jellybean
12-10-2006, 08:06 PM
SBS TV - INSIGHT
“The Cheating Game”
It’s no secret that some top athletes take drugs to enhance their performance. This year Tour de France winner Floyd Landis was stripped of his title after a drug test revealed unnaturally high levels of testosterone. Some Australian weightlifters were expelled from the Commonwealth Games after they too returned positive drug tests. The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) has launched an inquiry into weightlifting which is beset by accusations of a drug-trafficking network and failure of financial accounting by its head body.
Some drug cheats manage to always be one step ahead of the testing agencies. They use anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, erythropoietin (EPO), and testosterone to put them ahead of their competition. Now gene doping, the non-therapeutic use of cells and genes to improve athletic performance is the next major concern for sport.
Researchers have successfully beefed-up the muscles of mice and baboons with new genes, and this technique could be adapted to do the same for athletes. This form of doping can’t be detected in urine and blood tests, presenting a major problem for anti-doping agencies.
It’s not just performance enhancing drugs that are making the headlines. All major football leagues have been embroiled in recreational drug scandals. Their response to these cases has been wildly inconsistent. Some guilty players have been “named and shamed” and banned, while others have had their identity protected by their clubs.
Sporting commentators have lashed out at the lack of uniformity amongst the football codes. Are sponsors and reputations more important than cracking down on drugs? Does it really matter if athletes use recreational drugs like cannabis and cocaine off the field?
INSIGHT brings together Olympians, athletes, admitted drug cheats, sports administrators, and the anti-doping agency to ask whether sport can ever be drug free.
THE CHEATING GAME will be broadcast on TUESDAY OCTOBER 17 at 7.30pm on SBS. Repeated on FRIDAY at 1pm and MONDAY at 2pm.
“The Cheating Game”
It’s no secret that some top athletes take drugs to enhance their performance. This year Tour de France winner Floyd Landis was stripped of his title after a drug test revealed unnaturally high levels of testosterone. Some Australian weightlifters were expelled from the Commonwealth Games after they too returned positive drug tests. The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) has launched an inquiry into weightlifting which is beset by accusations of a drug-trafficking network and failure of financial accounting by its head body.
Some drug cheats manage to always be one step ahead of the testing agencies. They use anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, erythropoietin (EPO), and testosterone to put them ahead of their competition. Now gene doping, the non-therapeutic use of cells and genes to improve athletic performance is the next major concern for sport.
Researchers have successfully beefed-up the muscles of mice and baboons with new genes, and this technique could be adapted to do the same for athletes. This form of doping can’t be detected in urine and blood tests, presenting a major problem for anti-doping agencies.
It’s not just performance enhancing drugs that are making the headlines. All major football leagues have been embroiled in recreational drug scandals. Their response to these cases has been wildly inconsistent. Some guilty players have been “named and shamed” and banned, while others have had their identity protected by their clubs.
Sporting commentators have lashed out at the lack of uniformity amongst the football codes. Are sponsors and reputations more important than cracking down on drugs? Does it really matter if athletes use recreational drugs like cannabis and cocaine off the field?
INSIGHT brings together Olympians, athletes, admitted drug cheats, sports administrators, and the anti-doping agency to ask whether sport can ever be drug free.
THE CHEATING GAME will be broadcast on TUESDAY OCTOBER 17 at 7.30pm on SBS. Repeated on FRIDAY at 1pm and MONDAY at 2pm.