Athletes hard-pressed to hide drug usage
Athletes hard-pressed to hide drug usage
JAKARTA (JP): "He tested negative for drugs but was three-
months pregnant" is an old joke of dope testers. But it still
made Dangsina Moeloek, the first Indonesian woman specializing in
dope testing, laugh when she told it to The Jakarta Post
recently.
Years ago it was quite easy for athletes to fool dope testers.
That joke, for instance, originated from an incident in which a
male athlete, in an attempt to fool testers, handed in a sample
of his girlfriend's urine instead of his own. Female athletes
also smuggled in condoms filled with clean urine to cheat
testers.
The most gruesome report came from Soviet gymnast Olga
Kovalenko who won an Olympic gold medal in Mexico in 1968.
Now 45 years old, Kovalenko broke down during a German
television interview last year and revealed how she was pressured
into becoming pregnant and then having an abortion.
The body of a pregnant woman produces chorionic gonadotrophin
which stimulates the production of male hormones and therefore
can make the woman stronger.
"I was told that if I refused I would not have been sent to
the Games," said Kovalenko.
Capitalizing on a body's mechanism by forcing hormonal changes
such as in the Kovalenko case is very difficult, if not
impossible, to detect. The same holds true when one increases the
oxygen supply in one's blood by undergoing a transfusion of one's
own blood or a donor's blood. Having more oxygen in the blood
enhances aerobics.
When the doping does not follow the body's natural system,
detection is easier," Dangsina said.
The dope testing equipment of the Beijing drug control
laboratory, Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry, detects drugs
substances down to the level of ions. So, even if substances have
been well diluted or masked, they are still traceable, the sports
medical doctor said.
Doping control was initiated at the 1968 Olympic Games and
involved testing largely for central nervous system stimulants
and narcotics.
Seven years later, in 1972, the Munich Olympic Games was the
first to undertake full-scale testing (more than 2,000 tests)
resulting in seven athletes, including four medalists, being
banned.
Anabolic steroids, of which stanozolol is a derivative, cost
Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson his 100-meter Seoul Olympic gold
medal. The drug was added to the list of banned substances in
1976.
In 1983, caffeine and testosterone were also added to the
list.
Since testosterone is normally produced by the body, it would
be presumed that an athlete had taken the hormone for doping
purposes if the amount of testosterone compared to the amount of
epitestorone in his urine exceeded the normal ratio of six to
one.
The same also applies to caffeine. An athlete who drinks
coffee every day will not be accused of doping if the amount of
caffeine in the urine is no more than 12 mg per liter, which is
equal to drinking eight American-sized cups of coffee within one
day.
"But we must also check how the athlete's kidneys function. An
athlete may be accused of doping while his teammate isn't, even
though they drink the same excessive amount of coffee because
their kidney secretionary systems differ considerably," she
added.
How long performance-enhancing substances linger in an
athlete's body depends on the type of substances and the doses
given. Hence, athletes and their coaches may try to measure the
time a certain drug takes to completely disappear from an
athlete's urine against a given competition schedule. If
successful, the doping effect works as expected while the
athlete's urine test remains negative.
"But human bodies are not machines," Dangsina said. "However
accurate the measurements may be, lapses can happen. As in the
Ben Johnson case, for instance. Many believe that doping is
common even among world-class athletes and that Johnson was
caught perhaps due to such a miscalculation," she added.
Placebo
Performance-enhancing drugs do not really enhance performance,
Dangsina said.
Beta-blockers, for instance, are used by sharpshooters to slow
their heart rate. As a result, the interval between pulses is
prolonged. "They shoot within the stretched interval because that
is the calmest moment. If they hit a bull's-eye, it's not because
their shooting techniques are enhanced by the drugs, but because
the drugs make them more relaxed."
The same is true for anabolic steroids. Hario Tilarso, the
country's other expert in doping control, said that steroids are
of no use to an athlete who takes them but does not train.
Steroids build muscle. And muscle power (strength) is enhanced
by training.
"There is no proof that drugs really enhance performance,"
Dangsina said. Hario added that the effect of drugs can be said
to be the same as that of placebos. "Experts are still in
conflict as to whether drugs really enhance performance," said
Hario.
Up to now, there is no proof that drugs enhance performance,
but athletes are strictly prohibited from taking them because
they are harmful and can lead to death.
Welterweight Billy Bello died in 1963 from a heroine overdose
and so did Dick Howard, who finished third in the men's 400m
hurdles at the 1960 Olympic Games.
Hence, athletes should think ten thousand times before opting
for doping. As the Bible so aptly puts it, "for what profiteth a
man, if he shall gain the whole world but lose his own soul?"
(arf)