Doping at the Olympic Games is the illegal use of athletic performance-enhancing drugs during or before Olympic events. Doping at the Olympic Games often results in an athlete or team's medal being stripped. Medals can also be stripped for other reasons, but doping is the lead reason for a medal being stripped. Doping often disqualifies the athlete or team from further competition.
History The use of performance-enhancing tactics and, more broadly, the use of any external device to nefariously influence the outcome of a sporting event has been a part of the Olympics since its inception in Ancient Greece. One speculation as to why men were required to compete naked was to prevent the use of extra accoutrements and to keep women from competing in events specifically designed for men. Athletes were also known to drink "magic" potions and eat exotic meats in the hopes of giving them an athletic edge on their competition. If they were caught cheating, their likenesses were often engraved into stone and placed in a pathway that led to the Olympic stadium. In the modern Olympic era, chemically enhancing one's performance has evolved into a sophisticated science, but in the early years of the Modern Olympic movement the use of performance-enhancing drugs was almost as crude as its ancient predecessors. For example, the winner of the marathon at the 1904 Games, Thomas Hicks, was given strychnine and brandy by his coach, even during the race.
During the early 20th century, many Olympic athletes discovered ways to improve their athletic abilities by boosting testosterone. As their methods became more extreme, it became increasingly evident that the use of performance-enhancing drugs was not only a threat to the integrity of sport but could also have potentially fatal side effects on the athlete. The only Olympic death linked to athletic drug use occurred at the Rome Games of 1960. During the cycling road race, Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen fell from his bicycle and later died. A coroner's inquiry found that he was under the influence of amphetamine, which had caused him to lose consciousness during the race. Jensen's death exposed to the world how endemic drug use was among elite athletes. By the mid-1960s, sports federations were starting to ban the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and the IOC followed suit in 1967.
The first Olympic athlete to test positive for the use of performance-enhancing drugs was Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, a Swedish pentathlete at the 1968 Summer Olympics, who lost his bronze medal for alcohol use, "two beers" to steady his nerves. Liljenwall was the only athlete to test positive for a banned substance at the 1968 Olympics, but as the technology and testing techniques improved, the number of athletes discovered to be chemically enhancing their performance increased as well.
The most systematic case of drug use for athletic achievement is that of the East German Olympic teams of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1990, documents were discovered that showed many East German female athletes, especially swimmers, had been administered anabolic steroids and other drugs by their coaches and trainers. Girls as young as eleven were started on the drug regimen without consent from their parents. American female swimmers, including Shirley Babashoff, accused the East Germans of using performance-enhancing drugs as early as the 1976 Summer Games. Babashoff's comments were dismissed by the international and domestic media as sour grapes since Babashoff, a clear favorite to win multiple gold medals, won three silver medals – losing all three times to either of the two East Germans Kornelia Ender or Petra Thümer, and one gold medal in a relay. There was no suspicion of cheating on the part of the East German female swimmers even though their medal tally increased from four silvers and one bronze in 1972 to ten golds (out of a possible 12), six silvers, and one bronze in 1976. No clear evidence was discovered until after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the aforementioned documents proved that East Germany had embarked on a state-sponsored drug regimen to dramatically improve their competitiveness at the Olympic Games and other international sporting events. Many of the East German authorities responsible for this program have been subsequently tried and found guilty of various crimes in the German penal system.
The report, titled "Doping in Germany from 1950 to today", details how the West German government helped fund a wide-scale doping program. West Germany encouraged and covered up a culture of doping across many sports for decades. Doping of West German athletes was prevalent at the Munich Games of 1972, and at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
According to British journalist Andrew Jennings, a KGB colonel stated that the agency's officers had posed as anti-doping authorities from the International Olympic Committee to undermine doping tests and that Soviet athletes were "rescued with [these] tremendous efforts". On the topic of the 1980 Summer Olympics, a 1989 Australian study said "There is hardly a medal winner at the Moscow Games, certainly not a gold medal winner, who is not on one sort of drug or another: usually several kinds. The Moscow Games might as well have been called the Chemists' Games."
Documents obtained in 2016 revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Dated prior to the country's decision to boycott the Games, the document detailed the existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements. The communication, directed to the Soviet Union's head of track and field, was prepared by Dr. Sergei Portugalov of the Institute for Physical Culture. Portugalov was also one of the main figures involved in the implementation of the Russian doping program prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics.
China was accused of conducting a state sanctioned doping programme on athletes in the 1980s and 1990s. In a July 2012 interview published by the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, Chen Zhangho, the lead doctor for the Chinese Olympic team at the Los Angeles, Seoul and Barcelona Olympics told of how he had tested hormones, blood doping and steroids on about fifty elite athletes. Chen also accused the United States, the Soviet Union and France of using performance-enhancing drugs at the same time as China.
