Since sport was created over two thousand years ago, so has cheating. Competitors and coaches have always been searching for loopholes in the IOC ruling system, creating performance-enhancing drugs, and using tactics to provide the upper hand in competition. While this competitiveness and drive to win has created implements that are contrary to the values of fair play in sport; competitiveness is also the reason why we have sport science. Athletes have become on drugs to reach the highest levels. Cheating and sport science have been intertwined ever since the origin of sport in Ancient Greece.
Cheating in the Ancient Olympic Games
In the first set of Olympic Games there were no rules forbidding performance enhancement aids. There is evidence of performance suppression tactics such as bribery and curses. On one such occasion legend has it that curses were placed on competitors so that they would not be at their best, or that the God’s of the Underworld would drive them mad. This involved the burial of a lead tablet containing the curse in racing venues. Another method of cheating, which was typical in the ancient world and still common today, is bribery. In the ancient world hidden payments were made for athletes to purposely suppress their performance and lose the event. In one famous case, a man who had previously promised his son’s opponent money, refused to pay the opponent. Unfortunately the man had said this in public, where everyone could hear him. Responses to cheating in the Ancient Olympic Games involved the removal of any titles that the cheater had earned, as well as the erection of a monument recording the cheaters achievements for all time.
Pre-PED Testing Era
During the early 20th century athletes began to discover the power behind ergogenic aids and performance enhancing drugs. Long distance athletes began taking performance aids before and even during races. One such example occurred in the 1904 Olympic Games where Thomas Hicks consumed strychnine and brandy before and during the race. Until the Olympic games of 1968, the use of PEDs was simply a part of sport. There was no testing forbidding it and as a result sport science programs allocated financial assets to the development of ergogenic aids and PEDs. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now begin to see why certain nations such as Belarus, East Germany and the USSR were so successful in international competition. The benefits of PEDs can be seen in the diagram of annual training loads of the Bulgarian National Weightlifting Team seen below.
Introduction of Drug Testing
After the 1962 Olympics the IOC had seen enough of the effects that performance enhancing drugs were having on the games. The integrity of the Olympics was being challenged by the scientists making PEDs, coaches administering PEDs and the athletes taking them. In 1968 the IOC began drug testing at the first ever Olympic games. Although drug testing systems were put in place, the testing was not vigilant enough to detect many of the drugs that athletes were taking. In the 1968 Olympic Games only Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, a Swedish Pentathlete, had tested positive for the use of alcohol. As drug testing protocols became more and more intensive, the number of athletes who tested positive in the 1972 Games and 1976 Games began to rise drastically.
The Ben Johnson Scandal
The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics sparked one of the greatest sprinting rivalries of all time between Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson and American sprinter Carl Lewis. The American sprinter would eventually go on to win Gold in the 100 meter. After the 1984 games, the lead up to the 1988 Summer Olympics belonged to the Canadian Ben Johnson. Johnson confirmed his status as the number one sprinter in the world by beating Lewis and smashing the world record at a time of 9.83 seconds at the World Championships of 1987. In the Seoul 100 meter dash Ben Johnson clocked an incredible time of 9.79 seconds and beating his rival Carl Lewis to win gold. The success of Johnson was short; Ben Johnson was only king of the sprinting world for 3 days before drug testing results showed that he had tested positive for Stanzolol. Johnson’s main defense for cheating was that other competitors were cheating as well and that he was just trying to maintain pace with his competitors. This was a claim that gathered weight with the release of the Exum Report, which accused Carl Lewis of taking performance enhancing drugs. The Ben Johnson scandal is widely considered to be the biggest doping scandal in the history of the Olympics.
Written by Jason Tremblay, The Strength Guys
References
Potter, David. (2012) Cheating is as old as the Olympics. Retrieved August 4th, 2012 from: http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/29/opinion/potter-olympics-cheating/index.html Sports Reference. (n.d). Tom Hicks. Retrieved August 4th, 2012 from: http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/hi/tom-hicks-1.html Begley, Sharon. (2000) The Drug Charade. Retrieved August 4th, 2012 from: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2000/09/10/the-drug-charade.html Mehaffey, John. (2012) Johnson scandal still reverberates. Retrieved August 4th, 2012 from: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-31/sports/sns-rt-us-oly-athl-m100m-package-doping-day4bre86u0vw-20120731_1_lewis-and-johnson-olympic-champion-linford-christie-positive-drug-tests