• Question: wgat do you think about drugs in sport

    Asked by jake3008 to Allan, Angela, Diva, Harriet, Nathan on 28 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Harriet Groom

      Harriet Groom answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      I think sport is inherently something that should be done without cheating and so using drugs is understandably banned by various sports associations. The problem is, what is a drug? Lots of things improve performance in people – should everything that improves your performance be banned?

      For example caffeine is a drug that lots of people use and this is something that has been shown to improve performance in athletes – should we stop people drinking coffee before sport?

      I think it’s a tricky one and I don’t envy the sport associations!

    • Photo: Nathan Langford

      Nathan Langford answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      Harriet’s right – there’s kind of no point in doing sport at all, if you’re going to cheat, but it’s a complex issue, this one.

      My own personal preference is that, since I have no long-term condition or illness that requires it, I tend to try and steer away from any regular use of drugs in any form, if I can in general. For example, I know a lot of people who become addicted to coffee while doing their PhD. But I always figured that if I was really tired, maybe the best solution rather than have a coffee was to go to sleep! I find this is quite a controversial idea, however. 😉

    • Photo: Allan Pang

      Allan Pang answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      if it is a legal drug and the rules of the game allow it, so be it.

      The only thing for me is you have to be careful with taking these drugs as whatever you put in your mouth can affect you, not only short term but also long term. And like any other medicine or drugs, it has to be taken in moderate and in cycles.

      I do weightlifting and also takes supplement that helps me gain muscles. But I always take in mind that I have to take in moderation and not overdo it. No steroids for me though! It’s not good!

    • Photo: Diva Amon

      Diva Amon answered on 5 Jul 2012:

      Hey jake3008,

      Performance-enhancing drugs are totally wrong. Sport is meant to be a celebration of how truly incredible the body is and drugs takes away from that. Not only do drugs give the individual taking them an unfair advantage, but they can also have terrible effects on the health of that athlete.

      As the other scientists have said though, it gets tricky distinguishing what is and is not a drug. Many medicines are considered performance-enhancing as well as things like caffeine found in coffee. In my opinion, athletes shouldn’t have any kind of artificial chemicals in their body but that is really hard to regulate and enforce.

Comments