Anti-doping, legal problems in Olympic Games

The sports world, even at its top levels like the Olympic Games, has been entangled with analeptics usage for many years. An analeptic is a substance that stimulates the central nervous system, enhancing performance.

Anti-doping, or the fight to control that usage, has gradually become a legal program. In the current Brazilian Olympic Games, it has again aroused people’s attention.

Many analeptic substances are banned by sport organizations such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) not only because they damage the sporting spirit and the principle of justice, but also because they are harmful to athletes’ health.

There are several types of analeptics, including anabolic steroids, psycho stimulants, beta-blocker, diuretics, anesthetic, sedatives and peptide hormones which may cause serious health problems.

For example, anabolic steroids are associated with high blood pressure, coronary heart diseases, myocardial infarction and cerebral hemorrhage, while long term use of stimulant may cause adverse reactions such as headaches, palpitations, anxiety, insomnia and even death from heart-failure.

The use of anesthetics and sedatives may make breathing difficult and lead to drug dependence, while peptide hormone use may induce hepatic failure, heart function failure or diabetes.

Besides the harm to health, these drugs can turn athletes’ fame to infamy.

In the 1998 Seoul Olympics, Canadian athlete Ben Johnson was found to have taken anabolic steroids in the 100 meter event. He lost his gold medal and was banned from the Olympics for life.

Marion Jones, an American sprinter, lost all her medals after she tested positive for steroidal drug use in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

Raducan, a female gymnastics athlete from Romania, was stripped of her all-around gold medal for apparently mistaking cold medicine at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

Though there are such cases in every Olympic Games, the anti-doping campaign never stops.

The IOC Medical Committee was founded as early as 1961 and three years later, the first medical rules were issued. Then in 1968, the ICO released a List of Forbidden Drugs and introduced doping controls in the Olympic Games.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was founded in Switzerland in 1999. Its World Anti-Doping Code was passed in 2003 and its revised version came into effect in 2015.

China is also actively engaged in the anti-doping fight. In 1989, China’s first doping control laboratory was founded and recognized by WADA and the IOC.

In 1992, the Chinese Olympic Committee established an anti-doping committee. Three years later, China’s Sports Law was passed containing anti-doping provisions.

Following a series of temporary regulations from 1995 to 1998, the State Council issued comprehensive anti-doping regulations in 2004.

With anti-doping becoming more widespread, the China Anti-doping Agency, a specialized government body, was established in 2007. In 2015, the General Administration of Sport’s anti-doping measures were put into effect, and are applicable today.