What is an athlete most afraid of being associated with?
is not a loss, not an injury, but a stimulant.
When watching the Tokyo Olympics, which has concluded, everyone must have discovered that among the names of countries such as China, the United States, and Australia, there is a "ROC" (Russian Olympic Committee).
The Russian Olympic Committee delegation at this year's Tokyo Olympics.
Image source: Yahoo Sport
ROC is the Russian Olympic Committee and does not represent the Russian official.
Why does this happen?
This is because in 2019, Russia was found to be doping, and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) punished it and banned it for 4 years.
Although the International Court of Arbitration for Sports changed the sentence to a two-year ban, Russia is still unable to participate in the name of the country. Those Russian athletes who are not involved in fraud can only compete as "neutral athletes".
When these athletes received their medals, Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1" was played at the award ceremony instead of the Russian national anthem, and the flag raised was also the ROC flag.
Russian athletes in the Olympic Games.
Image source: CNN
A few days ago, the first doping case also appeared in the Tokyo Olympics. Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare was found to have banned substances in his body and was disqualified from the competition.
Nigerian athlete Blessing Okabare was disqualified from the competition.
Image source: Evening Standard
According to France Internationale, 20 athletes have withdrawn from the Tokyo Olympics due to failing doping tests.
Why are stimulants banned repeatedly?
01
Doping past events
In fact, the use of doping in Russia is not a matter of the past two years. Before 2011 or even earlier, Russia had systematically provided doping to athletes and helped athletes avoid WADA's anti-doping regulations. test.
Russia’s former Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Mutko said when faced with the large-scale doping scandal that broke out in Russia:
“Everyone is doping, we are just doing the same thing. ."
It shows how common the use of stimulants is.
According to 263,519 urine and blood samples tested by WADA in 2018, 0.6% of them detected doping, and relevant athletes were sanctioned.
Doping is very common among athletes, especially in some countries and sports.
Image source: The Economist
In a 2018 study, researchers interviewed more than 2,000 athletes in two major events anonymously and randomly. 43.6% of them admitted that they had used stimulants in the past year. agent.
Based on this ratio, researchers estimate that among the more than 11,000 athletes in the Tokyo Olympics, more than a thousand may still be doping.
The history of human doping can be traced back to very early times. At that time, doping was not a shameful thing.
As early as the ancient Greek period, athletes and gladiators used stimulants. They were mostly mixtures of mushrooms, herbs or wine, which could make people ignore pain, stimulate people's speed and explosive power, make them more excited, and extend their endurance. .
At that time, no one thought there was anything wrong with doping. But you are always testing on the edge of the cliff, and you will fall off the cliff if you are not careful.
Olympics in ancient Greece.
Image source: National Geographic
In the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, American track and field athlete Thomas Hicks (Thomas Hicks) won the gold medal in the marathon.
His legs did not stop running, but his consciousness was blurred. He fainted and fell to the ground after crossing the finish line, and was barely able to save his life only with the help of doctors.
Thomas Hicks runs marathon.
Image source: Post-Dispatch Archives
It turned out that Hicks took a drug called " strychnine " before the game, also known as strychnine. This drug contains highly toxic substances and is generally used to poison animals such as mice. However, taking it in small doses can boost your spirits. Hicks used it as a stimulant.
Hicks’s accident did not cause a sensation. More and more drugs are being used on athletes, and amphetamines and ephedrine are gradually becoming more common. Even East German politics systematically and large-scale use drugs to improve athletes. results.
With the continuous improvement of modern chemical technology, more and more types of stimulants are appearing.
The earliest stimulants were mostly stimulating drugs, such as neuramine drugs and caffeine;
In the second stage, drugs with more complex pharmacology appeared, mainly anabolic steroids, as well as some narcotic analgesics, Diuretics, etc.;
With the research on genes, some endogenous hormones and some gene stimulants will be used in the third stage.
While not all medications are proven effective, some are widely used. For example, a synthetic androgen (AAS) is a pediatric drug, but it has been found to be used to enhance muscle strength and speed up recovery.
