Drugs In Sport

The War on Drugs in SportA 1995 poll of 198 sprinters, swimmers, powerlifters and other assorted

athletes (Most US Olympians or aspiring Olympians) were asked:

1. You are offered a banned performance enhancing substance with two guarantees: a) You will not be caughtb) You will win. Would you take the substance?

Answer: 195 said yes.

2. You are offered a banned performance enhancing substance that comes with two guarantees: a) You will not be caughtb) You will win every race for 5 years and then die instantly from side effects. Would you take the substance?

Answer: More than half said yes.

Game of ShadowsMark Fainaru-Wada & Lance Williams

For years, in the shadowy reaches of the world of sport, there were rumours that some of our nation’s greatest athletes were using steroids, human growth hormone, and other drugs to run faster, jump higher, and hit harder. But as track stars like Marion Jones blazed their way to Olympic medals and sluggers such as Mark McGwire brought fans back to baseball with stratospheric home runs, sports officials, the media, and fans looked past the rumours and cheered on the stars to ever-higher levels of performance. Then, in December 2004, after more than fifteen months of relentless reporting, San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams broke the story of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a tiny nutritional supplement company that according to sworn testimony was supplying elite athletes, including baseball MVP Jason Giambi, with banned drugs. The stories, exposing rampant cheating at the highest levels of athletics, shocked the nation as sports heroes were brought low and their records were tainted. The exposés led to Congressional hearings on baseball’s drug problems, and a revived effort to purge the U.S. Olympic movement of drug cheats. Now, in Game of Shadows, Fainaru-Wada and Williams tell the complete story of BALCO and the investigation that has shaken the foundations of the sporting world. They reveal how an obscure, self-proclaimed nutritionist, Victor Conte, became a steroid svengali to multi-millionaire athletes desperate for a competitive edge, and how he created superstars with his potent cocktails of miracle drugs. They expose the international web of coaches and trainers who funnelled athletes to BALCO, and how the drug cheats stayed a step ahead of the testing agencies and the law. They detail how an aggressive IRS investigator doggedly gathered evidence until Conte and his co-conspirators were brought to justice. And at the center of the story is the biggest star of them all, the muscle-bound MVP outfielder of the San Francisco Giants, Barry Bonds, whose suspicious late-career renaissance has him threatening Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record.

Shocking, revelatory, and page-turning, Game of Shadows casts light into the shadows of American sport to reveal the dark truths at the heart of the game today.

Game of Shadows – Sports Illustrated Review

NEW YORK (SI.com) -- Beginning in 1998 with injections in his buttocks of Winstrol, a powerful steroid, Barry Bonds took a wide array of performance-enhancing drugs over at least five seasons in a massive doping regimen that grew more sophisticated as the years went on, according to Game of Shadows, a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters at the forefront of reporting on the BALCO steroid distribution scandal. The authors, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, describe in sometimes day-to-day, drug-by-drug detail how often and how deeply Bonds engaged in the persistent doping. For instance, the authors write that by 2001, when Bonds broke Mark McGwire's single-season home-run record (70) by belting 73, Bonds was using two designer steroids referred to as the Cream and the Clear, as well as insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone decanoate (a fast-acting steroid known as Mexican beans) and trenbolone, a steroid created to improve the muscle quality of cattle. BALCO tracked Bonds' usage with doping calendars and folders -- detailing drugs, quantities, intervals and Bonds' testosterone levels -- that wound up in the hands of federal agents upon their Sept. 3, 2003 raid of the Burlingame, Calif., business. Depending on the substance, Bonds used the drugs in virtually every conceivable form: injecting himself with a syringe or being injected by his trainer, Greg Anderson, swallowing pills, placing drops of liquid under his tongue, and, in the case of BALCO's notorious testosterone-based cream, applying it topically. According to the book, Bonds gulped as many as 20 pills at a time and was so deeply reliant on his regimen that he ordered Anderson to start "cycles" -- a prescribed period of steroid use lasting about three weeks -- even when he was not due to begin one. Steroid users typically stop usage for a week or two periodically to allow the body to continue to produce natural testosterone; otherwise, such production diminishes or ceases with the continued introduction of synthetic forms of the muscle-building hormone. Bonds called for the re-starting of cycles when he felt his energy and power start to drop. If Anderson told Bonds he was not due for another cycle, the authors write, Bonds would tell him, "F--- off, I'll do it myself.'‘

The authors compiled the information over a two-year investigation that included, but was not limited to, court documents, affidavits filed by BALCO investigators, confidential memoranda of federal agents (including statements made to them by athletes and trainers), grand jury testimony, audiotapes and interviews with more than 200 sources. For instance, in an extensive note on sourcing, the authors said memos detailing statements by BALCO owner Victor Conte, vice president James Valente and Anderson to IRS special agent Jeff Novitzky were sealed when they first consulted them, but have been unsealed since.

