Guide to drugs in sport
2004-07-26 11:13
Athens - Drugs and drug testing will be one of the hot topics of the 2004 Olympic Games. Here is a guide to the major substances most often used by sportsmen and women to illegally find that extra edge and a blacklist of those who have been fingered as drug cheats:
Prohibited list of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada):
Stimulants
Amphetamine, Amphetaminil, Benzphetamine, Bromanton, Cathine, Cocaine, Dimethylamphetamine, Ephedrine, Mephentermine, Mesocarb, Methamphetamine, Methylamphetamine, Methylephedrine, Modafinil, Nikethamide, Parahydroxyamphetamine, Pemoline, Phenmetrazine, Strychnine.
Note: Cathine, Ephedrine and Methylephedrine are prohibited when concentration exceeds set limit in urine.
Who failed?
Scottish skier Alain Baxter, who won an Olympics Games slalom bronze in 2002, failed test methamphetamine, which he maintained was contained in a nasal inhaler.
Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich of Germany was suspended for six months in 2002 after testing positive for amphetamines. He claimed he had taken the substance for personal use during his rehabilitation from knee surgery.
American sprinter Kelli White was stripped of her 2003 world championship 100m and 200m gold medals after a positive test for modafinil, which she claimed she needed to treat a sleeping-disorder.
Torri Edwards, who inherited the 100m title, tested positive for the stimulant nikethamide in Martinique in April 2004. Ironically, Russia's Anastasiya Kapachinskaya, who was named the 200m world champion after White's suspension, later failed a test for stanozolol.
Legendary footballer Diego Maradona was suspended for 15 months following a positive test for cocaine while playing for Napoli in 1999 and was then sent home from the 1994 World Cup in the United States after failing a test for ephedrine, and was later banned for another 15 months.
Indian weightlifter Satheesha Rai failed tested positive for strychnine at the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and had his 77kg class gold medal stripped.
World shot put champion CJ Hunter of the United States was suspended for two years after testing positive for nandrolone at the Oslo Golden League meeting in 2000.
British tennis player Greg Rusedski failed a test for nandrolone but was cleared of a doping offence in 2004 after it emerged he was one of a number of players who had tested positive for the steriod - the most likely source of which was tablets handed out by ATP trainers.
Russia footballer Yegor Titov tested positive for bromantan during Russia's Euro 2004 football play-off against Wales. Bromantan was developed by the Soviet army to help troops counter fatigue in the war in Afghanistan.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Romanian golden girl Andrea Raducan was stripped of her gymnastics gold medal after she tested positive for pseudo-ephedrine. Traces of the substance were found in a flu remedy given to the 16-year-old by a team doctor.
Narcotics
Buprenorphine, Dextromoramide, Diamorphine (Heroin), Hydromorphone, Methadone, Morphine, Oxycodone, Oxymorphone, Pentazocine, Pethidine
Who failed?
Belgian cyclist Christophe Brandt was excluded from the 2004 Tour de France after testing positive for methadone after the second stage at Namur in Belgium.
Czech footballer Vaclav Drobny has tested positive for morphine following a French league game in 2003 but later cleared.
In 2002, 20 British racehorses tested positive for morphine with contaminated feed blamed for the failed dope tests. The group included Be My Royal, the winner of that year's Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury.
Cannabinoids
Hashish, Marijuana
Who failed?
Numerous - cricketers Ian Botham and Herschelle Gibbs are two of many to receive sanctions for smoking marijuana.
In the NBA, players charged with marijuana possession in recent years included Philadelphia's Allen Iverson, Sacramento's Chris Webber and Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Anabolic agents
Clenbuterol, Clostebol, Danazol, Drostanalone, Gestrinone, Mestanolone, Mesterolone, Methandienone, Metenolone, Methandriol, Methyltesterone, Nandrolone, Stanozolol, Stenbolone, Testosterone, Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), Zeranol
Who failed?
Canada's Ben Johnson, probably the most infamous of all cheats, was stripped of his 100m gold at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, after testing positive for stanozolol.
Britain's Linford Christie, the 1992 Olympic 100, champion, tested positive in 1999 for nandrolone at an indoor meeting in Germany. The 39-year-old had already retired from full-time competition.
Russia's Anastasiya Kapachinskaya, who stepped up from silver to gold after Kelli White's drug test failure at the 2003 world championships in Paris, also tested positive for stanozolol at the world indoor championships at Budapest in March 2004.
British sprinter Dwain Chambers, US shot putter Kevin Toth and American 1500m champion Regina Jacobs all tested positive for the new 'designer steroid' THG and have been banned.
Chinese swimmers Ying Shan, a member of the world record-setting 4x100m freestyle team from 1997, and her compatriot Jiawei Zhou, both tested positive for clenbuterol at the 2002 world championships in Perth.
In 1999, another Chinese swimmer Xiong Guoming tested positive for clenbuterol, having already served an earlier two-year ban.
2000 Olympic shot put champion Yanina Korolchik of Belarus banned for two years after testing for clenbuterol.
Peptide hormones
Erythropoietin (EPO), Growth hormone (hGH) and Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF-1), Insulin, Corticotrophins
Who failed?
British cyclist David Millar will be stripped of his world time-trial title after admitting he had taken the banned performance enhancer EPO.
"I'd dreamed of becoming world champion and I'd achieved it but I cheated," he said.
Lithuanian cyclist Raimondas Rumsas, who was third in the 2002 Tour de France, tested positive for EPO in the 2003 Tour of Italy and was banned for a year.
The 1998 Tour de France was brought to its knees when the Festina team were kicked out of the event after 40 bottles of doping products, mainly EPO, were found in a team car.
Under suspicion?
World 100m record holder Tim Montgomery faces being banned for life after allegedly admitting to a federal grand jury he used human growth hormone (HGH) as the fall out from the BALCO affair in America goes on.
Beta 2 agonists
Formoterol, Salbutamol, Salmeterol, Terbutaline (all permitted only in asthma treatment)
Who failed?
World 100m champion Kim Collins tested positive for salbutamol after winning the Commonwealth Games title in Manchester in 2002 but was allowed to keep his gold medal after claiming he had taken the drug to treat asthma.
Irish rugby player Frankie Sheahan was banned for two years (later reduced to three months) after testing positive for Salbutamol in a European Cup match in 2003. Sheahan claimed that he was taking treatment for asthma.
Masking agents
Diuretics, Epitesterone, Probenecid
Who failed?
Australian cricketer Shane Warne was banned for a year after testing positive for the diuretics of hydrochlorothiazide and amiloride on the eve of the 2003 World Cup. Warne insisted he had taken treatment to aid weight loss after injury.
In 1998 at the world championships in Perth four Chinese swimmers - Wang Luna, Cai Huijue and Zhang Yi, and male swimmer Wang Wei - tested positive for the diuretic triamterene.
Prohibited methods
Enhancement of oxygen transfer
Blood doping
Under suspicion?
Cycling has been rocked in 2004 by allegations that a culture of blood doping exists in some areas where riders "buy" blood from cyclists of their own blood type then inject it.
Note
Alcohol and beta blockers are banned in certain sports, in-competition only
Did you know?
The 1968 Olympics in Mexico saw the introduction of drug tests. The first competitor to be disqualified was Sweden's modern pentathlon entrant Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall who tested positive for excessive alcohol.