Doping In Sports: Effects, Substances And Interventions

Definitions of Doping

Question:

Discuss about the Contemporary Issues in Sports for Narcotic Analgesics and Diuretics.

Doping, the term is derived from dope, which is an expression that was used to refer to an alcoholic drink which was used to stimulate dancers of South Africa; this term was later extended to modern day doping. Athletes use banned substance to improve their performance in sports. This is called doping. The International Olympic Committee and the International Sports Authorities and Federation have listed, identified and accepted some doping substances. The doping substances are stimulants, analogues, peptide, narcotic analgesics, diuretics and glycoprotein hormones and anabolic agents. This list is continuously updated by the major sports organizations like the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Sports Authorities.  Doping methods can be of various types like physical manipulation, blood doping, chemical manipulation and pharmacological manipulation (Angelo et al., 2013). There are drugs like alcohol, beta-blockers, anesthetics, marijuana; corticosteroids are subjected to restrictions by organizations like International Olympic Committee (IOC). Some medical requirement can make it necessary to consume such drugs but without a proper medical ground. An athlete who consumes any of these substances or adopts this kind of doping methods is subjected to disqualification by governing organizations of sports (Alexander, 2014).

According to O'Leary (2013), Doping has detrimental effects on athletes and it poses threat to fair competition in sports. In endurance sports like cycling, rowing, swimming, cross-country and skiing, athletes make use of drugs to enhance their performance. One such drug is erythropoietin which is consumed by athletes who play endurance sports. Erythropoietin leads to a higher level of red blood cells which can make the blood of athletes more oxygenated and thus increase their performance in endurance sports. Thus doping should be avoided as it leads to unfair competition. It has been criticized that sports like football and soccer are not doing much to resolve the issue of doping. However, according to Yar (2014), it can be alternatively be argued that doping should be legalized in athletes. The zero-tolerance against doping is not working. If the blood data is non-suspicious, it does not prove that no doping substances are used. It only means that doping substances in blood of athletes did not exceed the range. It is known that athletes are subjected to doping but the organizations of sports are unable to clearly identify the athletes who have made use of doping substances. Thus, high-performance of athletes are subjected to suspicion and many athletes face harassments even if they do not make use of doping substances just because they have delivered high performance. For instance, cyclist Chris Froome and his teammates delivered high performance in Tour de France and was subjected to physical violence. Justin Gatlin has complained that bans related to doping have led to unfair and biased coverage of his performance (O'Leary, 2013). 

Types of Doping Substances and Methods

The Athlete Biological passport is the fundamental principle which can be utilized for monitoring the specified biological variables over time that can reflect indirectly the effects of doping rather than to make an attempt to detect the doping substance or the doping method itself. The robust framework of the anti-doping program can be integrated into the Athlete Biological passport by the anti-doping organizations for identification and target of athletes who can be subjected to specific analytical testing by making use of intelligent methods for interpreting their passport data on time. WADA is the international independent organization which is responsible to monitor and coordinate the global fight against sports. The Athlete Biological Passport has been developed by WADA.

The executive committee of WADA approved the Biological Passport Operating guidelines of WADA on December 1, 2009.  A standardized approach was adopted by the first version of WADA ABP guidelines to profile the Haematological variables of the athletes to detect the doping level in blood of sportsmen. The second module was introduced by the fourth version of WADA ABP guidelines which is called the steroidal module which was used to detect steroid doping from urinary steroid concentrations of athletes over time. WADA will develop and revise the Athlete Biological Pass port guideline and thus intervene to control doing among sportsmen by consulting its stakeholders to intervene in anti-doping activities and to take strict measures and control to rectify the doping related issue in sports((WADA intervention, 2017)

The anti-doping rule violations consist of 10 rules which are in alignment with the World-Anti Doping code like the sportsmen should not fail to submit a sample collection for testing related to doping, the athlete’s sample should not contain a prohibited substance, an athlete should not tamper with the doping control, an athlete should not be associated with a doctor or coach who has been found guilty of violating the anti-doping rules (WADA intervention, 2017)

United Kingdom Anti Doping is the national anti-doping organization which is responsible for charging the personnel who have supported athletes or athletes directly for Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRV). The code of ADRV was developed by UKAD IN 2015 and the code is aligned to World-Anti Doping code, thus UKAD intervenes and control doping among sportsmen. Results from testing programs of doping related activities in sportsmen are also published by UKAD.

There are more than 89 sports which are charged with having doping payers. In all international game formats, 115 nations were represented by doped players.

