Sport and corruption - a dark history

Steroids and the Olympic Games: History
Steroids are a hot topic, but not a new one. The sad fact is that steroids were introduced to sport through the Olympics and have since been a consistent theme. The haven of amateur competitive purity that the Olympics once was, has since provided the origins of the most insidious corruption to the integrity of sport: the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

The extent to which steroid use pervades sport, and the Olympic Games in particular, is unknown, but fears that steroid use is widespread are well-founded in the alarming amount of steroid bans and revelations that plague the sports headlines. The original point of entry of steroids into sport is the four-yearly Olympics, and the incidence of steroids in the Olympics stands separate and apart from the ongoing stories about cheaters in professional sport, with their own unique legacy.

The Olympics is an amateur competition where athletes compete, not for money, but for the greater glory of representing their country, under the auspices of a governing body that has developed the strictest and most cohesive testing and punishment system (keeping in mind that steroid testing and steroid punishment are related topically but still two separate things).

However, to date, the Olympics have produced the most high-profile steroid scandals, and initiated a legacy of steroid abuse in athletic competition that has subsequently spread to and corrupted other sports as well. While today steroid abuse is revealed and accepted as widespread in all sports, the origins of steroid abuse are traceable to the Olympic Games.

A Brief History of Steroids
Steroids are a form of medication, to be used in isolated instances and conditions of extreme illness as a short-term solution for catalysing recovery of a wide array of physical maladies, including cancer. The controversy regarding steroids did not start with their invention or existence, but with the connection between steroids and muscle building which rendered steroids classifiable as “performance enhancing”. This link was made all the way back in 1935, according to a History of Steroids:

“Until 1935, no one knew that anabolic steroids were associated with the accumulation of muscle tissue. In that year, two researchers experimenting on dogs discovered that testosterone given under certain conditions would increase muscle mass. Hitler may have given some of his troops anabolic steroids to increase their aggressiveness, although this is not well-documented (http://www.anabolicsmall.com/roida3a.htm).”

To say the least, steroids had dubious origins before they entered sport. The fact is steroids have been used for all manner of experimental and pre-determined purposes. However, this first link with muscle-building in 1935 rendered steroids anathema to sport, and a potential threat to the sanctity and integrity of athletic competition. Nonetheless, it took 19 years for steroids to make their way into athletic competition, and the Olympics proved to be that gateway.

NEXT UP: A look back at Olympic steroid scandals.