Of course I’m not denying that there is a huge amount of doping going on in professional sport. Where ever lots of money is involved some athletes will try and take shortcuts. It is easy to see where it all starts though. Pressure to perform from family, sponsors and a personal desire to do well, sometimes causes people to do stupid things. This pressure doesn’t just materialise out of now where. It’s always there. There was a scandal at a top Johannesburg high school when the entire first rugby squad refused to take drug test and the coach resigned in protest.

Then we have the fact that nutritional companies and pharmaceutical companies keep trying to make a better product. The easiest way for them to do this is to add small amount of performance enhancing substances. Often these are banned substances, but in so-called “trace” amounts. It is estimated that more than 70% of weight loss and sport supplements contained banned substances. Many amateur sports persons actually use supplements for protein building, carbo-loading and weight loss that contain these banned substances without their knowledge.

An example of how dangerous this can be is a few years ago a top South African triathlete competed in a small local race, won it, and tested positive for ephedrine (a previously banned substance with similar affects as caffeine). The athlete was well known for his anti-doping stance and under further investigation it appeared one of his supplements contain ephedrine but it was not listed as an ingredient. The athlete got off lightly with a 3 month ban, but with more and more supplement manufacturers competing for a better product soon the unknown ingredients will end sportsmen’s careers.

Then we have the real dopers. The cyclists, tennis players and rugby players who inject measured amounts of banned substances into themselves to try and beat all their opposition. I must admit I believe that most competitors are clean and there are a very small percentage of dopers but this may just be wishful thinking. With new technology appearing all the time it is getting easier and easier for crooked athletes to dope.

Plus we have constant infighting in the organisations that are supposed to catch the dopers. A perfect example of this is when the French anti-doping agency charged Lance Armstrong on a technical irregularity brought about when their official was not carrying proper identification and gave Lance permission to shower while he got conformation. They dropped the charges on Friday the 24th but had they managed to charge him he would have missed the Tour de France in July this year. How can professional cyclists place their trust in such a mixed up and constantly aggressive authority?

Well we can only hope for the remaining dopers in any sport to be caught. And anyway, without doping how else would we explain the success of athletes we don’t like?

Danny Matthews is a short fat cyclist.