Unit Title: Performance and Image
Enhancing Drugs
Activity:
Case Studies and Debate
Level:
Year 10, VELS Level 6.5
Lesson:
10.3
Length:
Double Lesson
This lesson plan is part of a series of lesson plans developed for use at Maribrynong
Secondary College (MSC) through a partnership between Sports Medicine Australia (SMA)
and MSC. These lesson plans can be used as they are or altered to suit the school
environment you are working in.
Key Objective:
To increase knowledge of doping at the elite level and generate discussion about doping in
sport
Key Concepts:
Ethics, fair play, society, sport
Key Idea:
An investigation into the different circumstances surrounding doping violations
Essential Questions:
There are many questions asked about each of the case studies provided for discussion.
Key discussion areas have also been put forward in the debate topics below.
Content:
There are many questions asked about each of the case studies provided for discussion.
Key discussion and content areas have also been put forward in the debate topics below.
Processes:
Group discuss of high profile case studies of famous sports stars who have been caught
taking PIEDs
Debating hypothetical questions about doping in sport
Activities:
“Case Studies” group discussion and debate
Assessment:
Write a letter to a friend who might be taking or thinking about taking PIEDS, exploring
physical, social and emotional effects of the selected PIED and some options for them to
Sports Medicine Australia’s Community Sport Anti-Doping Program
Phone: 03 9674 8777
Email:cleanedge@vic.sma.org.au
enhance their performance cleanly to be the best that they can be (to be completed across 3
lessons). You can use pictures and drawings in the letter.
Resources:
Previous class notes
Recent media
‘CBC Sports’ 10 most influential and bizarre’ drugs in sport cases over the past 10 years
(see below)
Activity 1: “Case Studies” group discussion and debate
Hurdle:
Divide the class into 4 groups and distribute one of the following case studies to each groups
to read and discuss using the questions as prompts.
Create an open environment for discussion and encourage the class to look at both sides of
the case study.
Students take notes about the groups thoughts on the case study and post these thoughts
on a wall for other groups to read.
Organise 1 or 2 debates. Use the 4 groups to run 2 debates or divide the class in half to
have one debate.
Suggested debate topics
 Athletes should be solely responsible for ensuring what goes into their body is not a
banned substance.
 There Olympic Games should be a “Drugged” competition.
 The consequences should be tougher for the coaches and doctors involved in
doping athletes
 Winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games is worth risking a positive doping test
for.
 A sudden improvement in performance makes a person an easy target for doping
accusations
 All athletes in the Tour de France are drug cheats
 There should be a ‘second chance’ for athletes who test positive for doping as a
result of taking a nutritional supplement
 Doping in sport is cheating
Each debate team will have 3 speakers
The affirmative team speaks first
Speakers 1 and 2 have 2 minutes to speak
The third speaker will have 2 minutes and 1 minute for rebuttals
Sports Medicine Australia’s Community Sport Anti-Doping Program
Phone: 03 9674 8777
Email:cleanedge@vic.sma.org.au
Students will vote (hands up) for the winning team.
The notes that students have and the information posted around the class room will be used
for the assessment.
CBC SPORTS
Drugs in Sport - Top 10
1. East German athletes and government sponsored cheating
How does a country of fewer than 17 million people double its Olympic output from 20 to 40 gold medals in just four
years?
Drugs, and plenty of 'em.
The East Germans became a sporting powerhouse in the 1970s and '80s, rivalling the much larger United States and
Soviet Union. Thousands of East German athletes were given performance enhancing steroids in an effort to prove
East German superiority over the West.
Many athletes thought they were simply taking vitamins.
The special pills worked. East Germans were a mighty force in amateur sport, particularly in the pool. But with the
medals and titles came the negative health side effects, such as liver cancer, organ damage, psychological defects,
hormonal changes and infertility.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, many athletes came forward to tell how they were given frequent doses of pills
and needles of unknown substances. Kornelia Ender, Barbara Krause and Carola Nitschke were three of those
swimmers exposed to the doping regime.
Ender, who won four gold and four silver medals at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, revealed she started receiving
injections at the age of 13. Krause, a three-time Olympic gold medallist and eight-time world record holder, was forced
out of the 1976 Olympics because team doctors had miscalculated her dose of drugs and worried she might test
positive at the Games.
Nitschke was also 13 when doctors started giving her the anabolic steroid Oral-Turinabol and injections of the male
hormone testosterone. In 1998, she became the first doped athlete to return her medals and ask that her name be
removed from the record books.
