The document discusses the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports and the efforts to curb doping. It notes that while doping has existed since ancient times, it was not widely addressed until the 19th century death of an athlete. International organizations like WADA now work to maintain fairness and athlete health through testing. However, doping remains an ongoing challenge due to new undetectable drugs and technologies that undermine testing efforts. High-profile doping scandals continue to damage athletes' reputations and sports integrity.

1. It Took The Death Of An Athlete For
The World To Know About This
By Manika Jain

2. World Anti-Doping Agency says
• “The spirit of sport is the celebration of the human spirit, the
body and the mind. Doping is contrary to the spirit of sport,
erodes public confidence and jeopardises the health and well-
being of athletes.”.

3. To play fair and square
• The use of performance enhancing drugs in sports is widely
criticized and to stop its increasing use by sportspersons,
various tests have been designed.
• The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and its national
counterparts are working hard to keep up the morals of the
sporting world and fairness for sportspersons.

4. From Spartans to today’s superstars
• Anabolic steroids are mostly associated with their use as
performance enhancing drugs.
• But there are a lot of other more harmful, enhancing and
undetectable drugs in the market.
• Harmful effects of drugs range from temporary muscular
cramps to severe kidney disorders to change in the genetic
make-up.
• Surprisingly, the use of performance enhancing drugs is not
new in sporting world.
• Performance enhancing drugs were used even in ancient
Greek Olympics where Spartan coaches fed their athletes
special herb and mushroom concoctions when they were
supposed to be consuming nothing but cheese and water.

5. Consequences and much more
• The use of such substances during sports did not receive
world attention till the death of an athlete in the 19th
century.
• The research for developing methods to test the presence of
a drug achieved a major breakthrough in 1983 when newly
developed technology for analyzing blood for the presence of
banned substances was deployed at the Pan Am Games in
Caracas, Venenzula.

6. Even Lance Armstrong?!
• Till then the idea of banning drug abuse was to safeguard
athletes from health risks rather than maintaining the
fairness of the game.
• However, today, doping is a major concern for the ethics of
the game and the sportsperson.
• The major breakthrough came in 2003 with the Balco Scandal
which exposed designer steroids that were manufactured to
be undetectable by the existing methods.
• The recent confession of Lance Armstrong in an interview
with Oprah has created ripples.

7. Country’s shame it is
• The problem with doping are manifold which are highlighted
in cases like the 1976 Olympics team of woman swimmers
who were victims of a mandatory doping program, use of
various new substances, the cost of testing , the methods of
testing etc.
• However the worst is the resulting dishonor of the
sportsperson which multiplies into dishonor for the sport and
the country.
• Doping is criticized on a major scale but the misuse of
technology and the creation of a counter technology poses a
great challenge

8. • Read more on Youth Ki Awaaz at http://bit.ly/143eph0