Drugs Abuse In Sports

Doping remains a topic of discussion worldwide since the beginning of the Olympic Games being played in Rio. Meanwhile, most of the discussion was on Russian players' involvement in doping and after intense debate, Russian players were allowed to play in the Olympics, but questions are still on them. India's wrestler Narsingh Yadav was also in the discussion due to doping recently and it was only after a re-investigation that he decided to go to the Olympics.
According to the UK Doping Agency, these substances are prohibited only when they are included in two of the three main criteria. These criteria are-
a. Drugs if the player's performance increases.
b. This may threaten the health of the player.
c. Or violates the dignity of the game.
What is doping?
Doping refers to the consumption of substances by players that help increase their physical abilities. With this, he performs more than his ability. 5 types of drugs are banned under doping. The most common of these are Stimulants and Hormones. Consuming them also threatens many side effects in a person's body. Hence, they are banned by the sport’s governing bodies.
How to know if a player has doping?
Long-established technical mass spectrometry is used to examine doping in the player's body. In this, the player's urine sample is fired with electrons to ionize, converting the molecules to the charged material by adding and removing electrons.
All the substances have a different 'fingerprint'. As scientists already know the weight of many steroids, they quickly recognize which doping sample is. But this method is very complicated. Some doping by-products are so small that they do not get enough signal from them to be detected. EPO and synthetic oxygen carriers can be tested through blood testing but blood transfusions cannot be tested at all.
For the last few years, various sports bodies have been insisting on checking doping in sports. The reason is clear that there should be transparency in sports.

By: Akshit Sharma

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