Anti-doping Regime WADA
Stopping drug abuse in sport
Recent History of Drug Abuse
Immediate context: Famous Tennis player NOVAK DJOKOVICH has voiced his disapproval of his own doping test just before the beginning of a match, which he thinks was a disruption in preparation. He still voiced his support for doping tests but wanted better timings.
In the last 70 years institutional doping i.e. state sponsored & individual continued affecting health of athletes. The countries notable for this abuse were soviet union & former eastern bloc countries and china.
Modern abuse - With the advent of modern pharmacology in the 19th century, many athletes began to experiment with cocktails of drugs to improve strength and overcome fatigue. As this practice was not illegal, there are good records of the lengths athletes would go to in order to win. Alongside the benefits, came the dangers and following several fatalities, a code to ban performance enhancing drugs was gradually developed. Growth hormone was first isolated from the human pituitary gland in the 1950s. Its anabolic effects were soon recognised and athletes had begun to abuse it by the early 1980s, at least a decade before it was used therapeutically by adult endocrinologists. A number of high profile athletes have admitted using growth hormone. Detection of its abuse has been challenging and the lack of an effective test has undoubtedly encouraged its abuse. Only now are methodologies being developed that should stem this tide.
Drugs used in abuse
The drugs that are most commonly used & are prohibited substances for doping in sport are:
- Anabolic steroids(most common), which increase muscle mass and physical strength.
- Stimulants(second most common), which increase excitement and decrease the sensation of fatigue.
Examples of well known stimulants include caffeine, cocaine, amphetamine, modafinil, and ephedrine. Caffeine, although a stimulant, has not been banned by the International Olympic Committee or the World Anti Doping Agency
Celebrated cases of drug abuse:
Celebrated cases of drug abuse:
- A famous case of drug abuse in a competition was by Canadian athlete Ben Johnson, who won the 100 m gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics but subsequently failed the drug test and was stripped of his gold medal and banned for life.
- Systematic doping in Russian sportshas resulted in 47 Olympic and tens of world championships medals being stripped from Russian competitors—the most of any country, more than four times the number of the runner-up, and more than 30% of the global total. Russia also has the most competitors that have been caught doping at the Olympic Games, with more than 200.
- Lance Armstrong a 7 time, Tour de France was banned and stripped of titles after he accepted drug abuse.
Organisations connected to anti-doping enforcement & associated legislations
Organisations connected to anti-doping enforcement & associated legislations
In 1999, initiated by the International Olympic Committee to fight against doping in sport, the World Anti-Doping Agency had been founded. After the doping scandal in cycling in the summer 1998 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to establish the WADA to promote, coordinate and monitor the fight of against doping in sport. The headquarters for WADA is in Montreal, Canada. The WADA is the supreme international authority and is allowed to do doping tests and can determine which substances are illegal.
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA )
The World Anti-Doping Agency is a foundation initiated by IOC (the International Olympic Committee) based in MONTREAL, Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports.
The agency's key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code, whose provisions are enforced by the UNESCO International Convention Against Doping in Sport.
ANTI-DOPING TEST TYPES:
TEST TYPES:
- Urine test -Under established doping control protocols, the athlete will be asked to provide a urine sample to be tested.
- Blood test - The blood test detects illegal performance enhancement drugs through the measurement of indicators that change with the use of recombinant human erythropoietin:
- Hematocrit
- Reticulocytes
- Level of Iron
- Gas chromatography-combustion-IRMS - The gas chromatography-combustion-IRMS is a way to detect any variations in the isotopic composition of an organic compound from the standard.