It was an era when doping was popular. Since the 1970s, everyone had been setting records.
What’s even more exaggerated is that many records still stand today. For example, at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, American sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner set a record of 10.49 seconds in the 100-meter dash. This record has not been broken to this day.
Joyner, the record-setting sprinter.
Image source: Britannica
According to statistics, half of the 16 world records in women's track and field events since the 1970s still exist today and are difficult to break.
It can be said that it was a "heroic era of stimulants".
02
The arrival of anti-doping
There is a saying in the sports world:
"If it is detected, it is called doping, but if it is not detected, it is called high technology."
Everyone knows that taking too much doping is harmful, and young athletes are being killed one after another. As guinea pigs, a variety of drugs were tested under active or passive conditions. Some young female athletes develop male characteristics and even die prematurely.
In 1960, something finally happened.
At the Rome Olympics that year, Danish cyclist Knud Jensen (Knud Enemark Jensen) took a mixture of amphetamine and alcohol. He was in high spirits before the game, but suddenly fell to the ground and died suddenly during the game.
This was the first athlete in Olympic history to die due to doping, which kicked off the anti-doping campaign.
The drug "methamphetamine" we often hear about belongs to methamphetamine.
Image source: Chemtrue
In 1968, the International Olympic Committee implemented doping testing at the Olympic Games for the first time, and a total of 8 banned drugs were included in the testing range.At that Mexico Olympics, a female athlete from Sweden was found to have excessive alcohol content in her body and was deprived of her ranking, becoming the first victim of anti-doping at the Olympics.
By 2010, the stimulant catalog had been divided into seven categories, covering 219 types of drugs. The types of prohibited stimulants are no longer limited to chemical drugs, but also include blood doping, gene doping, etc. we mentioned above.
During the doping inspection work, there will be procedures such as urine sampling and laboratory analysis.
Of course, as the types of stimulants expand, the detection methods for new stimulants are also increasing.
In Olympic examinations since 1964, urine tests have basically been used. By the 1989 World Ski Championships, blood tests had begun to appear. After that, unannounced inspections appeared, that is, surprise inspections that may be carried out at any time and anywhere outside the game.
In 1998, it was revealed that a large number of athletes in the Tour de France used doping, including the world-famous star rider Lance Armstrong (Lance Edward Armstrong).
After that, Armstrong also won seven consecutive Tour de France championships. It was not until 2012 that he was officially found to have used illegal drugs for a long time and was deprived of his achievements after 1998.
This time the scandal is considered to be "the most sophisticated, professional and successful anti-doping program the sports world has ever seen."
Star driver Armstrong, who was once an idol to millions of people around the world, admitted in 2013 that he had long-term doping, which was regarded as a major scandal in sports history.
Image source: Eigo Daily
At the same time, this scandal also forced the international community to pay attention to anti-doping, and the International Olympic Committee established an independent and specialized international anti-doping agency - the World Anti-Doping Agency.
In November 1999, WADA was officially established. It is independent of national governments, sports organizations and Olympic committees and is dedicated to combating doping abuse.
WADA has long been committed to anti-doping and clean competitive sports.
Image source: Reuters
It is not difficult to find that although this organization has discovered doping incidents one after another since its establishment, to this day, in some country or corner, there are still athletes who resort to cheating methods in order to win, regardless of the fairness and fairness of the competition. Regardless of physical health, pills and liquids are put into one's body to gain short-term energy and honor.
Why do stimulants continue to be banned?
On the one hand, it is because new drugs are constantly emerging, and the means of detection and banning are always later than the production of drugs. Even some relatively unorthodox drugs whose safety has not been fully verified will be put into use because of the desire for quick success;
On the other hand, There are policies from above and countermeasures from below. Faced with increasingly stringent detection technology, athletes who want to take advantage of opportunities can always find loopholes and exploit them to escape supervision.
In addition, there are reasons such as government help, institutional corruption, and changing standards.
