4. VICTIMIZATION IN SPORTS
How drugs make victims in sports?
According to Athletic Federation of India (AFI) ‘only the athlete is
responsible if he or she has been caught doping’. These are the words exactly by
AFI director M.L. Dogra, when asked if the athlete could be innocent. According
to World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and the National Anti Doping Agency
(NADA) as well it is the sole responsibility of a player if he fails a dope test.
But is there a possibility that the athletes could have been duped in this
entire scheme of events?
In the recent Indian athletic scenario about doping scandal, Mandeep Kaur
and Jauna Murmu tested positive till the final set of results come in and Ashwini
Akkunji and Priyanka Pannar joined the list, the athletes have maintained the same
stand. All eight of them have said the same thing, ‘We didn’t take anything
knowingly. Our food supplements should be checked, i.e. do not even know
how to read properly. We are not well educated. The language on the bottle
was Korean and the coach gave it to us’. According to the suspended Ukrainian
athletic coach Yuri Ogrodnik, “I am innocent I asked athletes only to buy food
supplements and not steroids. I am not a fool to tell athletes to buy and
consume something which is in WADA list. I have given only medals not
steroids. The sports minister also seems to be in connivance with the athletes. He
feels that they are the only once who are punished even though they are the least to
be blamed. But if we put across the question to the sports fraternity they have
varied point of views on this issue.
Former national athlete, Pravin Kumar more popularly known as ‘Bheema’
says, “the athletes know what they are being given and what they are eating.
They are smarter than even the coaches and use banned substances to reach
greater heights and get national recognition became along with that comes
money”.
Another former marathon champion Sunitha Godara differs from Pravin’s
point of view. She said “in the case of doping, players are the least responsible,
they in fact are victims. They exploited by the coaches to climb up the ladder
5. of success. The federations are the most to be blame here. They bring in
coaches to dope players”.
Sunitha makes some even greater points, “the exploitation incase of female
players is even worse. What generally happen is that a coach at a junior level
would select a girl who shows some promise. He would feed her with steroids
so that she performs and reaches higher levels. Since the girl is a protégé of
the coach, he approaches the federations to give him a position at the superior
level. In order to keep the girl under his control, he sexually exploits her all
along”.
The fact that federations and coaches master mind the entire doping scam
has already been established. But it is difficult to determine the role an athlete
plays in it. At times it may so happen that the player blindly follows the
instruction of his coach while in other case he may also be equally eager to
climb the ladder of success and whole heartedly participates in the process.
What happening in sports now?
In sporting events no competition between athletes, more truly
competition between the drugs they used. Whose drug has much power? That
is the result.
Why athletes prefer PEDs?
There are several reasons why some athletes use performance
enhancing drugs. Some drugs are designed to build muscles and increase
muscle strength as well as bones. They help them to feel good.
Improves Athletic Performance, Increase Energy, Delays Fatigue, Increases
Alertness, Act as an Central Nervous System (CNS) Stimulant.
6. Sports Steroids effect on an athlete:
Heidi Krieger proved herself one of the world’s top athlete in 1980’s,
winning medal after medal in the shot put for East Germany. Now, the former
sports star looks disdainfully at the awards, dismissing them as “doping athlete”
and honors that turned a woman into a man.
Heidi Krieger, the 1986 European women’s shot put champion became
Andreas Krieger after a sex change operation in 1997. He says he had been fed so
many steroids by his coaches without his knowledge that physical and emotional
problems began. The young women’s physique drastically as did her feeling. “I
felt more attracted to women and just felt like a man. But I knew I was not
lesbian, Krieger told.
Her coaches said they were giving her vitamin pills, but they were actually
feeding her oral – Turinabol anabolic steroids. Krieger is among an estimated
10,000 East Germany athletes thought to have been given “Performance
Enhancing Drugs (PED)” to help their country into a sports powerhouse. In
1970’s and 1980’s the German Democratic Republic was one of the most
successful Olympic games nations. But after the fall of Soviet German
communism, it was revealed just how much steroids were fueling the medal
machine. Sports leaders, including Manfred Ewald, the head of East Germany
national Olympic committee from 1973 until 1990, were convicted in the doping
programs.