A German court later found the late ex-East German sports boss Manfred Ewald and his medical director, Manfred
Hoeppner, culpable for what it called ‘systematic and overall doping in (East German) competitive sports’ until the fall of
the Berlin Wall. They were given suspended jail sentences and handed minimal fines.
The German government set up a $2.18 million U.S. fund for any doped athlete who wished to file a claim to get some
of their medical bills paid for. Just 197 athletes filed applications by the March 2003 deadline, far fewer than expected.
Each athlete will get less than $10,000, small compensation for years of exposure to dangerous doses of drugs.
Questions for discussion
- How would you feel if you were one of these East German athletes?
- Are these cases good examples of what happens when you use performance and image enhancing drugs?
- Should the consequences be tougher for the coaches and doctors involved in doping the athletes?
- Are the athletes to blame for what happened to them?
- Do you think the athletes are lucky because they ‘got away’ with doping (in the sense of public shame) and winning
because the public knew it wasn’t their choice?
- If there were a repeat of this situation now, would the athletes involved be sanctioned?
CBC SPORTS
Drugs in Sport - Top 10
2. 1983 Pan Am Games: Dawn of drug testing
The modern age of drug testing essentially started at the 1983 Pan Am Games in Caracas, Venezuela. A team of
scientists, led by chemist and drug-testing chief Manfred Donike of Germany, developed a new method for steroid
testing in anticipation of two large international sporting events that year, the Pan Games and world track and field
championships.
What followed paved the way for drug testing for years to come.
Canadian weightlifter Guy Greavette was at the centre of what became the first international drug scandal in sports.
Greavette, along with teammate Michel Viau, was stripped of his medals and handed a two-year suspension after
testing positive for steroids.
The Pan Am drug testing caught a lot of athletes by surprise. After Greavette's positive test, a dozen American athletes
in various events suddenly withdrew from the competition and returned to the U.S., and at least another dozen athletes
from other countries also left without explanation.
Nineteen athletes in total failed drug tests at the 1983 Pan Ams.
Greavette's weightlifting career never recovered, though he is still involved in the sport as a volunteer coach and
executive director of B.C. Weightlifting. In 2001, Greavette told CBC's Sports Journal that he felt he and some other
athletes were made examples of while many athletes from other countries got off without penalty.
Questions for discussion:
- If there was no drug testing in sports, do you think more people would dope?
- Do you think it would be worse to drop out of competition ‘without explanation’ or be caught using drugs?
- Do you think people who are caught using drugs ever ‘recover?’
- Do you think Greavette should be allowed to volunteer as a coach and director of a sporting club?
- Do you think some athletes and countries ‘get off without penalty’?
- What do you think is appropriate punishment for someone caught using banned substances?
CBC SPORTS
Drugs in Sport - Top 10
3. The U.S. Track & Field cover-ups
It is perhaps the biggest doping cover-up in all of sports.
Dr. Wade Exum's report that 19 American medallists were allowed to compete at various Olympic Games from 1988 to
2000 despite having earlier failed drug tests shocked some people in the sporting community but was no surprise to
others.
For years, insiders had speculated that U.S. athletes were not immune to delving into doping to get ahead of the
competition. But how could this be? American athletes often spoke publicly against illegal drug use in sport, cursing the
sport regimes of East Germany and China for systemic doping practices.
"There is no commitment to stopping the drug problem,” said track and field star Carl Lewis in 2000. "People know the
sport is dirty, the sport is so driven by records.” Little did Lewis know he would be named in Exum's report. The fivetime Olympic medallist was among the athletes named in more than 30,000 pages of documents released by former
U.S. Olympic Committee anti-doping chief to Sports Illustrated and several newspapers in 2003. More than 100
athletes from several different sports tested positive for banned substances between 1988 and 2000 but were cleared
by internal appeals processes.
According to Exum's evidence, Lewis was one of three eventual Olympic gold medallists who tested positive for banned
stimulants in the months leading up to the 1988 Seoul Games. Exum made the initial allegations about coverups in
2000, which led several sporting organisations – among them, the IOC, IAAF and the World Anti-Doping Agency – to
pressure the USOC to re-examine how they conducted drug testing.
Soon, the USOC turned over drug testing responsibilities to the newly founded U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Don't worry,
the USOC assured, this type of cover-up will never happen again. So far, it hasn't. (Well, aside from track and field's
Jerome Young being allowed to compete – and win a gold medal – at the 2000 Sydney Olympics despite testing
positive for steroids in 1999.)
