By Basadi
Akoonyatse
The use of drugs to enhance performance
in sports has certainly occurred since the time of the original Olympic Games.
The origin of the word 'doping' is attributed to the Dutch word 'doop,' which
is a viscous opium juice, the drug of choice of the ancient Greeks. The use of natural performance-enhancers at
wars and traditional events has been reported. The Greeks were known to have
eaten the sheep testicles to enhance performance. German troopers used testosterone
derived from bulls to enhance their aggressiveness at World War II.
The modern applications of drug use in
sports began in the late nineteenth century, with preparations made from the
coca leaf; the source of cocaine and related alkaloids. A widely used mixture
of coca leaf extract and wine, was even called 'the wine for athletes’. Coca and cocaine were historically known to
stave off the sense of fatigue and hunger brought on by prolonged exertion.
Today doping has become a preoccupation
of international and national sports organisations and governments. As said
above, performance enhancement is probably as historic as man himself. Advances
in technology fuelled by over-glorification of victors in sports, in a world
where financial gain comes before everything including life itself; doping in
sports has become such a complex issue. The fight against doping is at the
forefront of every sport federation, government and sport event organiser. This
is not a surprise since a positive doping test tarnishes the athlete, his /her
nation or government as well as the federation. In order to keep the sport clean the fight
against doping is thus the responsibility of us all; athlete, sports officials,
public, media, medical personnel as well as the government.
Doping was historically defined as use
of unnatural means to alter the body biochemistry with the intention to achieve
some physiological and physical advantage in sports. This is however a limited
definition as it describes only a certain portion of what constitutes doping.
Doping goes beyond that hence the current definition of Occurrence of one or more of the anti-doping rule
violations.
Anti
-Doping rule violations are numerous as spelt out by WADA and will be a subject
of another time.
Worldwide, sports bodies and governments
have joined efforts to ensure that they do the rightful to ensure that their
athletes do not fall victims of doping; money and energy is put on education,
testing, availing appropriate training resources and ensuring that those who
are caught doping are exposed and sanctioned accordingly. With all this
stringent measures of doping detection and spine breaking penalties and usually
the associated embarrassment: why would
one choose to dope?
Athletes may dope for various reasons amongst them
the following:
v In
order to gain competitive advantage over the opponent to ensure success.
v They
believe that others are doping hence they cannot excel if they don’t dope.
v Being
put under pressure by those in their entourage i.e. parents, coaches, medical
personnel, other athletes etc.
v Believing
that they can get away with it, without being caught.
v They
take banned substance out of mere ignorance; not knowing what constitutes
doping and which substances/methods/practices are prohibited.
The last reason above maybe the major reason
for doping in countries where sports science and sports medicine is not that
well developed and anti-doping education is limited. In a set up where athletes
and athletes support personnel are not well informed about doping and its
consequences, there is high prevalence of uncontrolled, medically unsupervised
doping practised. Poor knowledge can lead to unintentional anti-doping rule
violations. It can also render our athletes, coaches, managers and even parents
to succumb to the negative manipulations into doping by ignorant influential
peers or and advertisement. There is
usually an unsubstantiated assumption that medical practitioners are well
conversant with doping issues. This is not always the case as such athletes must
always exercise caution when seeking medical assistance to confirm that their
medical practitioners are informed. The “Strict Liability Principle” of the World
Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code, places the responsibility of taking all
necessary precaution to avoid anti-doping rule violations on the athlete. Simply
put, ignorance, non-deliberate contamination or lack of knowledge of doping
method/substance cannot be used as an excuse for anti-doping rule violation.
A matter of fact is that knowledge of
what constitutes doping and how to avoid it is notoriously limited and
frequently distorted among athletes and those in the entourage of the athlete
including coaches, executives and parents. Among the most carried myths in
Botswana are the following:
Ø
If the drug / medicine is prescribed by the
doctor or the health practitioner, it cannot constitutes doping.
Ø
Supplements are safe to use especially
when the contents do not mention any prohibited substances.
Ø
Medications with the same brand and have
been used for years by other athletes cannot constitute doping.
Ø
Athletes who have medical condition or
are sick do not have to worry about the prohibited list and can take whatever
they want to help them get well.
Ø
Athletes can only get tested during or
around the competition time.
Ø
All health practitioners are aware of
the prohibited substances and methods.
Ø
Banned substances contained in traditional
medicines or brews cannot be detected by doping tests.
Ø
If you take a banned substance days
before competition, it cannot be detected.
Ø
Traditional Medicine can be taken
without worry of doping.
These are some of the folklores that if
are not demystified can lead to having the name of our sports and country
dragged in the mud in the international sports arena. A lot needs to be done to
redeem the situation of “lack of information” before doping out of ignorance
become an institutionalized practice in Botswana. Rigorous implementation of
doping preventive and repressive measures like education and sensitization is
critically and urgently needed. Let us all rise to the occasion to avoid falling
victims of a scourge of poor knowledge induced doping. It is not good for our
athletes. It is not good for our sports. It is not good for our country.
Education is needed - may we all take the responsibility: the government, national
sports federations, media, medical personnel and athletes.
.JPG)
