KIN4060 Week 2

What characteristics of 1920’s Canadian Society are significant to Drugs and Ergogenic aids?

• Racial prejudice, firm beliefs about appropriate social roles and behaviours for men and women, class divisions, villification of non medical drug use

• WW1 soldiers returning home with addictions, prohibition movement increased narcotic drug use

• Drawing on social anxieties, media lumped drug users into 3 categories

  • Innocent Addicts, Dope Fiends, Nefarious Traffickers

What are the drug, fears and narratives?

• Popular magazines, churches, community service groups, women’s organizations, and labour unions emphasized narratives of the innocent, the trafficker and the fiend

• Impacted how Canadians understood drug use

• Stories not often based entirely on facts

What happened at the end of the first drug panic?

Fears decreased!

Due to:

• careful control over narcotics by Department of Health

• Increased enforcement by RCMP

• traffickers jailed; users found obtaining drug of choice difficult

• many drug users / traffickers deported

• Image of “evil drug trafficker” less effective

What were the consequences of the 1920’s drug panic?

• Drugs were recognized as a serious social problem

• Social anxieties and fears trumped facts

• Canadians knew little about drugs and based their opinions on into circulated in newspapers and magazines

• Drugs linked to destruction of youth and innocence, prostitution, STIs, early death, loss of human potential and crime

How was drugs viewed in the spillover to sport?

• Societal disapproval of non therapeutic drugs motivated opposition to drug use in sport

• Disapproval increased as dangers and health risks emerged

What were the athletes use of drugs in sport in the early 20th century?

• Open culture of drug use present in endurance sports

• All day / multi day cycling and pedestrian events

• Growth in prestige of sport

• Subsequent emphasis on amateurism

• Hicks as a hero, Lorz as a villain in the 1904 olympic marathon

• The disqualification of a doped athlete infuriated fans, where there was no moral opposition to drugs in early Olympic Games

How did the studies of ergogenic substances come to be?

• American and european scientists started studying effects of stimulants in the late 19th century

• Particular interest in the coca leaf from South America

  • Anthropologists said some indigenous people in South America used Coca to relieve fatigue

  • Info published in european medical and science journals

• Context of research: preventing and relieving fatigue in workers and soldiers

What happened in Experimental Physiology in the late 19th century?

• French physiologist Phillipe Tissie. experimented on cyclists to gain knowledge on how drugs work

• Studying human organism, not athletic potential

• Medical profession not yet interested in improving performance

How was research conducted on training?

• Prior to 1920’s, widespread belief that athletes possessed fixed levels of physical ability

• Sport increasingly scientific from early 1920’s on

• Most new sport science knowledge from Germany ( starting in 1920s) and USA soon after and Britain (1940’s)

• By the 1930’s research on human physiology showing interval training, resistance training, and varying intensity could contribute to improved performance

What was happening with Ergogenic Aids in the 1930’s to 40’s in research?

Popular ergogenic aids of the time:

• monkey gland extracts, sodium phosphates, bags of sugary sweets, UV light, oxygen and caffeine

• Cocaine, amphetamines and hormones

Scientists urged caution but assumed athletes had common sense not to indulge in high risk drug taking.

What happened in the interwar years?

• Development of rational scientific approach to sport and to the use of drugs in sport

• Science informed coaching methods based on adaptations
  Exercise physiology groups formed, led by USA and Germany, to understand how human bodies responded to exogenous and endogenous changes

What were the early thoughts on fairness?

• Few accusations that drugs were counter to fair play or sportsmanship

• “Doping” only banned by a few international federations

How were Alcohol, Alkalies and ammonium chloride seen as Ergogenic aids in the 1940’s?

Alcohol

• useful in warming up but detrimental to muscular performance even in small doses

Alkalies

• (Sodium Bicarbonate) - might benefit athletic performance

Ammonium Chloride

• considered contradictory and not recommended

How were Benzedrine, Caffeine and Cocaine seen as Ergogenic aids in the 1940’s?

Benzedrine (form of amphetamine)

• inconclusive; could counteract fatigue but risky because side effects: insomnia, hypertonia and circulatory collapse - needed more study

Caffeine

• shown ergogenic in Italian studies by 1893; confirmed value for delaying fatigue and increasing work output

Cocaine

• shown to improve performance but not recommended because of dangerous and addictive qualities

How were Coramine, Digitalis, Glycine, Fruit Juices and hormones seen as Ergogenic aids in the 1940’s?

