): Pain and Injury in Sport: Social and Ethical Analysis Routledge Publishers, pp111-113 The book ventures into the ethical issues of using dope in the sporting activity. From the anlysis the book finally finds out that doping is not only unfair but also unethical O’leary J, (2001): Drugs and Doping in Sports: Social-Legal Perspective, Routledge Cavendish Publishers, pp54-59 The book highlights the reasons as to why sportsmen dope in sports. The reasons are personal, social and psychological. It also looks at the legal perspective of doping thereby stating that some drugs are only illegal in sports and once a culprit is tested positive he is only disqualified and nothing more. The book explores the effort of making doping agents totally illegal. Jo’Anne A & Friedman T, (2006): Gene Doping in Sports: The Science and Ethics of Genetically Modified Athletes, Academic Press, p 9 The book ventures into the ethics of doping in sports. It also goes further to highlight another form of doping called genetic doping thereby showing the science and the ethics of ethics form of doping 9.0 Bibliography Burns N C, (2005): Doping in sports, Nova Science Publishers Siekmann C R, Soek J, Bellani A & Asser T M C, (1999): Doping rules of International sports organisations, Cambridge University Press Sanghavi D, (2007): Detecting doping in sports, The Boston Globe October 2, 2007, Globe Newspaper Company Mottram D R, (2003): Drugs in sport (3rd Edition), Routledge Publishers Houlihan B, (2002): Dying To Win: Doping In Sport and the Development of Anti- Doping Policy, Council of Europe Wadler G I & Hainline B, (1989): Drugs and the Athlete, F.A. Davis Company Yesalis C, (2000): Anabolic Steroids in Sport and Exercise, Human Kinetics Minigh J L, (2007): Sports Medicine, Greenwood Publishing Group, Houlihan B, (1999): Dying To Win: Doping In Sport and the Development of Anti- Doping Policy, Council of Europe, Miah A, (2004): Genetically Modified Athletes: Biomedical Ethics, Gene Doping and Sport, Routledge Publishers, Walsh D, (2007): From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France, Ballantine Books Gabbert M, (1964): How We Uncovered the Everton Drug Scandal, The People, UK, 13 September 1964 Hoberman, J, (2007): Dopers on Wheels: The Tours sorry history, retrieved on 8th April 2009 from www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19462071/ Woodland L, (1980): Dope, the Use of Drugs in Sport, United Kingdom: David and Charles Publishers Council of Europe, (1964): Doping of athletes, a European survey, France: Council of Europe Loland S, Skirstad B & Waddington I, (2006): Pain and Injury in Sport: Social and Ethical Analysis Routledge Publishers, pp111-113 O’leary J, (2001): Drugs and Doping in Sports: Social-Legal Perspective, Routledge Cavendish Publishers, pp54-59 Jo’Anne A & Friedman T, (2006): Gene Doping in Sports: The Science and Ethics of Genetically Modified Athletes, Academic Press, p 9 Read More