Former IAAF President Lamine Diack is suspected of corruption, bribery, extortion and other crimes. He guided, helped, and even controlled athletes to use doping and profited from it.
There are three main methods on how to strengthen doping monitoring.
The first is to improve the "whistleblower" system. When it comes to anti-doping operations, whistleblowers are a critical component.
Of course, not all reports are valid, especially in the competitive arena. After receiving the report, WADA will investigate and conduct inspections based on clues. At the same time, whistleblowers are encouraged to protect these whistleblowers from retaliation.
The second type is to increase capital investment and adopt diversified detection methods.
Currently, WADA’s annual budget is US$40 million, mainly provided by national governments and the International Olympic Committee. Perhaps there can also be some novel ideas, such as allowing opponents on the field to serve as each other's testing agencies, allowing both sides to carry out their own supervision and testing, or testing athletes at random and anytime, anywhere.
The third option is to strengthen the independence of institutions, eliminate political pressure, and strengthen their own supervision. makes WADA's control independent of each country and can introduce more fresh blood, such as lawyers, police, etc.
The fanatical abuse caused by doping, and the containment and pursuit of anti-doping, the two forces are still inseparable.
03
Why are we against doping?
"Sports Illustrated" (Sports Illustrated) once conducted such a survey. They interviewed a group of Olympic athletes. One of the questions was "If you were given a drug, you would win and not be caught. You Are you willing? " 98% of the athletes chose yes.
What is even more frightening is the next question: " If you are given a drug, you will continue to win in 5 years, but you will die in 5 years. Are you willing? " Still more than 50% of the athletes answered yes ,willing.
You can imagine how eager an athlete is for doping, or for victory.
Some people once thought that doping should not be banned. Human beings have used so many physical methods to improve performance, why should chemical methods be blocked?
In fact, there are many reasons. The most direct reason is the one mentioned above, which is the loss of life.
At the 1960 Rome Olympics, Jensen fell to the ground and died suddenly.
Image source: Sports Integrity Initiative
Excessive use of stimulants can lead to sudden death during exercise.
Nowadays, although news of sudden death due to taking drugs are rare, the harm of these drugs to the human body still remains in the lives of many athletes. With long-term use of stimulants, men may suffer from metabolic disorders, abnormal liver function, rashes and other diseases, while women may suffer from menstrual disorders, baldness, irritability and other symptoms.
This is all at the expense of one's own health and even life.
Secondly, using doping will force others to take doping too.
As the saying goes, " volume ", everyone is using doping. If an athlete does not use it, it is equivalent to watching himself fail. Under such pressure, who can still believe that talent and hard work can beat technology and the efficacy of medicine?
Furthermore, sports should be personal and free.
When sports first appeared, they should have been to strengthen the body and unleash one's potential. This origin goes hand in hand with individualism. Competitive sports must first ensure the value of people, pay attention to people's health, and ensure their fairness, so that they can have the rationality of their existence and extension.
Athletes' performance may determine their lifelong path. Those multi-million contracts, high appearance fees, and prestigious endorsements will bring countless financial benefits to star players.
Therefore, many professional athletes have spent their childhood and youth on the sports track, and " wins " has become the only goal.
Finally, sports should never be affiliated with politics.
The Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals are more than just a brand. The rankings of the Olympic Games do not only mean the sum of everyone's abilities and luck in this sports event.
It's too heavy.
Behind the Olympic Games is the heavy national prestige, the heavy eyes of the public, public opinion, and national honor.It stares straight at you, fearing that you will miss a ball, as if success, failure, honor and disgrace are all in this score.
However, medals are not everything in sports competitions. It is "higher, faster and stronger", but it is also "friendship first, competition second". It is the bright smiling faces of girls of different nationalities on the podium holding flowers and proudly.
None of these should be wiped out by politics and " wins ".
The game between major powers should not weigh on competitive sports or these young athletes.
When the shadow of politics covers competitive sports and doping is used as a shortcut to the victory hall, the Olympic spirit will disappear.
When will competitive sports transcend the country and the nation and become pure sports itself?
