The use of doping is not something new; the history of doping in sports dates back to the times of the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece, when athletes used various potions, plants, and animal extracts to enhance athletic performance.
Main thoughts:
According to some reports, German soldiers going into battle were administered steroids
The History of Doping: Facts
The illustration below demonstrates the history of doping, the evolution of its spread from professional modern sports to widespread use by ordinary people.
Long before the isolation and synthesis of testosterone in the 1930s, scientist Brown-Séquard, followed by Zoth and Pregl, discovered that extracts from male testes could improve physical and mental energy, as well as muscle strength (1-4). Soon after the successful synthesis of testosterone, Boje (5) suggested that sex hormones could enhance physical performance.
Long before the artificial synthesis of testosterone, scientists discovered that sex hormones could enhance physical performance
According to some reports, German soldiers going into battle were administered steroids (6), as were German athletes preparing for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin (6).
The most widely cited fact of systematic steroid use is the team of Soviet athletes at the Olympic Games in 1952 and 1956. Dr. John Ziegler, the sports physician for the U.S. weightlifting team, learned about the Soviet Union’s use of steroids at the championship in Vienna in 1954 (6, 7) and experimented with testosterone on himself and other weightlifters at the York Barbell Club in New York (7). Subsequently, the use of steroids gradually spread from strength sports to other sports, as well as to amateur athletes, particularly bodybuilders (6, 7).
According to some reports, German soldiers who went into battle were administered steroids.
The public’s attention to steroids emerged after a positive test for stanozolol in Ben Johnson, a runner from Jamaica, at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
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The most egregious example of state-sponsored doping was revealed after the fall of the communist regime in the German Democratic Republic in 1990 (8): secret documents disclosed a comprehensive covert state program aimed at improving national sports performance through doping substances, with the complicity of the state and sports medicine doctors.
Recent findings of doping use by elite athletes such as Lyle Alzado (American football), Mark McGwire (Mark McGwire, baseball), Barry Bonds, Floyd Landis (Floyd Landis, baseball), Marion Jones (Marion Jones, athletics), and Lance Armstrong (Lance Armstrong, cycling) further solidified the erroneous belief that doping use is limited only to elite athletes and is NOT a widespread societal issue among average gym-goers.
The use of doping substances has long transcended professional sports, although the media often creates the impression that it is confined to that realm.
Although officials banned doping for Olympic competitors in 1967, and the International Olympic Committee prohibited steroid use in 1975, it was not until 1991, 20 years later, that the U.S. Congress placed steroids on the list of controlled substances (Schedule III).
In 2004, amendments were made to the Anabolic Steroid Control Act, expanding the definition of anabolic steroids. The new definition does not require proof of increased muscle mass but defines 59 specific substances as anabolic steroids (including their salts, esters, and simple esters).
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Most types of doping that professional athletes and amateurs used before the 1990s were pharmacological drugs approved for medical or veterinary use. By the early 1990s, various steroid precursor drugs became available for purchase in the form of dietary supplements, the distribution of which is not regulated by the government.
Before the 1990s, athletes used pharmacological drugs approved for medical or veterinary use as doping. After the 90s, doping became available in the form of dietary supplements distributed without government control.
Precursors are inactive substances or substances with very weak testosterone production effects that the body can convert into testosterone. These include natural testosterone precursors such as:
- 4-androstenediol,
- 5-androstenediol,
- 4-androstenedione,
- dehydroepiandrosterone,
as well as precursors of synthetic steroids that the body converts into nandrolone:
- 4-norandrostenedione,
- 4-norandrostenediol,
- 5-norandrostenediol.
Due to the rapid growth of online sales of sports supplements and the lack of regulation in this industry by competent authorities, the availability of anabolic steroids for purchase has significantly increased today.
Even greater concern is raised by the emergence of synthetic anabolic steroids in the sports nutrition and dietary supplement market, such as:
- 17-desmethylstanozolol,
- methylclostebol,
- methyltrienolone.
An incomplete list of steroids used in various dietary and sports supplements can be found on the website www.supplement411.org (in the English version) and very soon on our website (in Russian). Most of them are illegal, i.e., prohibited at the legislative level (Steroid Control Act of 2004).
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Important
: However, new synthetic designer steroids are emerging, such as tetrahydrogestrinone (tetrahydrogestrinone) (9, 10) and madol (madol) (11). Since these designer steroids have not undergone toxicological safety testing on either humans or animals, they potentially pose an even greater health risk than traditional steroids that have been tested in some way on animals or humans.
Today, designer steroids that enter the market without being tested on either animals or humans are considered among the most dangerous to health
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1935
Testosterone was first chemically isolated -
1940
Widespread use of testosterone and other steroids by scientists to study their effects on various medical conditions -
1954
Russian weightlifters used steroids during the Olympics in Vienna -
1962
The beginning of the annual Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition -
1968
The International Olympic Committee banned the use of steroids for the first time and conducted doping tests at the Olympic Games in Montreal -
1970
Widespread use of steroids in professional sports -
1977
The American College of Sports Medicine published its official position on steroids for the first time, stating that steroids are ineffective in increasing muscle mass -
1981
The first edition of the book “Underground Steroid Handbook” was published -
1982
Hollywood released “Conan the Barbarian” and “Rambo” -
1983
The first edition of the book “Underground Steroid Handbook” was published -
1987
The American College of Sports Medicine revised its position on steroids and acknowledged that they are effective in increasing muscle mass -
1988
According to the federal Anti-Drug Act of 1988, the distribution of steroids became a criminal offense
Reports from American colleges indicate that approximately 6.6% of graduating students use steroids
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1988
Reports from American colleges indicate that approximately 6.6% of graduating students use steroids -
early 1990s
Secret information was revealed about government sponsorship of a doping program for athletes in East Germany -
1990s
The Drug Enforcement Administration actively combats steroid production in the United States but can do little about imports from abroad -
1991
The 1990 Act regulating the distribution and use of steroids became law, placing steroids in Schedule III controlled substances -
1999
The International Olympic Committee established WADA – the World Anti-Doping Agency -
2000 – present
An increasing number of doping cases among professional athletes -
2000
The National Institute on Drug Abuse begins a media education campaign focused on steroids -
2003
The World Anti-Doping Code was approved – a document that harmonizes anti-doping regulations in sports across all sports and countries -
2004
The 2004 Act regulating the distribution and use of steroids became law; the list of banned steroids was expanded, and more severe penalties were introduced -
2005
U.S. authorities note the presence of hundreds of websites selling steroids on the Internet
The U.S. Congress is considering the issue of steroid use in baseball, as well as other aspects of steroid abuse
The Drug Enforcement Administration uncovers a network of eight Mexican steroid manufacturers supplying $56,000,000 worth of drugs to the U.S. annually
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2006
Floyd Landis is stripped of his title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone -
2007
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seizes the largest steroid bust in history, totaling 11.4 million dosage units -
2007
The use of steroids in Major League Baseball is revealed -
2008 – present
New facts about steroid use by military personnel and private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan
New facts about steroid use by law enforcement officers in many cities across the U.S.
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2009
Amendments are made to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code -
2011
Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik admits to using steroids while preparing for the mass shooting of 77 people -
2012
Lance Armstrong is retroactively stripped of his title
