Sport and Drugs Lecture 8 Chp 6 Coakley, 8th Ed

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Sport and Drugs Lecture 8 Chp 6 Coakley, 8th Ed

• Statements by Olympic insiders claim that it is
  rare for anyone to win gold medals without taking
  performance enhancing substances (Coakley, 2004,
  p. 160)
• In a US survey, Olympic athletes were asked if
  they'd take illegal drugs - providing winning was
  guaranteed and that they'd get away with it - 99
  said yes to cheating.
• And if the drug gave them five years at the top
  and then killed them half said they'd still take
  it. (ABC-Lateline, 1998-Based on Goldmans Poll
  of 198 athletes)

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• Drug and substance use in sports has had a long
  history
• It has become commonplace to the point where
  reports in the media of athletes being caught
  are no longer shocking
• The use of performance enhancing substances is
  argued to occur regularly in high performance
  sports
• Use is arguably filtering down to junior sport
• Such substances will be used as long as athletes
  believe they will enhance performance

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Historically

• Athletes have taken a wide variety of everyday
  and exotic substances over the years.and
  substance use is not just limited to elite
  athletes
• While the lure of financial gain is perceived by
  many as a motivator for athletes to take drugs it
  has been identified that athletes throughout
  history have taken drugs for no financial gain

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• 300 BC the Greeks ate substances to improve
  athletic performance including Hallucinogenic
  mushrooms, sesame seeds and animal protein
• 1890 concoctions of strychnine and wine used in
  sports
• 1935 Testosterone Synthesized
• 1960s Amphetamines used in cycling-causing death
  of several cyclists
• 1970s systematic drug program by German
  Democratic Republic (GDR- East Germany) - many
  athletes given drugs without knowledge or consent
• 1980s Blood doping (Reinfusion) heavily used
• Note LA Olympics many athletes tested positive
  for anabolic steroids, some (9) positives
  disappeared from the laboratory
• 1990s and beyond EPO, HGH and Beta blockers
  (slow down heart rate), although steroids remain
  prevalent

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Drug use as a form of deviance

• Using drugs in society as well as drugs in sports
  is a form of deviance ie a shift from the
  societal and sporting norm
• As in society we have created ideals around which
  athletes must conform and those who do not are
  regarded as displaying deviant behaviour
• The use of performance-enhancing substances is
  said to be a deviant overconformity in sports

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However, we must consider

• Performance-enhancing Vs recreational drugs
• Elite Vs recreational sport
• Adult Vs adolescent/minor use
• Sport by sport (including subcultural contexts)
• These different cases and populations may
  present the need for different sorts of arguments
  (do surfing contests test for marijuana?)
• No universals in ethics

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Why use drugs in sport?

• The argument is
• Have to use them to be competitive
• Need the edge
• Not genetically gifted
• Dissatisfaction with size/weight
• Peer/Team Pressure
• However, it is important to remember that the use
  of performance-enhancing substances is not a new
  thing in sports despite continued antidoping
  regulations and drug testing-policies

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Defining and Banning Performance-Enhancing
Substances
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• Defining performance-enhancing substances is
  difficult
• They can include aspirin to heroin, steroids to
  human growth hormone
• They may be
• Legal or illegal
• Harmless or dangerous
• Natural or synthetic
• Socially acceptable or unacceptable
• Commonly used or exotic
• .and then what about blood doping, IV drips,
  hyperbaric chambers, local anaesthetic?

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International Olympic Committee Definition
(until 1999)

• Doping is the administration of or use by a
  competing athlete of any substance foreign to the
  body or any physiological substance taken in
  abnormal quantity or taken by an abnormal route
  of entry into the body with the sole intention of
  increasing in an artificial and unfair manner
  his/her performance in competition. When
  necessity demands medical treatment with any
  substance that, because of its nature, or
  application, is able to to boost the athletes
  performance in competition in an artificial and
  unfair manner, this too is regarded by the IOC as
  doping.

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Some Problems with Definitions

• The IOC had difficulty in defining all terms in
  Italics such as the word foreign
• What are foreign substances to the body?
• Why are foreign substances such as aspirin and
  ibuprofen NOT banned?
• Why is the natural hormone testosterone banned?
• What is an abnormal quantity and abnormal route
  of entry
• Why are megadoses of vitamins allowed?
• Why can athletes be stripped of medals for taking
  medications without intending to improve
  performance and yet other athletes can be legally
  rehydrated using IV drips?

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New IOC drug code (from 1999)

• (1) The use of an expedient (substance or
  method) which is potentially harmful to athletes
  health and/or capable of enhancing their
  performance or (2) the presence in the athletes
  body Prohibited Substance or evidence of the use
  thereof or evidence of the use of a Prohibited
  Method
• Note However, this definition is also open to
  debate

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Some philosophical questions

• Why do many athletes see the use of drugs as a
  noble act of commitment and dedication, whereas
  many spectators see it as a reprehensible act of
  deviance yet pay big money to watch athletes do
  superhuman things requiring extreme training
  regimes and strategies made possible by drugs?
  (Coakley, 2004)
• What is artificial, foreign, fair, normal,
  abnormal, right, wrong, moral, ethical regarding
  drugs and sports?
• These are questions that lead to endless debate
• Do we make all drugs legal?.Is that fair?
• If a fifty year old man takes HGH to remain on
  the job on a construction site why cant his 25
  year old professional football son do the same if
  he is injured?

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• Every six months the list of banned substances is
  updated and grows longer
• However, it should be noted that physicians,
  pharmacists, chemists, scientists and athletes
  are one step ahead of the drug testing procedures
• Then, what about genetic engineering to improve
  athletic performance?
• Drugs only become part of the issue as athletes
  bodies are manipulated and structurally and
  functionally modified

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Drug Testing

• Powerful arguments for and against
• AGAINST
• Drug testing as hopeless, unjust, or a failure
• Cat-and-mouse game is ridiculous
• Genetic engineering may not be really testable
• Invasion of privacy, especially in case of
  recreational drugs
• People in power have right to police our private
  lives! (paternalism)
• Different policies between sports

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Drug Testing

• FOR
• Performance enhancing substances allow athletes
  to go beyond their natural abilities
• Gives people who use them unfair advantage
• Drug use threatens the health and well-being of
  athletes
• Undermines the purity of athletics/sports

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Solutions

• Critically examine the hypocrisy in elite sports
• Establish rules indicating that risks to health
  are undesirable and unnecessary in sports
• Establish rules stating that injured athletes
  must be independently certified as well before
  they play
• Educate definitions of courage and discipline
  that promote health
• Make drug education part of health education
• Create norms regulating use of technology
• Critically examine values and norms in sports
• Teach athletes to think critically
• Provide accurate and current information