Ergogenic AidsErgogenic AidsErgogenic aids are used by

some athletes to:

Three types of Ergogenic Aids:

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Nutritional AidsNutritional Aids

• Nutritional supplements include:

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Vitamins and MineralsVitamins and Minerals

Regularly taking megavitamins may cause:

Supplements are beneficial when a

clear deficiency is indicated

Athletes are advised to increase food intake, resulting in dietary sourcesof vitamins and minerals

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Protein and Amino Acid Protein and Amino Acid SupplementsSupplements

• Benefits/risks of protein and amino acid supplements are fraught with conflicting research findings/evidence

• Studies report that ingesting excessive amounts of protein can produce toxic effects due tooverproduction of urea resulting in:

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CreatineCreatineCreatine is an oral supplement

that claims to increase:

Effectiveness of creatine supplement is still unclear. More studies need to be conducted on the safety of long-term use.

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Caffeine / StimulantsCaffeine / StimulantsEvidence suggests caffeine

increases performance during prolonged endurance and intense short-term exercises

Energy drinks contain as much as 80mg of caffeine. Ingesting caffeine can cause:

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Pharmacological AidsPharmacological Aids

Pharmacological aids include:

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Pain-Masking DrugsPain-Masking Drugs

Pain-masking agents include: Morphine & Heroin to allow an athlete to continue to train & compete when injured.

Side effects include:

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Anabolic Steroids & Anabolic Steroids & TestosteroneTestosterone

Athletes take Anabolic steroids to:

Harmful side effects include:

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ProhormonesProhormones

• Prohormones are a type of androgenic steroid• Use of prohormones (androstenedione in

particular) claim to:

No scientific data to support these theories• Harmful side effects include:

Human Growth HormoneHuman Growth Hormone

• Synthetic preparations of the Human growth hormone (HGH) is used to achieve:

• Health risks include:

ErythropoietinErythropoietinErythropoietin (EPO) used by

some athletes competing in endurance sports

“Armstong tested positive in 1999” L'Equipe Newspaper

Well, no. There was no test for EPO until 2001, and Tour riders weren't specifically screened for it until 2004. What L'Equipe has done is built what they claim is a paper trail, linking Armstrong's "B" samples, collected in 1999, with samples that were provided to the World Anti-Doping Agency for use in developing the EPO test. The blood urine samples in question were allegedly anonymous, with only a numerical identifier, but L'Equipe claims to have copies of Armstrong's medical certificates, signed by both race doctors and the rider after doping tests, that show the same numerical identifier as the WADA samples. Armstrong is unlikely to be sanctioned, since there's no corroborating sample available, and since the French national lab provided them to WADA “on condition that they could not be used in any disciplinary proceeding.”

Armstrong responded as expected:"Yet again, a European newspaper has reported that I have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Tomorrow’s L’Equipe, a French sports daily, is reporting that my 1999 samples were positive. Unfortunately, the witch hunt continues and tomorrow’s article is nothing short of tabloid journalism. The paper even admits in its own article that the science in question here is faulty and that I have no way to defend myself. They state: “There will therefore be no counter-exam nor regulatory prosecutions, in a strict sense, since defendant’s rights cannot be respected.”I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance enhancing drugs."

Restricted Pharmacological Restricted Pharmacological SubstancesSubstances

• Restricted pharmacological substances include:

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AlcoholAlcohol

• Alcohol– Causes:

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MarijuanaMarijuana

• Marijuana– Causes:

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Rebagliati stripped of goldBy JUSTIN KINGSLEY -- Canadian Press

