Doping in Competitive Sports

Doping in Competitive Sports Outline

• The paper discusses doping in competitive sports, including its definition, history, forms, consequences, detection, and a personal account.
• It covers the use of performance-enhancing substances and methods to achieve top athletic performance.

Introduction to Doping

• Doping is an increasingly important issue.
• Many athletes turn to performance-enhancing substances for different reason.
• One reason is pressure to maintain performance levels due to training limitations or illness-related inactivity.
• There is an aim to avoid failure from expectations by media, spectators, fans, sponsors and trainers,.
• Doping can be involuntary due to state-sponsored programs.
• The German Democratic Republic (GDR) used state-sponsored doping, exposing about 15,000 children and adolescents without their or their parents' consent, resulting in lasting physical, psychological, and social damage.

What is Doping?

• Doping involves using prohibited substances or methods to enhance athletic performance.
• Possessing or trading banned substances is considered doping, as is refusing or manipulating doping tests.

Origin of the Term Doping

• The origin of the term "doping" is uncertain.
• First usage has been traced to southeastern African natives who used the word "dop" for an alcoholic beverage employed as a stimulant during religious ceremonies.
• Zulu warriors used "dop" to describe an alcoholic drink composed of grape skins and cola.
• Dutch settlers in South Africa regularly served a glass of wine called "dop" on vineyards.
• "Doping" first appeared in an English dictionary in 1889, describing a mixture of opium and narcotics often used in horse racing.

Current Definition by NADA

• NADA (National Anti-Doping Agency) summarizes doping principles in German, collaborating with WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), which establishes the World Anti-Doping Code (WADC).
• WADC includes all doping-related rules and prohibitions.
• The World Anti-Doping Code defines the following as anti-doping rule violations:
  • Presence of a prohibited substance in an athlete's body.
  • Use or attempted use of a prohibited substance or method.
  • Evading, refusing, or failing to submit to sample collection.
  • Violating whereabouts requirements.
  • Tampering or attempted tampering with any part of the doping control process.
  • Possession of a prohibited substance or method.
  • Trafficking or attempted trafficking of prohibited substances or methods.
  • Administration or attempted administration of prohibited substances or methods to athletes.
  • Complicity (e.g., assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, conspiring, covering up).
  • Prohibited association with a sanctioned person.
  • Acts by an athlete or other person to discourage or retaliate against whistleblowers.

Forms of Doping: Prohibited Substance Groups

• Prohibited substance groups include:
  • Substances not approved for medical use.
  • Anabolic agents.
  • Diuretics and other masking agents.
  • Peptide hormones.
  • Beta-2 agonists.
  • Hormone and metabolic modulators.
  • Stimulants.
  • Narcotics.
  • Cannabinoids.

Medically Unapproved Substances

• This class, added to the WADC in 2011, involves misuse of newly developed, unapproved medications.
• The ban eliminates debate over whether a new substance is truly performance-enhancing.
• The rule serves as a reminder to athletes that all new medications are prohibited, even if not yet on WADA’s banned list.
• Officially, there are no listed examples for this forbidden form of doping.

Anabolic Agents/Anabolics

• Anabolic agents are artificially produced substances.
• These substances are typically misused by athletes during training.
• Anabolic agents promote muscle growth, enhancing athletic performance in strength and power sports.
• Anabolics are similar in structure and effect to the male sex hormone testosterone.

Effects of Anabolics

• These substances are also known as anabolic-androgenic steroids, categorized by their anabolic and androgenic effects.
• Androgenic effects describe influencing male secondary sexual characteristics.
• Anabolic effects refer to metabolism-promoting, muscle-building action.
• When combined with intensive training, anabolics promote protein synthesis in muscle cells.
• The androgenic component typically produces male characteristics, but steroid use can lead to feminization.
• Excess testosterone converts to estrogen, increasing estrogen levels and leading to feminization, which manifest as gynecomastia or benign enlargement of male mammary glands

Stimulants

• Are "performance-enhancing drugs" with side effects like stress, aggression, or psychosis.
• Examples include amphetamine and its variants, as well as illicit drugs like cocaine and ecstasy.
• These substances reduce fatigue or exhaustion rather than improve performance, producing effects similar to adrenaline or noradrenaline.
• Stimulants are classified by the World Anti-Doping Code into specified and non-specified substances.
• Group B substances may unintentionally be present in medications due to their availability, potentially leading to a lighter sanction. Disqualifications and competition bans under 2 years.
• Group A substances carry a minimum 2-year ban.

