Legal Issues in the Olympics
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The Canadian Olympic Committee had revealed that over 30 athletes could not take part in the recently concluded Winter Olympics held at Vancouver because of doping charges. This only reiterated the fact that when it comes to the Olympics, legal issues are aplenty.
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The Olympics involve millions of people from all corners of the world, and legal issues can be anything from the routine to the bizarre and scandalous; it could be an assault on an Olympic gold medal hopeful to the improper use of free speech, and the most common of them all -- the illegal use of performance enhancing drugs. Since the Olympics held in Ancient Greece, athletes have been resorting to the use of various substances for better performances. Obviously they did not know about steroid injections back then, but history reveals that Ancient Olympians ate exotic meats and drank particular kinds of concoctions for doing their best. The Olympics have officially recorded one death due to doping, and that was of Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen, who took amphetamines, lost consciousness and then fell down while participating in a race in Rome, during the 1960 Summer Olympics. It was mainly due to Jensen’s death that International Olympic Committee took a decision in 1967 that put a ban on all performance-enhancing drugs.
The same body also started drug testing for athletes taking part in the Olympics. This was a universal requirement for all athletes from all countries participating in the Olympics and it started just before the Summer Olympics that were held in Mexico City in 1968.
Today the Olympics have a long list of substances that are considered as banned and prohibited substances, which include narcotics, androgens, stimulants, diuretics, hormones and cannabinoids.
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