NAGANO, Japan -- In a time when positive drug tests usually equal cheating in sports, a Canadian snowboarder has found himself at the centre of an entirely different doping scandal.  In the process, 26-year-old Ross Rebagliati of Whistler, B.C., has been disqualified from the Olympics and ordered to hand over the gold medal he won last Saturday -- the first snowboarding medal ever awarded at the Olympics. Rebagliati's crime? He tested positive for marijuana.  Canadian Olympic officials immediately appealed the penalty, announced late Tuesday. “We believe that the penalty in this case should be that of a severe reprimand," said Carol Anne Letheren, chief executive officer of the Canadian Olympic Association. Rebagliati, clad in a wool sweater and jeans, arrived at a downtown hotel shortly before 7 a.m. EST (9 p.m. Nagano time) for the appeal hearing before an independent tribunal. A decision was expected with 24 hours of the hearing. His group, aided by at least eight security guards, was forced to push through a multinational phalanx of reporters and cameras, before disappearing up an escalator. Asked if he had any comment, a dazed-looking Rebagliati said: "Not at the moment." He was accompanied by Michael Wood, executive director of the Canadian Snowboard federation, Canadian chef de mission Brian Wakelin, COA president Bill Warren and COA executive Mark Lowry. Rebagliati, a professional snowboarder, became the first athlete to test positive for drugs at the Nagano Games. Officials said they could not recall another Olympic case involving marijuana. Unlike the anabolic steroid stanozolol used by Toronto sprinter Ben Johnson 10 years ago at the Olympics in Seoul, marijuana is not seen as a performancing-enhancing substance -- especially when you're slashing through 30 to 50 gates on a course with a vertical drop of 290 metres. "It's not a performance-enhancing drug. If anything, it's a performance-impairing drug," said Richard Garlick, spokesman for the Ottawa-based Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.  "You certainly wouldn't want to perform some of those snowboard manoeuvres while you're stoned." It is clear even the International Olympic Committee was torn by what to do over the positive test.  The IOC's medical commission vote in favor of recommending action to the IOC governing body was 13-12. The IOC executive board's subsequent vote on the stiff sanctions was 3-2, with two members abstaining.  The abstentions included IOC vice-president Dick Pound, a Montreal native who refrained from voting citing an apparent conflict of interest. But he made his feelings clear to reporters this morning. "My opinion is we have been fighting for a number of years against doping and I don't think this is doping," Pound said. "Opinions were quite split about whether it (the sanction) was appropriate or not," said IOC director general Francois Carrard. "It was not as easy decision to take I can tell you very frankly."  The appeal is being heard by three judges who are members of an independent court of arbitration. The group has been on standby since the '96 Games in Atlanta just for this purpose.  Pound called it "the court of last resort" when it comes to a medal.  IOC officials said no gold medallist since Johnson has been disqualified for drug use.  Asked if the IOC considered the Rebagliati case an equal crime to that of Johnson's, Carrard replied with one word -- "No." Said Pound: "It's not even close. Ben Johnson was taking anabolic steroids as performance-enhancing substances. This is pot."  Letheren, who was the Canadian team's chef de mission at Seoul, was also asked about comparisons to Johnson.  "I guess it's a bit like deja-vu and a nightmare all over again, but this is such a different case and such a different situation that there is really no comparison in that sense," she said. The IOC also could have reprimanded Rebagliati but allowed him to keep his medal. Canadian officials argued that marijuana had no impact on the outcome of the competition, that not all sporting bodies test for marijuana and that the positive test may not even be as a result of direct useage.  "Ross has stated to us that he hasn't used marijuana since April '97," said Letheren. "He claims the small amount found in his system is due to the significant amount of time that Ross spends in an environment where he is exposed to marijuana users."  Rebagliati said the last time he was in close contact with marijuana smokers was Jan. 31 in Whistler, the night before he departed for the Canadian team's staging area in Calgary prior to coming to Japan, Wood told reporters. The IOC does consider marijuana a prohibited substance. But the International Ski Federation, which governs snowboarding, lists a threshhold of concentration of 15 nanograms per millilitre. Wood said the snowboarder had been tested twice for drugs, in mid-Septmeber and mid-December '97, prior to coming to the Games. "There were small traces of marijuana that were below the level set out by FIS (the international ski federation)." A key issue in the appeal will be how long traces of marijuana remain in the body.  That depends on the amount ingested, the size of the body and other factors said Dr. Andrew Pipe, chairman of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports in Ottawa. "It's highly variable," he told CBC-TV from Ottawa. "I think one can say certainly that if the last time that the athlete used marijuana was in April, that the amount that was found in the urine the day he was tested on the 8th bears no resemblance to ingestion in April. It just wouldn't be there." Rebagliati, whose electric smile was splashed across the country after his win, was described as "very devastated" at the turn of events.  While the IOC said there was no evidence Rebagliati had used drugs in Japan and the Canadian denied using marijuana since April, Nagano police said they wanted to interview the snowboarder.  "We are going to question the athlete about marijuana because possession of the drug is illegal in Japan," a police spokesman said. Only four positive drug tests have ever been recorded at the Winter Olympics -- two at Innsbruck in 1976, one in Sarajevo in 1984 and one in Calgary in 1988. Whatever happens to the appeal, this positive test only adds to the image of the snowboarders as alternative Olympians, renegades from the X-Games who play by their own rules. "This will undoubtedly be tough for the sport," said Letheren.  But there was support for Rebagliati in his home town. "I think all of Canada is disappointed," said Paul Blunden, a Whistler resident who knows the Olympian. "He has tested passively for something that's not a performance-enhancing drug. He's done nothing wrong."

Rebagliati Stripped of GoldState the Views of 3 People From the Article in Favour

or Against the stripping of Ross’ medal.

Give Your Opinion:

Local AnaestheticsLocal Anaesthetics

• Local Anaesthetics– Causes:

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Beta blockersBeta blockers

• Beta Blockers

– Causes:

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Physiological AidsPhysiological Aids• Physiological methods include:

– Blood doping• Intravenous administration of blood, red blood cells,

and related blood products:

– Drug masking• Certain drugs are used to reduce the presence of

banned substances• Includes agents that dilute concentration in:

Performance Enhancing

Drugs

Drug TestingDrug Testing

• Drug Testing– Ensures an even

playing field– Test are performed

randomly– Performed year

around

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Ethical IssuesEthical Issues

• Ethical Issues– What would you do?– How would your decision impact your

family, country, or nation?– How would it impact your future?

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