These coverups still beg the question: How could a country's own Olympic federation turn their backs on the oath of fair
play and allow drug cheats to compete for a decade's worth of Olympic Games?
Ben Johnson would like to know.
Lewis was awarded the gold medal in the 100-metres after Johnson was disqualified for using steroids.
The Canadian sprinter told the Toronto Star that he felt somewhat vindicated by Exum's report.
"It was (for years) like I was the only cheat," he told the newspaper. "I knew time would take care of the truth."
Questions for discussion:
- Is it fair that these athletes were able to compete despite having banned substances
show up in their tests?
- Do you think sport is ‘dirty’ or ‘driven by records’?
- Do you think every country has doping problems?
- Should Jerome Young have his medal taken away?
- Are people who use drugs in sport always ‘cheats’?
CBC SPORTS
Drugs in Sport - Top 10
4. Canada's shame: Ben Johnson
Johnson captured the imagination of Canadians on Sepember 27, 1988, when he won the 100-metre sprint title in a
world-record time of 9.79 seconds at the Seoul Olympics. To make the victory even sweeter, Johnson captured the
gold medal by handily defeating American rival Carl Lewis.
The euphoria of Johnson's win didn't last, however, when it was found the Canadian tested positive for the anabolic
steroid stanozolol.
Johnson's claim that the positive test stemmed from a spiked herbal drink the night before the race was unfounded (not
that his positive test was any surprise, considering his inflated deltoid muscles and jaundiced eyes, but how many
Canadians wanted to believe that?). Johnson was subsequently stripped of his gold medal and world record and
banned from competition for two years. The disgrace of the event was a black eye on Canadian amateur sport and
pushed the drugs in sport issue to the forefront like never before.
Nearly 15 years later, it was discovered that several American track athletes tested positive for drugs before those
same Seoul Games. Allegedly among them was Lewis, who was awarded the gold medal after Johnson's
disqualification.
It appears that Johnson became the goat for all.
Questions for discussion:
- Do you think doping is more of a problem in power sports, such as sprinting, than other types of sports?
- If your sporting hero was found to have tested positive to drugs, would you ‘want to believe it’? Would you still idolise
them?
- Do you think Australia is doing enough to stop doping in sports?
CBC SPORTS
Drugs in Sport - Top 10
5. Last to first: Irish swimmer Michelle Smith
Irish eyes were smiling during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Michelle Smith was the pride of Ireland after winning
three gold and one bronze medal in the pool.
No one else was smiling. Her rise to the top of the swimming world was extremely suspicious. In two previous Olympic
Games, Smith's best result was 17th in the 200-metre backstroke. In 1993, she was ranked 90th in the world in the 400
individual medley, but after training with husband Erik de Bruin – a former Dutch discus thrower who was under a fouryear suspension for failing a drug test – she vaulted into 17th in the world by the next year.
By Atlanta, the 26-year-old Smith had won several European titles and trimmed a whopping 17 seconds off two
personal bests. After her Olympic success, it was discovered that FINA, swimming's international federation,
had repeatedly expressed concern that Smith was unavailable for out-of-competition drug tests from 1995 onward.
Finally, in 1998, two drug testers showed up at Smith and de Bruin's home. Smith gave them a sample, but because
she was wearing a bulky sweater, the tester couldn't see what she was doing. The sample was sealed and sent to a
Barcelona lab for examination. The results were shocking. The sample contained a level of alcohol that would
be fatal if consumed by a human.
FINA concluded that the sample had been manipulated, that whiskey had been added as a masking agent and they
suspended Smith for four years.
Those athletes who finished behind Smith in 1996 – including Canadians Marianne Limpert (silver) and Joanne Malar
(fourth) in the 200IM – can only wonder what might have been.
Questions for discussion:
- Do you think it’s possible for someone to improve so dramatically without drugs?
- Do you think Smith should have had her medals and titles stripped?
- How would you feel if you came second to someone who was later banned on doping allegations?
- Do you know how a drug test is conducted?
CBC SPORTS
Drugs in Sport - Top 10
6. Chinese swim team
Dihydrotestosterone, anabolic steroids, erythropoietin and human growth hormones. All banned substances. All used
by various members of the Chinese national swim team in the last 15 years.
China did not register among the world's swimming powers until the 1990s, and when they did, they did with a bang.
The country won four swimming gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and then took 12 of 16 women's titles at
the 1994 world championships. The team's sudden success fuelled suspicion of drug use, and by the next big
competition, those hunches proved true.
