Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Anti-doping control encountered complicated problems, such as obtaining a consensus on the definition of doping, distinguishing doping from legitimate medical treatment, establishing the evidence of a doping case. At the same time, the proposals for solving these problems often conflicted with national or international laws, so that a lack of standardization in the procedures was manifested. In 1990, the Council of Europe adopted the Anti-Doping Convention, in which 28 EU member countries participate. The main achievement of the convention is that it obliges governments to adopt minimum standards for the organization of anti-doping control. There is no doubt that the abuse of prohibited substances is a major social and health problem. A study by Donati shows that the global market of doping products can be compared to the drug market. But we are talking about a lack of available data, which could give us a precise picture of the problems and measure the socio-economic costs. The authorities do not keep records of sick people or deaths caused by doping, so deaths due to health problems caused by doping are not recorded. There is also no data to show how often perpetrators of violent crimes are under the influence of steroids, and there are no estimates of the amount of money that organized crime makes from the production and sale of steroids. In order to better understand the purpose of the problem and to set the priorities correctly, it is necessary to develop standards and statistics in the field. One way to estimate the extent of the phenomenon is represented by the figures related to the trade in banned substances in sports. However, these figures do not differentiate between sporting and non-sporting users. Steroids can also be consumed by amateur bodybuilders. Thus, Weinhold states that in the USA between 400-500 million dollars are spent every year for these substances. An American publication entitled "Underground steroids handbook" which informed athletes how to obtain and use banned substances, sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the past decade. At the beginning of the anti-doping activity, the responsible bodies in sports compiled their own lists of "prohibited substances" (doping lists), which led to confusing situations. That is why, on January 13, 1994, the International Olympic Committee, the international sports federations and the National Olympic Committees agreed in Lausanne to agree on the various doping lists and their respective definitions. This list contained the classes of prohibited substances and related substances, as well as general information about each class of prohibited substances and prohibited methods. The Prohibited List will include those Prohibited Substances and Prohibited Methods that are prohibited, as doping (both in-competition and out-of-competition), due to the possibility of enhancing sports performance in future competitions, or their masking action, as those substances and methods that are prohibited only in competition. The banned list can be extended by WADA for a specific sport. Athletes have tried to avoid the detection of stimulants in several ways: - Handling of urine samples. To falsify testing procedures, condoms with clean urine were introduced into testing laboratories, large amounts of water were drunk prior to testing, or toilet water was introduced into the athlete's sample. These methods were used in the absence of insufficiently supervised collection procedures. - The use of drugs, such as diuretics and promenecide. These drugs, now banned, were used to falsify test results and mask banned substances. - Giving up medicines before the tests. This method is used especially when tests are carried out during competitions. - Preventive tests before competitions. Some countries have ignored or encouraged doping among their own athletes. For fear of bad publicity, these countries organize testing sessions before participating in international competitions and prohibit the participation of athletes tested positive. Such tactics have led to the improvement and sophistication of anti-doping control methods. In response, athletes and their medical advisers had to adopt new tactics to avoid detection of the consumption of prohibited substances. Thus, drugs with much faster action, but with much more toxic effects, were used. Another trend was the use of human growth hormones, which are much harder to detect. Conclusions: - The abuse of stimulant substances has become a recognized problem in sports, with a strong social and health impact. - Because it is a secret practice, the global consumption of banned substances by athletes is difficult to estimate. - After a long period of trials and difficulties, an attempt is being made to introduce clear standards for the organization of anti-doping control. - The sophistication of doping means leads to the sophistication of anti-doping tests and vice versa.
DOI: 10.52449/soh23.17
Authors: Eugeniu Dudnic, Natalia Dudnic
Language: English
Topic: Doping in Sports
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4411018089