Doping and the Tour de France

by Ayaka Fuchikami

We are often told that doping is not allowed and counts as cheating. While drugs can act on our body effectively, they lead to harsh results. Approximately 500 athletes officially dope because steroids improve their performance, for instance, developing musculature, but they do not know the harmful effects (Waddington, 138 and Thomas, 11 and 22). The Tour de France is a good example of the harmful effects of doping. It is the biggest, hardest, and most grueling race and the prize is so precious that cyclists will do anything to win. However, it has had quite a few doping scandals since 1967. The 1960s was the time riders attempted to gain a competitive edge with drugs and alcohol. The English rider who was swallowed up the current of the times, and took drugs was Tim Simpson. During the 1967 Tour de France, he died during the televised ascent of Mont Ventoux, and his bloodstream was found to be full of amphetamines (Waddington, 155). Why is it necessary for the athletes to take drugs and what are the effects of the drugs? Doping by cyclists results in the loss of medals, disqualification from cycling competition, and, in the worst case, serious physical consequences.

If cyclists take drugs and the matter is revealed, their medals are taken away. In 1998, French officials caught players of the Festina cycling team with a carload of performance-enhancing drugs, including EPO (erythropoietin) which is a drug that helps the blood carry more oxygen, and lets you go faster on your two wheels. Following an arrest and the forfeit of their medals in the case, six of Festina’s nine riders conceded they had used performance-enhancing drugs (CBC Sports, np). Athletes use doping to boost the body’s physical capacities and to eliminate its limitations. Also, it is used to solve motivation problems, for example, the adverse effects of anxiety or excitement, and to produce calm or relaxation in competitive situations (Waddington, 107). In the end, the athlete decides if doping to win is worth the risk of getting caught. However, if their doping use is revealed, their valuable medals are taken away. David Millar won the final time-trial in the championship in Canada. In June 2004, he was arrested by French police who found in his apartment two syringes from the Canadian trip. He confessed to using EPO, anabolic steroid, and was stripped of his TT title (Minovi, 6). The medals which they achieve in competition for their life are gone and they have to go back the beginning.

Cyclists who take drugs are suspended or get disqualified from cycling competition without exception. Even short-term doping can cause serious physical and psychological consequences such as the risk of being caught and suffering a “social death”. During the 2002 Tour de France, a Spanish cyclist, Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano, tested positive for the asthma medication Salbutamol. Then, the chief of the team insisted that because Igor suffered from asthma, it was a health problem and not doping. Still, Dr.Alain Garnier, director of WADA’s (the World Anti-Doping Agency) European office, judged his Salbutamol level to be extraordinary and an abnormal therapeutic intervention. In March 2003, Igor Gonzales was banned for six months from 2003 Tour (CBC Sports, np and Waddington, 9). Regardless of the reasons, the athletes who take drugs lose their qualifications for regular matches for a certain period of time or forever.

Finally, excessive doping leads to serious physical consequences for cyclists. According to official GDR (German Democratic Republic) research, exactly one-third of the women and girls who took anabolic steroids suffered serious gynecological damage. It was because approximately twenty-five percent of the anabolic steroids were experimental substances that would not be checked for side-effects. As these substances have never been tested, their effects remain unknown even now. In 2004, Marco Pantani, the clean saviour of the 1998 Tour, raced on EPO, sometimes with a haematocrit of sixty-one percent against the average of around forty-two percent. At that time, he died of overdose of cocaine (Minovi, 7). He is not only a victim of doping.

Doping can have the worst possible outcome. The cycling competitors of the Tour de France who used drugs prove that. Drugs deprived them of their medals, their qualifications to participate, and their lives in the end. For all that, do you think athletes should take drugs? If they have a sense of justice and the feeling of loving sports sincerely, they should not. Athletes who use doping take their health for granted. They should treat health as something honorable and fair play is important for all athletes. However, so many cyclists use doping because they come under pressure to be forced to use them not just from themselves but from their coaches, managers and owners who make money from the success of athletes. Unless we solve these problems, fair play in which cyclists no longer use doping will never been realized.

Ayaka Fuchikami is a second-year student in the Dept. of British and American Cultural Studies.

Links and Further Reading

CBC Sports. “10 Drug Scandals.” CBC Sports Online. Retrieved on Oct. 12 2010 from http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/drugs/stories/top10.html

Ramin Minovi. “Drugs and the Tour de France.” Association of British Cycling Coaches. Retrieved from http://www.abcc.co.uk/Articles/DrgsTdeF.html

John A. Thomas. Drugs, Athletes, and Physical Performance. New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation, 1988.

Ivan Waddington. “Doping in Sport: Some Issues for Medical Practitioners.” Doping and Public Policy. Eds. John Hoberman and Verner Moller. United States and Canada: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2004.