Doping in the Olympics
One of the worst decisions that the people in the sport industry ever
made was to test drugs on the athletes. By the time that the athletes
knew that there is an easier way to acquire that medal in Olympics, or
any competitions for that matter, everything became different and the
audience started to lose their faith. Many athletes no longer understand
of what the heart of Olympics is. Because of this, many people now do
not anticipate or do not care at all who wins a medal at the Olympics
because they were thinking that all players are using sport enhancements
drugs, or worse – doping.
The doping problem in the Olympics stretched back as far as 1865.
However, it was only in 1968 that the official drug testing systems were
integrated in Olympics. It was first used at the 1968 Winter Olympics in
Grenoble and Summer Olympics in Mexico.
It is the IOC or International Olympic Committee who has been conducting
the tests among the athletes who will participate in the Olympics. Since
the anti-doping system was established, it revealed that there were
numerous athletes who were doping. If the system proves that the athlete
is using illegal substance in the Olympics, there are two that may
happen. It would be either the athlete will be disqualified from the
game or the athlete will have his medals withdrawn.
With the efforts of the International Olympic Committee, it is expected
that the number of doping athletes that would participate in the
Olympics would slowly decrease after each and every year. But it was the
other way around. In 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, Korea, there
were three to four athletes who were returned ill-favored results as the
committee proved that they were using illegal drugs that helped them
enhanced the performances during the competition. But the number of
doping athletes surprisingly increased during the 2000 Summer Olympics
hosted in Sydney. There were more than 12 athletes who had their medals
withdrawn by the International Olympic Committee because they were
positive for using illegal drugs during the said event. Aside from that,
almost 100 athletes were disqualified even before the 2000 Summer
Olympics started because of the revealed drug test results.
As a result, the organizers of the 2008 Summer Olympics strictly
implemented the “Zero Tolerance for Doping” measures. It was also the
same slogan that they used for the Beijing 2000 Summer Olympics. The
organizers from each country made sure that their athletes were tested
before they go to Beijing for the said competition. Because of this
process, there were more than hundreds of athletes who were eliminated
from their respective events even before they step foot on Beijing.
Aside from that, there are also several athletes who had their medals
taken after taking the drug re-test as requested by the organizers and
committee of the Olympics.
The number of athletes that were proven to be positive in using drugs
decreased compared to the previous Olympic events. Probably, the
technology that fights against doping among athletes became more
advanced as well as sophisticated. Compared to the previous laboratory
paraphernalia, today’s anti-doping technology may now detect more drugs
than it used to. Hopefully, the latest doping trend among athletes who
would participate in the upcoming Olympics may also be dispatched before
it can be used by most athletes. |
