Doping Control

Most anabolic steroids will increase a person’s physical potential, but they can have serious mental and physical side effects, include a variety of health risks. That said, they are also illegal in the Olympic games, since they are seen as a form of cheating. Anabolic steroids leave traces of the material in a person’s system.  So in order to enter the Olympic games athletes have to go through a series of tests in order to prove that they have not taken these chemicals. There is in fact a variety of drugs that the Olympics organization has banned, each of which can be tested for in a different way.

Essentially, the goal of “doping control,” as it has become known, is to keep the playing field level. Since ideally the goal of the games is to determine which athletes from which countries have proven themselves to be excellent physically and mentally, the idea of using drugs to artificially increase one’s potential goes against the spirit of the games. The Olympics commission has argued that the use of steroids is not only dangerous, but that the point of the games themselves is not to “win,” but to show the world what a single person can do when they put their mind to it. Using steroids in an Olympic match is not only very illegal, but runs entirely contrary to the point of the games in the first place.

Fortunately, the Olympics commission has very rigorous testing that has all but eliminated the use of steroids in the games, and doping control is a relatively uninvasive process. While there has been some controversy from several countries about subjecting athletes to the testing, it is maintained that it is not mandatory (since competing in the games is not mandatory), and that it is in the best interests of everyone involved.