Drugs use in the Olympics

Connor Bingham

Draftee
Nov 14, 2018
1
0
AFL Club
Adelaide
As part of my final year at university I have created a blog writing about drug use in the Olympics, if you could read it and comment what you think that would be great.

 

Max Headroom

Club Legend
Dec 19, 2014
1,215
2,012
Off with the fairies
AFL Club
Essendon
You have raised some good discussion points.

Two main points for me:

Legalising drugs doesn’t necessarily help to even out the playing field, countries / companies with more resources will still be able to give their athletes the latest / best drugs on the market.

Also, how can you legislate to ensure the drugs given are not harmful, and who determines what is harmful and how? There will always be rules broken when athletes and their coaches / countries are looking for a minuscule edge in search of a gold medal.

In principle I am in favour to a point, the system is broken and I don’t think all currently banned drugs are bad - but I can’t see how it could be successfully implemented.

Good luck with your final year.

P.S. How come you are quoting actual statistics and sources? You won’t get very far with that kind of approach:)
 
Apr 23, 2016
30,510
42,668
AFL Club
Essendon
I assume this thread and the other one are both posted by someone doing the same course.

Anti-doping is not necessarily about eliminating all doping; it’s about putting a soft cap on it.

If you allow certain substances but not others, it just moves the bar further and further towards more harmful substances being used.

This has a flow-on effect to junior sport, where in order to make the elite level, you have kids at progressively younger ages taking up doping.

So if you reframe your view of anti-doping to be less about catching every chaat, and more about limiting how far athletes can take it, you might have a different perspective on the effectiveness of it.
 

Aeglos

Cancelled
Sep 27, 2016
3,580
2,743
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Riverpigs
You have raised some good discussion points.

Two main points for me:

Legalising drugs doesn’t necessarily help to even out the playing field, countries / companies with more resources will still be able to give their athletes the latest / best drugs on the market.

Also, how can you legislate to ensure the drugs given are not harmful, and who determines what is harmful and how? There will always be rules broken when athletes and their coaches / countries are looking for a minuscule edge in search of a gold medal.

In principle I am in favour to a point, the system is broken and I don’t think all currently banned drugs are bad - but I can’t see how it could be successfully implemented.

Good luck with your final year.

P.S. How come you are quoting actual statistics and sources? You won’t get very far with that kind of approach:)

A discrepancies in resources/finances already exists between nations.
You really think a female sprinter from Iraq would have access to the same resources as one from a wealthy family in California?
Food, coaching, facilities, equipment, medical resources, funding
The idea that even without PED that a level playing field exists is inherently flawed imo

WADA already legislates based on which drugs are not harmful.
It’s even on their website under Q&A:
“How does a substance or method make it to the prohibited list? ... It represents an actual or potential health risk to the Athlete”
https://www.wada-ama.org/en/questions-answers/prohibited-list-qa#item-391
 
Back