Behind every glorious victory, there is an untold amount of sweat and persistence. However, some athletes may use tricky ways to obtain victory. Authorized by the Ministry of Education, Tzu Chi Medical College has established the first drug testing center for athletes to protect their health and to prevent harm resulting from drug abuse.

Do you still remember the opening scene of the movie Chariots of Fire? A group of athletes were jogging on the beach, with the blue ocean in the background providing a sense of perspective. Seagulls flew in the distance and the waves slowly and regularly splashed on the shore, like athletes in training who come and go regularly and endlessly. Although brief, this scene led viewers to ponder-behind every glorious victory, there is an untold amount of sweat and persistence.

Drug Testing Ensures Fairness

Athletes are often seriously tempted by the fame, money and adoration which follow victory in sports. Some cheat in order to win competitions. More than one hundred years ago, people injected morphine extracts into racehorses. In the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, Missouri, some marathon runners took brandy mixed with arsenic and eggs to improve their performance.

However, drug use may be dangerous. According to statistics, sixteen athletes died from doping between 1960 and 1988. At the Olympic Games held in Rome in 1960, the public was shocked when a Danish bicycle racer died from an overdose of amphetamines. In another bicycle race held in France in 1967, a racer died from the same cause. An investigation by the International Olympic Committee found that in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, many athletes had used drugs. The IOC Medical Commission was then established to study the issue of doping controls, in order to ensure athletes' health and fairness in competition.

The first full-scale drug tests were performed at the 1968 summer Olympic Games in Mexico City and the winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France. In 1993 Ben Johnson, a sprinter from Canada, was banned from all further competitions after testing positive for drugs a second time. In the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan, the large number of athletes from mainland China who won gold medals created a sensation. Later on, test findings disclosed that some of them had used testosterone. The athletes were stripped of their gold medals and were banned from competition.

To most athletes in their prime years, being banned from competition is a serious punishment. In less serious cases, even if they are allowed to compete again several years later, they may not still have the vigor of their younger years, and there may be side effects left by the doping.

Doping Breaks Rules and Endangers Health

According to the International Olympic Committee, doping by athletes means that during competitions, the athlete uses foreign agents which are not produced by the body (such as toxic drugs and diuretics), or uses improper methods, such as muscle or vein injection, to induce into the body large quantities of substances originally produced by the body, such as erythropoietin or growth hormones, and thereby enhance athletic performance.

If an athlete has to take medicine during competition due to medical needs, it is considered doping if the medicine has an impact on performance, no matter what category of drugs the medicine falls into, what the concentration is, and how it is administered. Therefore, not only toxic drugs, but also medicines may break the rule if the administration of them obviously endangers the athlete's health or affects his athletic performance.

Taiwan's First Drug Testing Center

Today, of the nearly 200 member countries of the International Olympic Committee, twenty-two countries have drug testing centers certified by the IOC Medical Commission to test athletes. The presence of such a center gives a country an advantage in applying for the right to hold large-scale international games.

The testing and study of drug use among athletes are part of the future plans of the Tzu Chi Medical College. In February 1994, the Ministry of Education authorized the college to set up the first drug testing center for athletes in Taiwan, in the hope that this testing will be upgraded from screening to drug differentiation.

In April 1995, the Ministry of Education officially announced the establishment of the Drug Testing Center for Athletes. In January 1997, the center was formally opened with Wu Ching-kuo, Olympic Committee member, Yang Chao-hsiang, vice education minister, and Dr. Lee Ming-liang , president of Tzu Chi Medical College, cutting the ribbon in the opening ceremony. It is hoped that this center will be certified by the International Olympic Committee in five years.

Dr. Jordi Segura, executive secretary of the IOC subcommittee for doping and biochemistry of sport, recently visited the center. He commented that Tzu Chi's spirit in helping the poor by establishing hospitals and schools was the same as that of the International Olympic Committee. He affirmed Tzu Chi's efforts in caring for athletes' health, and he also emphasized that although drug tests are held for athletes to prevent unfairness in competition, it is actually a way to promote awareness among the general public of the dangers of drugs.

Among the five categories of prohibited drugs, some are toxic. Technicians at the drug testing center can offer their experience in this field to related government organizations. They may even join educational organizations to launch anti-drug campaigns and tests. Furthermore, doping by athletes to win victory reflects unhealthy social values. If the public fights against it, this trend can be stopped.

Constant Evaluation

According to the medical guidelines of the International Olympic Committee, a drug testing center has to be able to meet requirements in the following four categories before it can be certified: sampling procedures, storage of samples and medicine, analysis of samples, and quality of the laboratory.

Workers who collect samples must be different from those who test the samples, and the whole procedure must be monitored to safeguard the rights of honest athletes. At the same time , the International Olympic Committee conducts annual evaluations to make sure that each laboratory continues to be qualified.

For the time being, the primary method of drug testing is urine analysis , which is given during both competitions and training. When notified, an athlete has to reach a sampling station within one hour, accompanied by drug testing center employees. He or she must choose two bottles and, under supervision, fill them with at least 100 ml of urine, and then hand them to the employees.

The samples must then be sent under strict monitoring to the laboratory. If the first sample tests positive for drugs, the remaining urine is taken from the first bottle to be tested again. If the finding is still positive, the athlete is notified of the results. At the same time, the urine in the other bottle is tested. If the finding is also positive, it confirms that the athlete is taking drugs.

Dr. Tseng Ying-lung, director of the Drug Testing Center for Athletes, indicated that the entire drug test procedure, including notifying athletes, accompanying them all the way to the station, sampling, performing tests and pharmaceutical analysis, and announcing the results , is entirely professional. Mutual understanding is very important. It not only ensures fairness in competitions and protects athletes' health, but also helps athletes to avoid making mistakes due to a lack of common sense.

However, in spite of all the technical advances, cases may still arise in which present technology is insufficient. Dr. Tseng hopes that communication with foreign laboratories can make up for the local lack of experience in sampling and testing.