Write a brief note on relationship of durgs and sports.
The use ot drugs in training and competitions is technically termed as doping. It may be defined as the introduction of an artificial substance or a drug into the body to improve performance and gain advantage. As has been said earlier, doping has been going on for long. The first case of doping on record is of a Marathon runner Thomas Hicks, who had injected a mixture of brandy and strichmine into his body to win a gold medal in the 1904 Olympics at St. Louis in the USA. This menace increased many folds thereafter and, therefore, I.A.A.F. had to ban this practice of doping in 1928.
In the present times, name, fame, money, national prestige etc. are so much involved in competitions that every means appears to be justified for achieving victories. Moreover, the competitions have reached such a stage that it is being felt that it is exceedingly difficult to win with normal training. The harmful effects may be noted as under :egogenic aids (doping agents) and are Mentioned below :
(a) Diuretics : These drugs eliminate fluid from the body. The person reduces body weight in very short period. These are generally used by wrestlers, judo and boxing players. These drugs increase
(a) Drugs used by sportsmen being pain killers and performance enhancers, help a sportsman to indulge in harder training to improve his strength and stamina. But during this training, a sportsman may develop some permanent damage to some part of his body due to ah overuse of that part. The effect or damage may not be noticed by the person concerned due to the effect of drugs. Such a damage can affect the career of a sportsman.
(b) His behaviour may be affected due to the side-effects of a drug.
© He may become an addict, due to the continuous use of drugs for doping. In such a case, a sportsman can, in no case, perform well.
The use of drugs by sportsmen is full of risks to his body and for this reason only, this practice is banned in sports competitions. The use of drugs by sportsmen may not only cause some permanent damage to some part of his body but also, in some cases, can lead to death, because of the risks involved, sports controlling bodies have banned the use of such drugs.