Eleven athletes tested positive for dihydrotestosterone at the 1994 Asian Games. The big bust decimated the swim
squad for the 1996 Olympics (they won just one gold), but soon enough the Chinese were back on top again. Not for
long, however. Four positive tests before the 1998 world championships along with the vials of the human growth
hormone found in breaststroker Yuan Yuan's luggage before the worlds signalled that doping was still thriving in
China's pools.
Though the country maintained there was no systemic doping on its swim teams, the statistics say otherwise. Over 40
Chinese swimmers since 1990 have failed drug tests. That's triple the amount of any other swimming country during the
same period of time. After pressure from FINA, swimming's governing body, China's swim association promised
stricter drug testing and higher penalties for cheats. Just before the 2000 Sydney Olympics, China removed four
swimmers from its team because of ‘suspicious’ drug test results.
Chinese swimmers were rarely on the podium in major competitions until the 2003 world aquatic championships in
Barcelona. There, the women's team collected seven swimming medals, including three gold. Whether those swims
were clean or not, China's young swimmers will have to compete under a cloud of suspicion for years to come due to
the generation of cheaters before them.
Questions for discussion:
- Do you think a sudden improvement in performance makes a person an easy target for doping accusations?
- Who’s responsibility do you think it is to ensure athletes are drug tested and punished properly – the country, national
body, international body or other?
- Do you think Chinese swimmers will be competing ‘under a cloud of suspicion for years to come?’ Why or why not?
CBC SPORTS
Drugs in Sport - Top 10
7. Tour de France
Enthusiasts say the Tour de France is the biggest, hardest, most gruelling race there is, a prize so precious that cyclists
will do anything to win. And they have.
In the past, riders have scattered broken glass and fans have tossed nails on the road to confound rivals. And that's
just for starters.
In the 1960s, riders attempted to gain a competitive edge with amphetamines and alcohol. In doing so, Britain's Tim
Simpson lost his life during the 1967 Tour. Some say cycling faced a near death following the 1998 doping scandal in
which French officials caught an employee of the Festina cycling team with a car load of performance enhancing drugs,
including erythropoietin (EPO) – a hormone that helps the blood carry more oxygen, letting you go faster and longer on
your two wheels.
Following an arrest in the case, six of Festina's nine riders conceded they had used performance enhancing drugs,
including current Credit Agricole team leader Christophe Moreau. Later that year, he tested positive for anabolic
steroids. In early 2002, Italy's Stefano Garzelli, leader of the Vini Caldirola team, tested positive for traces of
probenecid, a diuretic that can be used to mask other drugs. And Spanish cyclist Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano was
banned from this past summer's Tour de France after a test during the 2002 event found excessive levels of an antiasthma drug. And most recently, in January 2004, French police seized male hormones, EPO, amphetamines and
arrested two cyclists in the anti-doping investigation involving Cofidis, one of France's top teams and home to three
world champions.
Questions for discussion:
- Do you think cyclists in the Tour de France are more likely to be tempted to dope, since it is respected as one of the
world’s toughest sporting events?
- Do you think the Tour de France has more problems with drug cheats than other sports?
- Were there any doping accusations in the most recent Tour de France?
- Are cyclists more likely to dope than those who compete in other sports?
CBC SPORTS
Drugs in Sport - Top 10
8. Baseball: andro, steroids and supplements
Between Mark McGwire's andro usage and Ken Caminiti's revelation in Sports Illustrated about steroids in baseball, the
sport is having an image crisis. McGwire went from the svelte American League rookie of the year in 1987 to the heavy
hitting home run king who broke Roger Maris' single-season home run record in 1998. McGwire said the transformation
in his size was the combination of hard work and an over the-counter testosterone-producing pill called
androstenedione, or andro.
Andro became controversial because it is banned by the IOC, NFL, NBA and NHL, but not by Major League Baseball.
In May of 2002, Jose Canseco announced his retirement from baseball, and as a parting shot (and perhaps a promo for
his tell-all book) he said 85 per cent of all baseball players used steroids. Later, Canseco admitted to taking steroids
himself. Later that month, Sports Illustrated published an investigative report describing professional baseball as ‘a
pharmacological trade show’. In the article, former National League MVP Ken Caminiti told the magazine ‘at least half
the guys are using steroids’.
