The last few days have been troubling for anyone emotionally invested in Indian sports the doping scandal in track and field sports has disillusioned many Indians,and hurt our reputation in the world. It even overshadows the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) scandal that rocked the US a few years back,and had a huge impact on American baseball. Ben Johnson and Marion Jones are the stuff of legend,their athletic careers cut down after their drug use was discovered.
Today in India,blame has been flung in every direction,foreign coaches to errant chemists,sports administrators and monitoring systems,and most of all the athletes who bear ultimate responsibility. While the methylhexanamine (MHA) issue cast a shadow over the Commonwealth Games last year,this time the issue is steroids,the most common form of abused substance. Seven women,including six quarter-milers,have been caught,and one male athlete. These athletes,who have tested positive for anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS),may have counted on a performance boost,but were perhaps unaware of the dangerous side-effects. Apart from making muscles bigger,anabolic steroids help athletes recover quicker from a hard workout by reducing the muscle damage that occurs during the session. Some may like the spurt in aggression that they experience with the drugs. But they can also lead to other problems ranging from facial hair-growth,changes in voice,infertility and even high blood pressure,liver cancer and heart problems. The offenders list of Indian sportswomen is now growing Kunjarani Devi,Pratima Kumari,Sanamacha Chanu,Shailaja Pujari,Seema Antil,Neelam Jaswant Singh,Monica Devi,and others in netball,badminton,etc. In part,the financial incentives that the government now provides for sports excellence creates a strong temptation for athletes and coaches to bend the rules.
Dope control officers (DCOs) with high credibility are required,those who cannot be tempted to switch samples or be manipulated in any way. In fact,one of the DCOs suspended by the Sports Authority of India has been absorbed in the NADA. Where is its national registered testing pool? Why has it not been brought in place after consulting federations and checking their achievements? What is NADA doing at the junior national level where grassroots sportspersons are getting addicted to these banned substances? Why isnt every national event covered? What about inter-varsity tournaments,where you see toilets full of syringes and empty vials of banned substances?
Whats more,how does the DCO identify the athlete? He takes the sample of the person who presents herself,with no way of verifying,in the absence of accreditation cards for everyone. Sadly,NADA still has no public profile,and makes no attempt to reach out to sportspersons. It should have a 24-hour service to address their queries,rather than simply screening them before boarding.
And lastly,nutritional supplements might be a popular fad,but there is no scientific evidence that they provide any edge apart from the psychological. In my long tenure with the womens hockey team which culminated in the Manchester Commonwealth gold,we used no supplements but a single recovery drink and iron tablets along with antioxidants. I just made sure that I ate each meal with the girls,updating them on diet,recovery,bio-rhythms and training control. This kind of robust interaction between officials and athletes is also what brought us the coveted gold for the first time in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
The writer is former head of the department of sports medicine and sports sciences,Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports,Patiala
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