• Coramine - resp. stimulant

  • Ineffective (nikethamide)

• Digitalis (foxgloves)

  • Increases in blood flow but ineffective

• GLycine

  • AA producing collagen but ineffective

• Fruit Juices (ineffective)

• Hormones

  • Benefits by increasing metabolism and muscular strength; no health risks discussed

    • Recommended further noting hormones would likely be “frutiful” ergogenic aids

How were Lecithin, Metrazol, Oxygen, Phosphates, Sodium Choloride and sugars seen as Ergogenic aids in the 1940’s?

Lecitihin

• mixture of fats to treat BP, ineffective

Metrazol

• stimulant in shock therapy, ineffective

Oxygen

• only useful for a few minutes at a time

Phosphates

• may be useful no evidence, Heart attacks in high doses

Sodium CHloride

• replaces salts lost via sweat

Sugars

• Useful, no evidence

How were UV rays and vitamins seen as Ergogenic aids in the 1940’s?

UV rays - possible psychological benefits; maybe useful as a stimulant

Vitamins - useful but no evidence

All viewed as training options: diet, massage and technique work

What happened post war?

• International sport relaunched

• Public was concerned with readjustment to normal civilian life, not drugs; many war veterans entering college sport and using pep pills

• Amphetamines viewed as legitimate public medicine, taken by college students, housewives and truck drivers for non medical purposes: used to treat obesity, narcolepsy, depression, increase energy / mood, decrease need for sleep

What happened in Sportification?

• sport being modernized by gentleman amateurs → sportsmanship

  • Biological explanations by victorians to justify cultural differences between men and women

• Modernized: codification of written rules, regulation of spaces and times, organization of competitions, international diffusion, creation of national teams / international governing bodies and federations

What was the rise of the anti doping movement?

• Drug use was affiliated with: deceitful, immoral and corrupt addicts, prostitutes, crime and violence, fears of preying on impressionable youth.

• Ergogenic drug use, supported by scientists, was not banned in sport

Deaths became attributed to doping

• Grain of salt: many accounts of early doping are unsubstantiated

  • Arthur Linton OD’s on trimethyl

  • Jensen dies at Rome 1960 olympics

What were the drug bans in horses?

• Gambling on horse races motivated secret doping of horses

• By 1910 saliva tests detected cocaine and heroin in horses

• Moral opposition to drugging horses to win based on principles of fair play and honour in gambling

What was the first doping definition?

• the use of any stimulant not normally employed to increase the power of action in athletic competition above the average, any person knowingly acting or assisting as explained above shall be excluded from any place where these rules are in force or, if he is a competitior, be suspended for a time or otherwise, from participation in amateur athletics under the jurisdiction of this Federation.

What were the initial bans in olympic sport?

• IOC medical commisison creates sex testing and doping in 1962

• Drug testing implemented at Mexico CIty Olympics (Narcotics And Stimulants tested)

• First violation: Swedish pentathlete Hans Gunnar Liljenwall

What is amateurism?

From 1894 discussions at the Sorbonne Congress, serious attention by IOC after Avery Brundage elected president.

• Amateur is one who participates in sport in accordance with the rules of the international federation which governs the sport

  • Those who have capitalized in any way on their athletic fame or success or have secured employment or promotion by reason of their sports performances rather than their ability are ineligible for the olympic games

What are shamateurs?

• Sought ways to profit from sport while maintaining their amateur eligibility

• Many practices were hard to classify: broken time payments, sport related employment (coaching, PE teacher), students, military service

• Sportsman would not resort to doping to win, an amateur would respect doping rules and compete cleanly for the love of the game

What are key ideas to take away from the doping in the IOC?

• introduction of doping rules aligned with efforts to preserve the amateur ethos

• Olympic organizers sought to ensure the Olympic Games remained open to amateurs only

• Advances in training methods in the first half of the 20th century started the move toward professional sport

What is the new paradigm of sport science?

• Professionalization of sport, pursuit of linear goals, institutional support (Canadian Association of Sports): CSEP!

• Governmental support

• Role of sport in Cold War politics

  • Sport has nothing to deal with fairplay, it is bound with many negative effects (Orwell)

What is Cold War sport?

• Clash of beliefs and ideologies

• Superpower rivalry through arms race, space race and sport

• Former USSR joined in 1952

• Sport was a battleground for political ideologies

What is Germany’s importance to doping?

In 1945, Germany was divided by allies creating 2 separated states in 1949.

• German Democratic Republic (GDR / East Germany)

• Federal Republic of Germany (FDR / West Germany)

  • West german policy focused on the non recognition of east germany

The IOC allows one olympic committee in each nation even though Germany was split in 2 zones.

