Understanding Anti-Doping

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.