Effects of Stimulants

• These substances exhaust the body's energy reserves, potentially leading to collapse or death due to lack of vital energy.
• The drug increases overall energy turnover, delays exhaustion, affects the nervous system, elevates body temperature and blood pressure, and induces euphoria.
• Tom Simpson, a former British world champion cyclist who died during the 1967 Tour de France, had amphetamines in his system.

Prohibited Methods

• Doping involves genetic procedures that enhance athletic performance.

Gene Doping

• Gene doping involves transferring cells or genetic material, or using pharmacological or biological agents to alter gene expression.
• Initial intention was totreat hereditary diseases through new therapeutic approaches, but now the procedure is misused for athletic enhancement and muscle building.
• Gene doping does not improve genetic makeup.

How Cells and Gene Elements Are Transferred

• Transfer is done using transport vectors, or gene shuttles, to insert cells or genes.
• Therapeutic genes or gene elements can apply in somatic and germline cells with two known gene transfer methods:
  • Ex-vivo: Specific cells (usually stem cells) are extracted, therapeutic genes are added, and "processed" cells are reintroduced.
• In-vivo: Genes or gene elements deposit directly.
• Bothe seldom succeed perfectly.
• Both can result in lifelong side effects.

Modifying Gene Expression

• This is a common method of gene doping, modifies gene expression.
• Changes in expression process of existing genes via activation, amplification, attenuation, or blockage.
• Modifying gene expression is often favored over cell transfer due to higher efficacy guarantee.
• Skeletal muscles is a target of gene doping.
• These methods affects growth, structure, strength, endurance and regeneration.
• It effects oxygen supply, hemoglobin concentration and blood vessel supply.
• And affects energy supply, fatty acid and glucose.

Manipulation of Blood

• It can be done two ways:
  • Blood doping.
  • Applications of Blood.

Blood Doping

• Blood doping involves transfusions of blood, red blood cells, or other blood components unrelated to medical treatment.
• Three forms of transfusions are usally performed/used:
  • Autologous (autologous blood transfusion).
  • Homologous (foreign blood transfusion).
  • Heterologous (donor is from a different species).

Applications of Blood

• For certain method, blood structure is altered by intake of certian substances.
• These substances increase in intake, transport, or release of oxygen with perfluorocarbons or ITTP (myo- inositol trispyrophosphate) being used as a substance.

Chemical and Physical Manipulation

• It can be done two ways and both are prohibited:
  • Tampering is done to change the integrity and validity of doping control samples.
  • This includes sample substitution or falsification, like adding proteases.

Intravenous Infusions

• There is a prohibition of over 50ml infusions within six hours, unless for legitimate clinical reasons

How manipulation is done.

• Athletes attempts to coverup the verfification on urine samples in the bladder.

Restricted Substances

Certain substances are permitted in low amounts or with pre-existing conditions.

Alcohol

• Alcohol has not been on WADA's list since January 1, 2018.
• The drug has been taken off the list since 2018 since it in most case does not increaes performance of sporting activities
• There some exceptions sport with small amounts of alcohol has a claiming effect. Shooting, modern pentathlon, are examples where benefit can be seen

Beta Blockers

• Beta-blockers were applied to calm people down.
• But it works on all sport,
• It aids regulation of nervousness.
• Mostly they are in sports that require low sympathetic attitude

Glucocorticoids

• It its only prohibited if used in excess.
• And its given intramuscularly.
• it is known to effect metabolis,.
• The also effect the immune system.

Consequences for Doping

• Doping always has adverse effects.

Health Consequences

• Doping is bad for you
• Results in health consequences
• Both male and females also expereince organ failures

Social Consequences

• Results in mental health issues like depression if testing positive
• DDR state doping it can lead to poverty
• Not getting opportunities in the job sector

Legal Consequences

• Violating doping laws, will resort in penalization
• Bans from competition.
• Some have awards taken from them.

Financial Consequences

If violated WADC, you may have refunds of funds and prize money.

Proving Doping

• Urine is tested.
• The bottles are then sealed.
• the first bottle is tested for its negative effects.
• If proven positive then and only then will bottle to be tested.

Personal account

• An overview of states doping and assistance of victimizations by the organizations.
• DDR was state affiliated with doping, and what not
• This lead to some illegal procedures of doping at a later.
• The work they put to help old sports members out are important.