Module 3: Contemporary issues

Current issues in sport

1. Introduction
2. Deviance
   1. Gamesmanship
3. Drugs and banned substances
   1. Reasons why people take drugs in sport
   2. Brief history of drugs in sport
   3. Banned substances activity
4. Globalisation in sport
5. Commercialisation
6. Health initiatives
7. Education and sport in schools
   1. PESSYP
   2. Other school sports initiatives
8. Child protection issues in sport
   1. Key principles that coaches must adhere to
   2. Types of abuse that can occur
9. Religion, culture and racism in sport
10. Gender
11. Current issues activity

Brief history of drugs in sport

• 400BC - Greeks known to eat extract of certain plants and mushrooms in order to improve performance
• Roman Period - Gladiators were drugged in order for them to fight more effectively
• 1886 - Pro cyclist Linton died from a reported overdose of strychnine amphetamine
• 1904 - Olympic marathon runner Thomas Hicks almost dies from strychnine
• 1930's - Amphetamines were first produced
• 1950's - Soviet Union athletes' used male hormones to improve strength and power
• 1952 - Speed skaters taken ill at the Winter Olympics due to amphetamine usage
• 1960 - Danish cyclist Kurt Jensen collapsed and died from an amphetamine overdose
• 1967 - Tommy Simpson died during Tour De France again due to amphetamine usage
• 1968 - I.O.C. produce the first list of banned substances
• 1976 - First steroid tests introduced at the Olympic Games
• 1983 - Sports Council call for the expansion of random drug testing in the UK
• 1984 - Olympic 1000m champion Finn Vaataninen was proved to have used blood doping
• 1988 - Ben Johnson was tested positive and stripped of his 100m gold medal and world record after testing positive for anabolic steroids
• 1996 - Olympic Gold medallist Michelle Smith (De Bruin) tested positive for anabolic steroids
• 1999/2000 - A number of athletes' particularly British test positive for the banned substance nandrolone
• 2003 - British sprinter Dwain Chambers banned from athletics for being found guilty of using THG
• 2004 - Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou pulled out of the 2004 Athens Olympics after missing a drugs test and then being involved in a bike crash. Many feel that the crash was covering up a drugs scandal involving the pair