The Olympic games are one of the most watched sporting events in the world. There was an estimated 4.6 billion dollars spent at Rio Olympics in 2016. For an event of this magnitude, one would think that the attention paid towards the athletes participating by spectators, IOC, and WADA would be so intense nobody could trick the system. The current rules and regulations athletes have to follow to prevent doping could be viewed as excessive yet, there are still athletes who get away with doping or using performance enhancing drugs to excel in their events. The regulation on athletes needs to continue to be thoroughly monitored, and the technology detecting these substances needs to continue to advance to keep up with these drugs as they too advance. Drugs athletes are abusing today are able to trick the system. Recently we have noticed an incline in the number of athletes getting busted for doping. Not only does this let down their fans, but it is ruining the integrity of the event. A more serious issue being that these drugs are developing to fake out drug tests and seem like natural substances. Whether athletes are or are not using performance enhancing drugs, accusations are still up in the air for all competitors. For the athletes who are not doping, it is unsettling to know that their hard work and success is being undermined by speculation. For cheats who are doping it’s all about winning and not getting caught. There is the argument that in today’s world chemical enhancement drugs are mainstream, so in the sports world they should be more understanding. Speculation on athletes going as far as to endorse enhancement drugs, like if they were Gatorade, will be seen in the future. The fight for the spirit of the sport will persevere through speculations like these so that these drugs do not become of popular choice, and the popular choice will instead be competing truly and fairly. 

Competition in athletics is constantly intensifying, as is pressure for participants to succeed in their events. With this pressure to do well, many athletes turn to an unfair system to give them an advantage—doping. Doping is when athletes use drugs that have beneficial physical effects. The drugs, depending on the type, are advantageous in various ways: boosting muscle grown, speeding up recovery, increasing red blood cell production, etc. In addition to ingesting or injecting drugs, athletes have turned to a process known as blood doping. An article from CBC News Health describes the drive as, “The purpose of blood doping is to increase the quantity of hemoglobin, which carries the energy-fueling oxygen, into the athlete's bloodstream” (Daniel Schwartz, CBC News). The human body requires about twenty times more oxygen during exercise than at rest. The most common way to perform blood doping is for about a pint of blood to be drawn from the athlete’s body while their hemoglobin is high. It is stored for the athlete and then transfused back into the athlete just before competition. The extra oxygen in the blood benefits the athlete’s endurance and fuels the muscles, thereby increasing the athlete’s ability to perform. In the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, the International Olympic Committee investigated an American cyclist, Tyler Hamilton, when he tested positive for unusually high levels of hemoglobin. After it was determined that he had been blood doping, the International Olympic Committee stripped him of his gold medal later that year. Many other athletes have been stripped of their titles and Olympic medals. In recent years, others have even been banned from competing. For example, Maria Sharapova is a famous Russian tennis star and a highly celebrated athlete. She has been ranked number one in the world and has won five grand slam titles along with a silver Olympic medal. The world was shocked when Maria Sharapova failed a drug test for the Australian Open testing positive for the drug, meldonium. Although Maria Sharapova said she had been taking the drug since 2006 for a heart condition, the International Tennis Foundation suspended her from the sport for a fifteen-month time period for taking a banned substance. The head of the World Tennis Association said, “It is important at all times for players to be aware of the rules and to follow them” (Simon, World Tennis Association). Anti-Drug Associations wanted to take advantage of Sharapova’s platform and use her as an example for other athletes. Although stripping the athletes of their titles and medals may seem extreme, it is the only option to keep the games fair and give (or take) what the athletes deserve. 