Krieger says, he has taken his life into his own hands and does not want to
be seen as a victim. But he and other former East Germany athletes tricked by
their coaches are worried that too little has been learned from their plight.
Experts say the next step for sportsmen and women looking for an illegal
boost to physical performance could be gene therapy. So called “gene doping”.
Sports physician Willi Heepe said gene therapy means the body will basically dope
itself. If that happens, “the human monsters will be a reality”.
“Krieger is worried that the pressure to win could create new victims”
Those are the things we know through media and also we talking about this. But
there are many more real things in sports about the usage of drugs and through that
7. what are the problems faced by youths. I am going to reveal those things
deliberately.
Ways to catch doped athletes:
Collecting Urine samples and blood from athletes.
Prove that sample contains Prohibited Substance.
Athlete who didn’t give samples for test.
Athlete who tampering the samples.
Ways through athletes dope themselves:
Oral form (Tablets).
Intra Muscular (Injection).
Intra Venous I.V (Injection).
Blood doping (Blood Transformation).
Gene Doping.
Oxygen Doping.
Gene Doping:
Gene doping is defined by the World Anti-Doping Agency as "the non-
therapeutic use of cells, genes, genetic elements, or of the modulation of gene
expression, having the capacity to improve athletic performance". Gene doped via
viruses -- in order to create performance-enhancing substances such as
erythropoetin (EPO) for forming red blood cells. "The body of a gene-doped
athlete produces the performance-enhancing hormones itself without having to
introduce any foreign substances to the body. Over time, the body becomes its own
doping supplier”. Its hard to detect gene doped athletes. But now there is a way for
that.
8. Difficulties when implement dope test:
Its very expensive, so only test conduct for winners and record makers.
We don’t have much Laboratories.
What sports person needs?
Sports person always need extra nutrition according to other people.
Additional sports supplement, proteins, vitamins and minerals are essential but
“not the Performance Enhancing Drugs”. Hard work and dedication to sport
will make one person as winner. Success will come gradually when you work
purely. That success is permanent one. Using PED will give instant result but
that success is temporal.
Ways to rescue young athletes:
Make aware about doping and its effect in elementary level of sports.
Overcoming Performance Anxiety with Sports Psychology.
Increasing Mental focus of every athlete.
Visualization & Self Hypnosis techniques for Sports performance.
9. Conclusion:
Now we started to talk about doping (taking performance enhancing drugs-
PED in sports), according to me people don’t have much familiar to this arena of
sports. We are only talking about the abuse of alcohol and other drugs in society.
Taking PED is an unwritten rule in sporting events now. As a sportsman I am
willing to reveal the starting point of the doping and how athlete or others persons
changed into victims in sports.
One thing to stop doping in sports is, we have to make each and
every athlete that what is a sport. We have to approach these issues in elementary
level.
I want to make aware about the drug abuse in sports, till now I waited for the
correct platform to reveal those things. I got an international certificate from
WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) about doping. This is a very good
opportunity for me to reveal this very serious issue. Kindly give me chance to
submit full paper about this issue. Now I know almost each and every thing, my
only intension is making aware about this and makes pure sporting events. My
full paper will contain following features,
1. Role of an athlete, coach and federation in sports.
2. As a sportsmen my own experience about drug abuse in sports.
3. Who are the real victims?
4. What are the many other factors force them to use PED?
5. How these drugs affect one person physically and mentally?
6. Problems faced by athletes.
7. Why we can’t prevent PED in sports?
10. 8. Suggestions to totally eradicate PED in sports.
9. Ways to athletes to come out of it and make them to do pure sports.
10. Sports psychology.
11. Making aware of doping among athletes by telling “Prohibited substance
and the Therapeutic use exemption”.
Abstract by,
Name: A. Shankar Prakash,
E-mail: shankarprakash.a@gmail.com,
Mobile: 9659713554.