Effects of Doping on Athletes and Fair Competition

There has been evidence of doping in football. FIFA is of the opinion that education can make sports free of doping. The intervention that is adopted by FIFA to ensure that football matches are free from doping is that FIFA ensures that team physicians sign a declaration that states that athletes will undergo routine blood testing before the commencement of FIFA world cup (Duntas & Popovic, 2013).  In the Olympic Games, athletes are tested for Erythropoietin by testing samples of their urine and blood. 18-pro cyclists have died due to the use of Erythropoietin as of 2012 (Barkoukis et al., 2013).Some of the Anti-Doping organizations that intervene in activities related to doping are the United States Olympic Committee. The International Olympic Committee has founded the World Anti-Doping Agency. The activities of the agency include education and development to intervene and address issues related to doping and to monitor the World Anti-Doping Code. The UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sports enforced the provision of the World-Anti Doping Agency. Also, the Council of Europe Anti-Doping Convention has intervened with doping activities related to sports to and the aims of this organization are in alignment with that of WADA (Morente-Sánchez & Zabala, 2013).

Functionalist theory is applied to this issue related to doping in sportsmen.  Emile Durkheim portrayed the perspective that interconnected part of a society or social being can be harmonized by philosophers and sociologists belonging to the same school of thought. The issue related to doping in sportsmen is considered a contemporary issue of sports because it raises questions against the social justification of sportsmen. Ben Johnson was found guilty of doping in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Diego Maradona was also found guilty of doping in 1986 World Cup. Lance Armstrong, the renowned cyclist was accused of doping in Tour de France in 2005. The doping acquisitions against Armstrong got stronger because his teammates were found to consume Erythropoietin. Maria Sharapova, the five-time Grand Slam Winner was found guilty of doping and claimed that she concealed the use of meldonium from authorities and International Tennis Federation banned her from playing tennis till 26 January, 2018 (Paoli & Donati, 2014).

A sports organization or a governing body of sports organize campaign, activities and programs and implement codes to address groups issues related to doping in sports. These code or conduct or campaigns are called intervention. The contemporary issues of sports are broad and diverse, so one intervention can’t solve an issue. Intervention from sports organization is mandatory to address contemporary issue of sports like doping. Despite of the intervention to handle issues related to doping in sportsmen, the success rate of Anti-doping campaigns is just 1-2 percentages. The social theory is used in the research as the anti doping movement will lead to the harmony of the individual social being to create an effective understanding of the issues. The sports and anti-doping communities can be committed to clean sport; they can incorporate the ‘Say No!’ To Doping logo in promotional materials, uniforms, sports equipment and competition venues. More than stringent law, social awareness needs to be developed so that more number of the sports persons can be driven to a squad free from doping.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that doping in sportsmen is a contemporary issue in sports that have negative consequences like doping leads to unfair competition in sports. The performance of sportsmen increases dramatically because of doping which does not ensure fair competition. There has been intervention from different sports organizations like WADA, IOC, FIFA and many more for implementing positive steps to control doping among sportsmen. However, the tests conducted to test doping in sportsmen are not always effective and many sportsmen have complained that bans which are related to doping caused unfair and biased coverage of their performance.

Reference List

Alexander, B. R. (2014). War on drugs redux: Welcome to the war on doping in sports. Substance use & misuse, 49(9), 1190-1193.

Angelo Corlett, J., Brown Jr, V., & Kirkland, K. (2013). Coping with doping. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 40(1), 41-64.

Barkoukis, V., Lazuras, L., Tsorbatzoudis, H., & Rodafinos, A. (2013). Motivational and social cognitive predictors of doping intentions in elite sports: An integrated approach. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 23(5).

Duntas, L. H., & Popovic, V. (2013). Hormones as doping in sports. Endocrine, 43(2), 303-313.

Morente-Sánchez, J., & Zabala, M. (2013). Doping in sport: a review of elite athletes’ attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge. Sports Medicine, 43(6), 395-411.

O'Leary, J. (2013). Drugs & Doping in Sports. Routledge.

Paoli, L., & Donati, A. (2014). The sports doping market. In Understanding Supply and Demand and the Challenges of Their Control. Springer New York.

WADA intervention. (2017). wada-ama.org. Retrieved 24 October 2017, from https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2017-04/wada-publishes-2015-anti-doping-rule-violations-report

Yar, M. (2014). Crime, deviance and doping: Fallen sports stars, autobiography and the management of stigma. Springer.