A very publicized steroid-related disqualification at an Olympic Games was the case of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who won the Men's 100 metres at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but tested positive for stanozolol. His gold medal was subsequently stripped and awarded to runner-up Carl Lewis, who had tested positive for stimulants at the U.S. Olympic Trials. The highest level of stimulant Lewis recorded was 6 ppm, which was regarded as a positive test in 1988 but is now regarded as a negative test. The acceptable level was later raised to ten parts per million for ephedrine and twenty-five parts per million for other substances.Wallechinsky and Loucky, The Complete Book of the Olympics (2012 edition), page 61. According to the IOC rules at the time, positive tests with levels lower than 10 ppm were cause of further investigation but not immediate ban. Neal Benowitz, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco who is an expert on ephedrine and other stimulants, agreed that "These [levels] are what you'd see from someone taking cold or allergy medicines and are unlikely to have any effect on performance." The IAAF acknowledged that at the 1988 Olympic Trials the USOC followed the correct procedures in dealing with positive findings for ephedrine and ephedrine-related compounds in low concentration.
Response In the late 1990s, the IOC took the initiative in a more organized battle against doping, leading to the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 1999. The 2000 Summer Olympics and 2002 Winter Olympics have shown that the effort to eliminate performance-enhancing drugs from the Olympics is not over, as several medalists in weightlifting and cross-country skiing were disqualified due to failing a drug test. During the 2006 Winter Olympics, only one athlete failed a drug test and had a medal revoked. The IOC-established drug testing regimen (now known as the "Olympic Standard") has set the worldwide benchmark that other sporting federations attempt to emulate. During the Beijing games, 3,667 athletes were tested by the IOC under the auspices of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Both urine and blood testing was used in a coordinated effort to detect banned substances and recent blood transfusions. While several athletes were barred from competition by their National Olympic Committees prior to the Games, six athletes failed drug tests while in competition in Beijing.
Prohibited drugs
Summer Olympic Games What follows is a list of all the athletes that have tested positive for a banned substance either during or after an Olympic Games in which they competed. Any medals listed were revoked by the International Olympic Commission (IOC). In 1967 the IOC banned the use of performance-enhancing drugs, instituted a Medical Commission, and created a list of banned substances. Mandatory testing began at the following year's Games. In a few cases the IOC has reversed earlier rulings that stripped athletes of medals.
1968 Mexico City
NameCountrySportBanned substanceMedals revokedHans-Gunnar LiljenwallModern pentathlonEthanol (team) In addition, the Bulgarian Greco-Roman wrestler Hristo Traykov was disqualified from his bout against David Hazewinkel for using concealed smelling salts during their bout.
1972 Munich
As a 16-year-old, Rick DeMont qualified to represent the United States at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. He originally won the gold medal in the men's 400-meter freestyle, but following the race, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) disqualified DeMontNeil Amdur, "Of Gold and Drugs", The New York Times (4 September 1972). Retrieved 16 March 2015. after his post-race urinalysis tested positive for traces of the banned substance ephedrine contained in his prescription asthma medication, Marax. The positive test following the 400-meter freestyle final also deprived him of a chance at multiple medals, as he was barred from any other events at the Olympics, including the 1,500-meter freestyle for which he was the then-current world record-holder.
Before the Olympics, DeMont had properly declared his asthma medications on his medical disclosure forms, but the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) had not cleared them with the IOC's medical committee. In 2001, his gold medal performance in the 1972 Summer Olympics was recognised by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). However, only the IOC has the power to restore his medal, and it has, as of 2019, refused to do so. NameCountrySportAnti-doping rule violationMedals revokedBakaava BuidaaJudoDianabol (63 kg)Miguel CollBasketballAmphetamineOlympics ban settles doping row, New Straits Times, 2 September 1972Rick DeMontSwimmingEphedrine (men's 400 m freestyle)Aad van den HoekCyclingCoramine (100 km team race)Jaime HuélamoCyclingCoramine (individual road race)Walter LegelWeightliftingAmphetamineMohammad Reza NasehiWeightliftingEphedrine
1976 Montreal
NameCountrySportAnti-doping rule violationMedals revokedBlagoi BlagoevWeightliftingAnabolic steroid (82.5 kg)Mark CameronWeightliftingAnabolic steroidPaul CeruttiShootingAmphetamineDragomir CioroslanWeightliftingFencamfaminePhil GrippaldiWeightliftingAnabolic steroidZbigniew KaczmarekWeightliftingAnabolic steroid (67.5 kg)Valentin KhristovWeightliftingAnabolic steroid (110 kg)Lorne LeibelSailingPhenylpropanolamineArne NorrbackWeightliftingAnabolic steroidPetr PavlasekWeightliftingAnabolic steroidDanuta RosaniAthleticsAnabolic steroid