Vishal Uppal brings in a quick read to satisfy your
curiosity on doping in sports
The split-second difference between win and loss has always
intimidated athletes in competitive sports. The stamina, perseverance and an
ability to hold the nerves in moment of time is a challenge for even the best
trained athletes. The guiding emotion to win for the native country is
overbearing for the athletes. The same emotion along with ambition to perform
better than the competition pushes some athletes to consume substances that
improve physical performance. The term doping is not news to anyone. Doping is
not a new concept and existed since ancient times. Herbal decoctions,
stimulants and nutritional aids existed from time immemorial. The warrior
tribes consumed them for physical prowess. Classical medicine systems in India,
China and Greece have a repertoire of herbs and salts that enhances
performance. Ginseng, Mumijo and many other herbs are known to increase oxygen
supply in blood. In modern day doping, steroids and hormones are taken to fuel
the muscles. It is not always the athlete's choice to take banned drugs. It is
sometimes a systematic plan driven from the government. You will read about the
Russian doping scandal and how it turned out as systematic plan. The honest
teams relied on nutritional supplementation and equipment tweaking to enhance
athlete's performance. However, growing competition made way for corrupt form
of achieving the means.
The biggest doping scandal of all time came to light when
Yuliya Stepanova, a former Russian athlete revealed the culture of doping in
Russia. Upon investigations, it was found that as many as 1400 urine samples of
athletes were knowingly destroyed or manipulated to cover up the culture of
consuming performance enhancing drugs. The players, coaches and government
officials were found party to systematic doping. Russia has had 43 Olympics
medals stripped for doping violations. Russian Track and Field Federation was
banned from 2016 Rio Olympics and other world championships. Russia was
suspended from athletics, weightlifting, paralympic sports but has continued to
participate in other sports. IAAF has allowed Russians who have undergone
testing by non-Russian agencies to compete as neutral athletes.
The doping scandal had a devastating effect on honest and
deserving athletes. Mariya Lasitskene, a Russian High jumper was barred to
participate in Rio Olympics. She was ranked World Number One and was considered
favorite to win a gold. She has participated under neutral flag as per
guidelines of IAAF since then. She won gold in 2017 World Championships. We can
expect her to be favorite in Tokyo Olympics.
Athletes come under lens from time to time. Another
notorious doping scandal came to light from Tour de France cycling event. Lance
Armstrong, infamous for the biggest doping scandal was stripped of his seven
titles over drug use. In addition, many winners including Alberto Contador,
Floyd Landis, Marco Pantani, Jan Ullrich and Bjarne Riis have been caught in
doping scandals. The recent was Chris Froome, a four time winner, was tested
positive for double the level of allowable asthma drug in 2017.
There are times when a player can get disqualified for
taking medication for a physical ailment. In July 2019, Delhi Capitals (DC)
batsman, Prithvi Shaw was suspended for doping violation. He was not allowed to
play Indian Premier League T20 eliminator match between Delhi Capitals (DC) and
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SH). The urine sample he gave in February was found to
contain Terbutaline. Terbutaline is a prohibited substance in WADA's prohibited
list of substances. It was later found that he took Terbutaline as prescription
medicine for Respiratory Tract Infection and not as performance enhancing drug.
But despite that, he will not be able to play till mid of November.
The stringent guidelines, testing and penalties have
deterred athletes to try the prohibited substances. However, doping is going to
stay in forms that may not be detectable by tests in future. But in a fair
game, an athlete must be honest to withhold his integrity and integrity of the
sports.
Image Source: Wikipedia CC 1.0 Generic License. Author: McSmit
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