 Not all athletes today are succumbing to this doping fad. Clean athletes have the International Olympic Committee on their side fighting to fish out the doped athletes. The IOC now retests previous doping samples; the second look is for catching athletes that slid under the radar. After the IOC uncovers athletes who were doping they then retest the athletes underneath those who would receive their medal as well— just for safe measures. The IOC president feels strongly towards their tireless pursuits to unveil these cheating athletes, “This is a powerful strike against the cheats we do not allow to win” ( Thomas Bach). The IOC’s mission is to protect the integrity of the Olympics and to do this they have to put an end to the cheats of the games. Other measures are being taken to protect the clean athletes as well, the IOC funds WADA, World Anti-Doping Agency, to collect intelligence and conduct further investigations. Another length  being taken is qualified doctors and experienced researchers creating complex tests to detect any kind of illegal substance abuse. One of the most common ways to detect drug doping is through a process known as mass spectrometry, which is essentially a urine sample. This method can potentially be faulty as the amounts of drugs in the sample can be too small. Some athletes are required to produce a sample of blood to detect oxygen carriers. Scientists with the International Olympic Committee are tasked with bringing the samples to a lab to check for traces of the banned substances that are listed in the athlete guide to the 2017 prohibited drug list. Through these tests, scientists have the ability to retrace the athlete’s steps over the previous months to determine whether or not they have taken illegal drugs during this time. Because players have been generating new ways to get away with cheating, the World Anti-Doping Agency has formed a new way to identify cheaters called the athlete biological passport program or ABP. The World Anti-Doping Association explains ABP as, “The fundamental principle of the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) is to monitor selected biological variables over time that indirectly reveal the effects of doping rather than attempting to detect the doping substance or method itself.” The World Anti-Doping Association records professional athlete’s biological makeup and keeps it on file and refers back to it with each drug test. It has been the most effective method in catching cheaters and fighting the war on the drugs within athletics. This method is the best at the moment but we cannot settle with it. The best bet in keeping up with these evolving drugs is to evolve our techniques, systems, and tests. 

Not only has doping put the athletes who use to shame, but also the other clean athletes who are constantly having to dodge accusations and speculation. In today’s competition, exceeding and being accused come in a pair. So many times we have rooted and celebrated with an athlete’s triumph, only to be let down when their doping scandal is released to the public. However, the athletes that do succeed with no help from doping stand out to the public and serve as true role models. Dara Torres, an Olympic medalist in swimming, is the perfect example of an honest, truthful, and competitive athlete. Torres, now 41, is faster than she ever was in previous Olympics—she even broke and set a new record. Of course at first glance there are fingers pointed at her and accusations thrown her way. Torres went out of her way to prove herself to the public; she offered herself up for every drug test available. The truth behind her success—her love for the sport. The example Torres has set should be one that other athletes follow. Her winnings go to show that you don’t need performance enhancing drugs to succeed. 

Spectators place athletes on a pedestal. They are role models for the youth and inspirations to the rest of the world. Drug doping is encouraging children to turn to drugs instead of teaching them the core values of hard work, determination, and dedication. “Cheating is taking away credibility, not only from yourself as a person, but from the activity you are cheating in.” (Boris Godzinevski, Bleacher Report). The Canadian Olympic gymnast, Kyle Shewfelt, once said, “Honestly, it's not the medals that I feel so proud of. It's the way I conducted myself as an athlete, and the hard work that I put forward.” He is a prime example of an honest athlete achieving at an elite level without the aid of performance enhancing drugs. If performance enhancing drugs were to become mainstream in the future, that would be teaching the youths of the population that they on their own cannot reach their goals but only with the aid of drugs. 

