Drugs in Sport

Performance enhancing drugs have been banned from sports because today’s sporting community considers the use of these drugs is cheating.

Some performance enhancing drugs used to aid an athletes performance can also cause harmful damage to the athletes health.

This is a list of banned substances in sport:

There are five main categories of drugs that are banned from sport.

This pressure to become successful or to be the best has contributed to the rise in drug taking within the sporting community.

The use of performance enhancing drugs in sport has been around since 400 BC, where in mass spectator sport the athletes took performance enhancing substances such as mushrooms or plant extracts, which lead to the demise of amateur sport into professionalism.

The evolution of sport from a largely amateur affair into a big business with millions of dollars worth of sponsorship and endorsements for a select few champions increases the pressure put on to these athletes to succeed.

Elite athletes are highly motivated and disciplined and the rewards and accolades that are available are enormous and these athletes only have a limited time to get to the top in their chosen sport adding to the huge pressure to succeed. As a respected athlete put it “ the fundamental ethos of sporting competition is the rivalry between highly skilled athletes who have attained their expertise through hard work and natural ability and not through banned doping practices”. Long term use of anabolic steroids causes liver damage, diuretics can cause severe dehydration and beta-blockers can reduce blood pressure to the point where the heart stops beating.

Anabolic Steroids: Nandrolone, Testosterone

· increases muscle mass and strength

· often used in power sports, weight lifting

Peptide Hormones: Growth hormone

· increases muscle mass and strength

· often used in power sports, track and field

Narcotic analgesics: Codeine, Heroin

· effects the central nervous system to reduce the feelings of pain and produces a calm feeling

· often used in shooting sports

Stimulants: Cocaine, Amphetamine

· increases alertness, raises heart rate, delays fatigue, improves performance

· Often used in most sports, counter productive in shooting sports

Diuretics: Frusemide

· reduces weight, masks presence of other drugs

· often used in weight lifting, boxing

In addition to these drug classes there are also local anaesthetic’s, cortico steriods - treats asthma and beta-blockers - treats heart conditions, these are restricted in some sports.