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The 2004 Olympics have come and gone and, as usual, there are lessons to be learnt from past experience.
Some circles still insist it is the taking part that counts.
It is a Corinthian ideal that held sway throughout the days in which amateurism was the norm on virtually every field of sport.
Nowadays there is only one prize that seems to count, and that is winning at all costs.
It is important not just for glory but for the millions of pounds in sponsorship and spinoffs which are increasingly attached to the footballers, swimmers and athletes who come first.
One of the first proponents of win-at-all costs was the 1920’s athlete Harold Abrahams, whose quest to become the fastest man on earth was immortalised in the Oscar winning film Chariots of Fire. He only ever ran to win, he said, and he won gold medals a plenty. But to do that, he simply used ‘all the natural ability I possessed’ to run as fast as he possibly could.
Today that is simply not enough for many of the Olympic stars who have followed in his famous footsteps. They have taken to drugs to enhance their natural abilities with dangerous and sometimes fatal consequences.
Who doesn’t remember the fastest woman on earth – 38-year-old Florence Griffith Joyner, who died six years ago on 22 September 1998. She then brought the problem into focus.
She became the Queen of Seoul for winning three gold medals in the 1988 Olympics. Rumours had circulated that her performances were not all her own work.
Though she never failed a drugs test, big sponsors felt she was so tainted by the rumours that they dropped her. It is thought that she has paid the price of cheating with her life.
Drugs are now running through sport at Olympic pace. Another race is being staged by some men and women – to try to keep one step ahead of the testing and regulatory bodies that are determined to stamp out performance enhancing drug use once and for all.
The drugs most commonly used fall broadly into three categories:
1. Stimulants
2. Those that enhance body capability and
3. Those that change growth
Stimulants, such as cocaine and amphetamines, can produce increased mental and physical performance and competitiveness. They raise the blood pressure and can lead to addiction. These drugs are easily detectable and anyone who uses them in competition nowadays invites disqualification if caught.
More common are drugs that boost body power in training. They allow sports stars to train much harder and recover more quickly.
Amongst those used are narcotic analgesics such as methadone and diamorphine, which act on the brain and spinal cord to increase pain thresholds. These are favourites in sports such as weight lifting and long-distance running.
Anabolic agents - including steroids and testosterone - increase strength, power, endurance and muscle growth. Hormones stimulate growth. Betablockers lower heart rate and blood pressure, relax the nerves and prevent trembling and are commonly used in sports requiring a high degree of control and accuracy such as shooting, snooker and archery. Peptide hormones can improve oxygen flow, critical to ‘power athletes’ such as sprinters.
Diuretics help to eliminate fluids and contribute to rapid weight loss, useful for jockeys.
The advantage is that drug testing is less common outside competition, therefore users are less likely to get caught. They can produce results on competition day, long after evidence of the drug has disappeared from the body.
Drug detections have appeared in nearly all sports be it athletics, football, rugby, cycling, motor sports, boxing, body building, equestrian events and even pigeon racing.
It is remarkable that there are still ways of avoiding detection. Rumours abound that Florence, the fastest woman on earth, used her trademark six inch long nails to pierce a phial of ‘clean’ urine which she had inserted into the vagina prior to providing a sample.
Detection, however, is becoming more sophisticated. It remains to be seen whether the authorities can ever match the chemical advances and the pace of ingenuity currently being set by some of our sporting heroes.
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