• Flags, symbols and anthems were all contentious, denied visas, 1968 olympics separate teams

• 1972 first recognition of EG flag on WG soil

• A site of doping being highly prevalent in Germany

What did Hunt et al’s goal aim to do?

• Reframe the infamous East German doping program as a political and diplomatic strategy within the Cold War, not just as a sporting scandal

• They did this by situating the state’s performance enhancement system in the broader context of East Bloc politics and international relations.

What were the logistics of GDR?

• Organization was top down from the highest levels of the state

• The GDR’s doping regime was institutionalized and centrally orchestrated, involving athletes, coaches, doctors, and officials

• The Stasi (state security police) played a major role in overseeing secrecy and enforcement

What were the diplomatic meanings of sporting success?

• Successes in international sport became a tool for political legitimacy and international recognition

• Sporting victories were symbolic proof of socialism’s superiority

  • They blended medical science with state secrecy

  • Drugs (often anabolic steroids) were administered under the guise of “vitamins”

  • Confidentiality was strictly enforced by the Stasi

What was the impact on global dynamics of the doping regime of germany?

• Not just about cheating at sport, doping became a form of non military competition between East and West

• Part of a larger ideological struggle played out through cultural and political influence

Doping needs to be understood within its geopolitical and diplomatic context, recognizing how governments leveraged athletic performance for international status.

What were the key dates for context in terms of Germany and doping?

1949: GDR established in soviet zone

1950s - 60s: Sport becomes a key site of cold war ideological competition

1961: Construction of Berlin Wall intensifies East - West divisions

Late 1960s: STate run doping program implemented (14.25)

72 - 88: GDR achieves disproportionate Olympic success, especially in women’s events

89: Fall of Berlin Wall exposes the Secret State Practices

90: German reunification enables initial access to doping archives

What were Franke and Berendonck’s Goals?

• Analyze and make public recently unclassified GDR doping documents

• Review medical records and internal reports to piece together the extent of the program

• Examine hormonal doping and its consequences

• Focus on state responsibility, not individual athletes

What is the East German Medal Machine?

• State Plan 14: 24 run by GDR sports resulted in 28 Olympic Gold Medals between 76 and 89

• Institute of Research into Physical Culture and Sport fueled it

• Ministry for State Security secret police (STASI) files uncovered systemic, state sponsored doping

What happened in the state sponsored doping?

• Coordination of government agencies

• Doctors and scientists involved

• Program operated under strict secrecy

• Stasi enforced compliance and silence

What was the systematic use of androgens?

• anabolic androgenic steroids widely administered

• women and minors heavily targeted to maximize strength and performance

• Health risks were knowingly ignored

What were the health risks of doping and what contributed to anti detection?

• Severe side effects documented internally

• Masculinization and organ damage reported

• Dosing schedules designed to evade testing

• Scientific expertise used to manipulate controls

How does the German Doping issue have ethical and historical significance?

• Doping framed as human experimetation

• Athletes treated as instruments of the state

• Violations of medical ethics and consent

• Key case for modern anti doping policy debates

What was the athlete experience of state run doping?

• Doping was enforced and organized by the GDR

• Elite sport prioritized medals over athlete welfare

• Steroids routinely administered (substances were “vitamins”)

  • Information about drugs rarely disclosed, no opportunity to refuse participation, doctors and coaches exploited

• Athletes integrated into the system at very young ages

What were the long term health consequences?

• Chronic physical health problems were reported later in life

• Hormonal disruption and reproductive issues

• Psychological effects: depression, anxiety and trauma

• Many female athletes experienced masculinization

The reunification revealed the extent of the program, former athletes pursued legal action and compensation, betrayal and abuse associated with an ongoing struggle of recognition and justice.

How did the awareness of Nazi abuse of steroids to increase troop agressiveness show shifting attitudes?

• Used to induce hypermasculinization, ultra agressive behavior in combat soldiers

• Result of Nuremberg trials in 19945 showed atrocities to the world

• Science used to exploit humans

How did the awareness of the androgenization of East bloc female athletes’ bodies from state required steroid consumption show shifting attitudes?

• Success attributed to testosterone drugs or disguised men

• Strong, successful athletes challenged societal views of women

• Fear of the grotesque

How does the Cold War doping structure integrity with adrogenic aids today?

• Athletic protection and informed consent

• Individual responsibility in collective contexts

• Involvement of states and institutioons

• Androgenization of female athlete bodies

• Detection failures and anti - doping policy shifts