Some argue that it is not how the athletes get their skills or size but how they use it. 'As long as our players are bigger and faster than your players, we don't care,'' (Jim Desanto). Jim Desanto, the President of Little League in Pennsylvania, compares the use of enhancement drugs by athletes to being no different than the average person using Rogaine or Viagra, also a type of enhancement drug. Our society is one full of chemical enhancing drugs for what seems like every possible need one could imagine. John Hoberman, a performance enhancement expert, brings up the point that eventually punishing athletes for using performance enhancement drugs could be viewed as selective persecution. (Drug Testing; Drugs in Sports Creating Games of Illusion). With drug tests being misread, or not accurate enough, and athletes sliding under the radar left and right, some think that the push for anti-doping in athletics will soon come to a hush. They offer an alternative and promote “Safe Doping” which is setting a safe limit on doping by prescribing athletes performance-enhancing drugs. People on this side believe that today’s athletes have a lot to live up to and cannot compare to the Olympians who have come before them. Instead of blaming the past for today’s obstacles, we should look towards the future and consider the guidelines implemented today. These guidelines were implemented for a good reason. We should better inform our athlete’s about the effects of performance-enhancing drugs such as providing more drug education for the players. Officials could implement additional oversight from governing bodies as well as introducing permanent expulsion after one positive drug test. There should be more motivational speaking to the you and focus on the spirit of the sport, rather than debate on what drugs we should allow. These few strategies would aid the Anti-Drug Associations in fighting the war on drugs in athletics. The world famous competitive swimmer and most decorated Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps, is an advocate for the Anti-Drug Doping Association. Phelps says, “Throughout my career, I have suspected that some athletes were cheating, and in some cases those suspicions were confirmed. Given all the testing I, and so many others, have been through, I have a hard time understanding this. … I can’t adequately describe how frustrating it is to see another athlete breakthrough performance barriers in unrealistic time frames, knowing what I had to go through to do it.” (Phelps, Washington Post) He, along with many other honest athletes, are frustrated with the cheating going on in competition and are begging for a fair playing field. Two athletes, one clean and one not, should never be competing against each other in an event; it simply is not a fair fight. 

Dick Pound, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping agency, is used to receiving criticism with his line of work but recently he has had it easy due to Justin Gatlin and Floyd Landist’s recent bust (Pound Builds and Badgers in his Battle against Doping, Zinster). In the past, his allegations and claims have frustrated athletes and coaches. Coaches and athletes both share the fear of the topic of drugs in general when it comes to sports and constantly have to defend themselves against people like Pound. The uncovering of sprinter Justin Gatlin and cyclist Floyd Landist being found positive for doping has created a hush towards all comments towards Pound’s line of work. He is being admired for his uniform drug code that has been adopted by many countries, 202 to be exact. His work has encouraged numerous other countries to start their own ant doping agencies as well as cooperate with the drug code established from the Olympic movement. We need more people like Dick Pound to take the topic of athletes doping more seriously. Pound may stir the pot more than necessary, but his constant looking to bust the cheats is what we need more of. This case just goes to show how necessary anti-doping agencies are in the world of athletics. There was a twenty-million-dollar fund from the US set up to protect the clean athletes. These measures are expensive and intricate, but this is the kind of steps needed to be taken to protect the clean athletes.  

At the moment there is a standstill in the athletic world—to continue the relentless pursuit to catch the cheats, or to throw our hands up and let the cheats get away with it. Even though there are effective tests to detect performance-enhancing drugs, many athletes continue to get away with it. Athletes have become creative in ways of hiding their usage of performance enhancing drugs as well as finding ways to stall for their drug tests. They are willing to take it to the extremes and work hard at cheating rather than working hard at their sport. Every day there are new ways to get away with cheating, the most recent is micro dosing. Competitors take small doses of drugs over a period of time. The doses are small enough to not appear on a drug test, but still have the same effects as the participant. In the past, athletes have been known to replace their unclean urine with clean urine from a teammate or associate. Without having an official to watch the urine come from the athlete into the sample cup there is no safe way to know whether or not it is actually the athlete’s urine. Instead of allowing these sneaky procedures there needs to be a way to outsmart the system. Our science and technology today should allow the keeping up with these constantly changing drugs. Throwing our hands up and letting doping take over our athletic world is the easy way out. The fight for clean athletes needs to continue, and the spirit of the sport needs to continue to be worn across these athlete’s hearts. 
