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Doping in Track and Field.

Doping is known as the use of illegal amounts of illegal substances to enhance athletic performance. It is prevalent among competitive sports such as football and cycling but has also been heavily adopted by track and field athletes. These illegal substances which are used to enhance performance ability are effective as they work by increasing red blood cell production, increasing oxygen levels and allowing muscles of athletes to work more efficiently.

History

Doping or the use of illegal substances to enhance performance activity dates back to the third century where Ancient Olympics athletes used stimulants such as brandy, wine, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and sesame seeds to enhance their performance during athletic competitions. These stimulants were often used to overcome fatigue and injury. Intake of such stimulants were illegal and were punishable by enslavement and so these Ancient Olympics started to rely on ingesting their own human organs as they were not considered cheating and were seen to improve strength, vitality and bravery. As modern medicine became more popular so did doping.In the 19th Century Scientific experiments with the anabolic effect of hormones was widely researched. Charles-Edouard Brown-Sequard’s Elixir of Life became one of the most popular performance-enhancing drugs after Jim “Pud” Galvin ingested it prior to a game in 1889 and won the game. It was said to be made up of testosterone drained from gonads of dogs, rabbits, sheep, guinea pigs, and other animals. There began to be a widespread of stimulant drugs between the 19th and 20th century so much so that in World War II, soldiers of both Allies and Axis powers used amphetamines after a realization of how effective these were they became integrated into a variety of sports. Doping was heavily used during the Cold war by the Soviet Olympic team often without the knowledge of the athletes. By 1978 East German athletes in most sports with the exception of sailing were using steroids yet all managed to test negative during drug tests. The use of steroids became exceedingly popular in the 1964 Olympic games and most highly ranked javelin ,shot-put throwers had begun taking steroids. In 1968 sprinters, hurdlers and middle-distance runners had followed suit. It was recorded that an estimated one third of the entire US track and field team had used steroids at the 1968 pre-olympic training camp. Doping became the norm for many sports between 1956 and 1972 and Track and Field was no exception. Doctors such as Dr Yesalis believed “If you train naturally for a hundred years, as far as your strength and physicality, you’ll never get to the place that you can with some of these drugs. Statistics show that the weight of shot putters increased 14%; the weight of steeplechasers increased 7.6%. There was an attempt to research the performance levels of athletes who were taking these drugs and athletes who weren't, however there were so little who weren’t so reliable that conclusions were unable to be drawn.

Drug Testing

The IAAF (International Amateur Athletic Federation) attempted to ban athletes for doping in 1928 but there had not been a credible and reliable drug testing system so they had to rely on these athletes abiding by honor and integrity. However, in 1966 EAU (European Athletics Championships) began drug testing athletes and in 1968, IOC (International Olympic committee) tested olympians at the summer and winter games. Shortly after a reliable test was developed and Steroids were banned in 1976. Athletes who tested positive for anabolic steroids were disqualified and sometimes banned, many of which were prevalent among strength-related sports. After Ben Johnson from Canada won the 100-m dash at the 1988 Summer Olympics he was found positive for Stanozol, a performance enhancing drug in his urine. He was eventually stripped of his gold medal which was then awarded to American sprinter Carl Lewis, who came in second place. A further scandal revealed that Lewis had failed a subsequent drug test at the Olympic trials in 1988 and should have been disqualified but wasn’t. However, in 2003 it was discovered that the drugs in his system should not have triggered a positive test in 2003 and so Lewis was allowed to keep his title. Dr Yesalis says, “Ben Johnson was the biggest sports scandal ever.” It opened a lot of eyes to the severity of performance enhancing drugs and the illegalities of it pertaining to competitive sports. After the BALCO (Bay Areas Laboratory Co-operative) Affair exploded and a new steroid (tetrahydrogestrinone) was marketed a more reliable test was developed and this unveiled so many athletes who had practiced doping may of them being track and field athletes such as Kevin Toth and CJ Hunter who were shot put throwers,  John McEwen a hammer thrower, and several sprinters such as Dwain Chambers, Marion JOnes, Tim Montgomery, Zhanna Block Kelli WhiteRegina Jacobs and Raymond J. Smith.

2016 Olympics

Russia has the most stripped medals due for doping violations than any other country. They have had 43 Olympic medals stripped due to doping violations. Russia is set to be excluded from the Olympic games for the second time in a row after there were some inconsistencies after Russia manipulated data regarding the testing results of their athletes. The World Anti-Doping Agency also known as WADA pointed out these discrepancies. This discovery put Russia’s participation at the Tokyo Olympics under threat. There was an investigation that proved the suspicions and the IAAF task force head Rune Andersen said “In light of the task force recommending the RUSAF (the Russian athletics federation) can not be reinstated and the IAAF council unanimously agreed.” However some Russian athletes with no doping history such as Maria Lasitskene who is a high jumper have been cleared to compete under certain conditions. Lasitskene can only compete as a neutral internationally, she can not fly the Russian flag, the olympic anthem would be played instead of the Russian national anthem and no government officials are allowed to spectate.

Bans in Track and Field

Russian Olympic track and Fields athletes are one of the biggest users of performance enhancing drugs. Russian track and field Champions Natalya Antyukh and Andrey Silnov who participate in the 400 m hurdles and high jump respectively have since retired after their pending court cases relating to the 2016 Mclaren report on Russian doping. Several other Russian track and Field athletes such as Oksana Kondratyeva and Yelena Soboleva are also under investigation following the 2016 doping scandal in Russia. Russian track and field athletes are not the only athletes catching heat for doping. Justin Gatlin from the United States has seen two bans in his athletic career. Gatlin faced his first ban in 2001 and was served a two year ban of which he only served one. He was accused of ingesting amphetamin contained in his attention deficit disorder prescription. Five  years later Gatlin was faced with another ban after he was found to have tested positive for using testosterone and he was then served a 4 year ban. In the past Olympic in 2016, Two Kenyan officials were asked to return to Kenya as one of them had tried to pose as an athlete to pass a drug test and the other had allegedly requested money from journalists posing as athlete reps in exchange for giving false drug tests. Kenya was just recently removed from WADA’s “Watch List” after maintaining adequate anti-doping policies. Doping or the use of Performance enhancement drugs is also very prominent in the women’s track and field. In the Women’s 1500 Meters London games of 2012, Jenny Simpson the first American woman to medal in this race was among six out of the top nine finishers who were implicated in doping during the London games. The race was known as the “dirtiest” in memory. Coaches are no exception, they administer these illegal substances to their athletes to see better performance. This includes the likes of Jama Aden coach to Genzebe Dibaba who holds the world record in the women's 1500 meters race. Aden was arrested by Spanish police and was charged with administering doping substances. In the 2016 games, the Women’s 10,000 meters race received great suspicion from spectators and drug officials as the first four women to finish the race all finished before 30:00 which is incredibly fast and like nothing that has been seen before. Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia who actually won the race and set a world record 14 seconds faster than the previous record at 29:17:14 is under investigation although she has never tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. These illegal acts of doping can not only be found in the Olympic games. In the 2012 Boston Marathon Jemima Sumgong who won the race was given a two-year suspension after testing positive for Prednisolone which is an anti steroidal anti-inflammatory. After an appeal to the IAAF by her coach Federico, Sumgong’s arrest was rescinded however, Rosa is being charged with six counts of doping athletes one of who is Rita Jeptoo who is currently serving a drug suspension.