In November of 2003, MLB announced that between five to seven per cent of 1,438 anonymous tests on all players
came back positive for steroids this year – the equivalent of nearly two full major league rosters. As part of the league's
drug policy, the findings mean there will be random testing again next season, with players facing sanctions and
possible public exposure.
The latest scar on the sport is the connection between San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds and the nutritional
supplements company BALCO, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, which is reportedly the source of the designer
steroid, THG.
Several major league players appeared before a federal grand jury investigating BALCO, including Bonds, who
shattered the single-season home run record in 2001, and New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi.
Questions for discussion:
- Do you think there is one sport in Australia that has a particular doping problem?
- Do you think many athletes use drugs but don’t get caught?
- If someone admits they used drugs during their sporting career, but didn’t get caught, should they get punished? If so,
what type of punishment?
- Do you think doping in a team sport is worse that doping in an individual sport?
- How would you feel if someone in your team was doping? Would you dob them in?
- If athletes think or know their teammates are using drugs, do you think they would feel more pressured to do so as
well?
CBC SPORTS
Drugs in Sport - Top 10
9. Cross-country skiing and doping: a Nordic tradition
Attention cross-country skiers: If you want to cheat, you may not want to leave that bloodtransfusion equipment lying
around your house.
That's what some members of the Austrian cross-country ski team did at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games. The IOC
began an investigation after a cleaner found blood-transfusion materials in a residence used by the Austrians during the
Games. The team's results were reassessed, and after a three-month investigation, two athletes (nonmedallists)
were disqualified and two team officials were banned from the next two Winter Olympics.
The Austrians claimed the equipment was used for ultraviolet radiation treatment of athletes' blood to treat and prevent
colds and flu, not for performance enhancing purposes…Umm…sure.
Doping has been rampant in cross-country skiing for years. Use of EPO, or erythropoietin, is as common as ski wax,
and blood doping has become an art. Six Finnish skiers tested positive for HES – a banned plasma volume expander –
at the 2001 world championships in Finland, one of the biggest doping scandals in the sport. It exposed some of
Finland's top stars including Jari Isometsa, Mika Myllyla, Janne Immonen and Harri Kirvesniemi.
Also at the Salt Lake Games, three skiers certainly didn't help the tainted image of their sport by testing positive for the
drug darbepoetin. Darbepoetin boosts the production of red blood cells that help carry oxygen to muscles. The
drug is used to treat severe anaemia, which can be caused by chronic kidney illness or by chemotherapy treatment.
Hey, whatever helps you get ahead of the competition, right?
Two of those athletes caught – Russian medallists Olga Danilova and Larissa Lazutina –didn't get far ahead for long.
Eighteen months after Salt Lake City, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Canadian Beckie Scott, who finished
third in the five-kilometre pursuit, should be awarded the gold medal since Danilova and Lazutina were ineligible due to
previous failed drug tests.
Questions for discussion:
- Do you think it was good that Beckie Scott was awarded the gold medal after 18 months?
- Do you think the glory would have been as good for Beckie Scott, 18 months after the race?
- Who do you think the general public will remember as the winner of that race – Beckie Scott, or the athlete later
deemed ineligible due to a failed drug test?
- How long after a race is it deemed ‘too late’ to change the results?
CBC SPORTS
Drugs in Sport - Top 10
10. Nandrolone and nutritional supplements
Over the past decade, the sporting world has seen a rash of positive tests for the banned steroid nandrolone, giving it
the unofficial title as the most common drug used – intentionally or inadvertently by athletes today.
Nandrolone has been implicated in hundreds of recent doping cases involving athletes in just about every sport,
especially track and field, cycling, soccer and tennis.
And almost immediately after these failed drug tests, the denials and excuses follow. The most common reason for a
positive test? Contaminated nutritional supplements, vitamins and energy drinks. Because of the unusual number of
positive tests, scientists believe the steroid may be contained in improperly labelled nutritional supplements popular
with high-performance athletes. However, the IOC and IAAF, track and fields governing body, stipulate that athletes
are responsible for what they put in their bodies.
In January 2004, Canadian-born British tennis star Greg Rusedski joined a long list of athletes who have tested positive
for nandrolone. He isn't the only tennis player, either. According to reports, 47 players on the pro tour have tested
positive for the banned steroid.
Questions for discussion:
- Do you think the public hears less about doping in sports that aren’t played at the Olympics (such as tennis)?
- Should there be a ‘second chance’ for athletes who test positive for doping as a result of taking a nutritional
supplement?
- How can you be sure a nutritional supplement doesn’t contain a banned substance?