Scientific advances boost anti-doping campaign

The unprecedented anti-doping campaign for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne is aimed at making these Games the cleanest ever with thousands of tests being carried out on athletes in Australia and overseas.

Athletes deal with the threats and temptations of performance-enhancing drugs in a wide variety of ways.

One Australian Olympic and Commonwealth Games weightlifter was disqualified from the 2004 Olympics for fleeing when drug testers came to the gym in Fiji where she was training. It was reported that the athlete denied her identity, gave testers a false name, ran from the gym into the parking lot, jumped into her car and allegedly attempted to run over both testers after they had placed the drug testing request papers on her car windshield.

World Anti-Doping Agency director-general David Howman says that taking the anti-doping fight offshore before the event will catch drug cheats in Melbourne.

"Doping control officers will be trained and available in regions where they weren't in the past and that's a significant advance on (2002 Commonwealth Games) Manchester," Mr Howman said. "The Australians won't have any say on who is tested.

"It's independent so no one can suggest Australia is looking at pin-pointing key opposition to make sure they're tested."

When the 4500 athletes expected at the Games arrive in Melbourne, they are likely to face the most advanced testing system seen. Mr Howman warned there could be more positive drug results here than at any other Commonwealth Games.

"We said before Athens we expected more positive tests than Sydney and there were," Mr Howman said, "and the reason for that is advances in analyses and scientific advancements.

"The capability and technology (at Melbourne) will be well ahead of Athens. Until athletes realise there's no point cheating... we'll continue to have positive cases."

One of WADA's most curious cheating discoveries was at the 2004 Athens Olympics when athletes were found using elaborate ruses to evade detection. Testers discovered a balloon inserted into an athlete's rectum and a fake penis - each containing a clean urine sample that could be deployed when required.

There were 978 doping tests at the 2002 Manchester Games. Seven positive results were investigated further with two weightlifters and a wrestler banned from the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Why do athletes use drugs?

The basic desire to be successful and satisfy ego requirements is a major source of internal pressure.

Problems such as self doubt, lack of confidence, nervousness, stress and depression are common to all athletes. The characteristics of self pressure are not exclusive to people in the sporting field.

Successful athletes are also often associated with successful coaches. As a result, the coach may place direct pressure on an athlete to perform and may be the source of further internal pressure.

Competitors set the standards to which an athlete must perform. If an athlete believes that a competitor has obtained some kind of advantage, then the pressure also to use this advantage is significant - for example, a better designed swimsuit, golf club, a lighter running shoe - or the use of steroids. Similar peer group pressure may come from team mates.

The expectations of family and friends are often a source of pressure, particularly at the lower levels of competition. Previously successful family members may also create pressure.

Spectators create a great source of pressure both at the elite and lower levels of competition. At the elite level, athletes are often adopted as role models and will often take the hopes and aspirations of thousands of fans into competition.

Spectators are also the source of money and applause; hence the athlete may feel pressure to perform to standards expected by the public. The fickle nature of public support also creates pressure. Generally, we all love a winner and often adopt a 'win at all costs' mentality.

At the lower level of competition the presence of spectators may increase the anxiety levels of athletes. This may affect an athlete's performance and in due course influence an athlete's behaviour.

The media plays an important role in shaping the opinions and attitudes of the general public. How the media portrays an athlete, and how they report on an athlete's performance, can not only influence the public but the athlete as well.

Unreasonable scheduling of competitions and the establishment of unrealistic performance standards are ways in which sports administrators may contribute to the pressures on athletes. Similarly, promoters of sports events usually demand a high standard of performance from athletes to enhance the credibility and the promotional qualities of events they sponsor.

Pressure for sporting success may also be the result of social incentives to achieve. The glory and recognition for sporting achievements is a strong motivator towards success. Sporting success may provide an athlete with greater access and mobility to other social groups, that is, successful athletes are usually given the opportunity to meet and mix with people outside their usual social group, such as politicians and media personalities.

Financial and material rewards can now be major influences on athletes and sporting performance. Sport, which was once an activity to fill in leisure time, has now become a way to earn a living for some elite athletes. It has been observed that money-making principles have begun to replace athletes' moral principles or sense of honour.

Enormous salaries, product endorsements and potential careers outside the sporting field are some of the rewards available to the successful athlete. Rewards are also available to athletes at lower levels of competition and to those in amateur sport. Even at junior levels, inducements such as scholarships are a significant incentive, and can increase the pressure to achieve.

Successful athletes at the highest level are sometimes elevated to the position of national heroes and carry the pressures of their countries' honour and pride with them. Nations can also use their athletes as political and diplomatic weapons. In international competition, one country's sporting successes over another country are often viewed as proof of ideological or national superiority. Such has certainly been the case in the modern Olympic Games, where enormous emphasis is placed on the number of gold medals won by a country, with even greater pressure being placed on the host country.

Factors such as an athlete's desire to win, the desire to please their coach and family, the glory of victory and the social and economic reward of sporting success often send the athlete in search of a competitive edge. Sometimes this search leads to the use of drugs.

Who is in charge?

The Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA) is responsible for implementing the drug testing program at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.

ASDA expects to conduct more tests than at any previous Commonwealth Games during the 12-day event and will employ the expertise developed in drug testing for major sporting events including the Goodwill Games in Brisbane in 2001 and the Rugby World Cup in Sydney in 2003.

The Australian government has invested $112.9 million in direct assistance and $180.8 million in support and services to the Victorian Government to aid in the delivery of programs for the Games to ensure they are a success and are not impacted by the use of banned substances.

ASDA complies with the World Anti-Doping Code, the first international agreement designed to harmonise the testing regimes of different countries, and the procedures used in Melbourne will be shared with other Commonwealth countries to help them enhance their own drug-testing regimes.

The increasing sophistication of designer anabolic steroids such as Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) has made the drugs increasingly difficult to detect in recent years, but modern tests implemented by ASDA in cooperation with the World Anti-Doping Agency have managed to stay ahead of the latest performance enhancers available on the black market.

Human growth hormones have become increasingly popular with sporting drug cheats because of the difficulty of testing for their use.

ASDA is working with its international partners to improve on tests used during the Athens 2004 Olympics to develop highly accurate tests in time for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Education is the key

With 53 countries and 18 territories of the Commonwealth taking part in the event, ASDA launched an education campaign to ensure all athletes travelling to the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games know what type of testing will be required of them.

Some of the athletes are coming from smaller Commonwealth countries where they may not have the same high standard of drug testing programs as Australia and for some it will be the first time they have been tested for banned substances.

To ensure they know how to comply with ASDA's testing regime, all athletes will be sent information through their Commonwealth Games Association before they leave their home countries which will be followed-up with information once they arrive at the Athletes Village in Melbourne.