We’ll cover the reasons why athletes turn to drugs to overcome slumps and the problems they cause. The importance of anti-doping measures and psychological approaches are also emphasized.
Humans are animals of desire. Individuals seek a better life, and nations dream of a higher position in the international community. However, human desire is not only triggered by these abstract and mundane aspects of life, but also by something quite unique. People who have achieved a certain level of stability in their lives are driven by the need to engage in activities that allow them to express their personal self-esteem outside of rituals. They want to have something of their own that can be recognized by others.
Superheroes are one of the most common forms of expression of these feelings. Everyone knows Batman and Spider-Man. People watch these movies and feel a sense of excitement and vicarious satisfaction that they don’t feel in their daily lives. However, since we know that superheroes cannot be realized in real life, we can be satisfied at the stage of visualizing our desires, which leaves a clean aftertaste. But what if it were possible? Many people would love to be the hero of their own movie. Our commutes to work might be filled with colorful crime-fighting heroes, and many of us would crave that power, even if we had to risk our lives to get it. We’re lucky that this hasn’t happened yet.
However, there is one movie that makes me think that it might happen, at least in part, in real life. In the movie “Limitless”, the incompetent protagonist takes a new drug that activates his brain and achieves things he could only dream of. He learns one language a day and makes money by predicting the stock market, so it’s not really a new drug, it’s a god drug. It’s a much more realistic story than flying superheroes, and the process of gaining powers is much simpler than a crazy spider bite.
Since the movie’s release, there have been many inquiries about whether such a drug is actually being developed. While the movie clearly showed the side effects of taking the drug and stopping it would kill you, not even the threat of death could stop people from wanting it. The problem is that the side effects of these drugs are directly related to life and can extend to the point of violating human dignity.
The closest thing we have to a real-world example of this problem is in athletics. We’ve all heard of doping tests. It’s a test used to detect the use of illegal substances by athletes in athletic competitions like the Olympics. The term originated from the practice of doping racehorses to make them run better. Every year, many athletes are caught using illegal substances, and recently, Lance Armstrong, the champion of the world-famous Tour de France cycling race and famous cancer survivor, made waves when he was caught using drugs in a doping test. The reason why celebrity drug use is such a big deal is that it can leave many people who are trying to be honest feeling disenfranchised, betrayed, and, in some cases, tempted to copycat crimes.
But even more problematic is the fact that this behavior can be coerced. In the past, East Germany won many medals at the Olympics, but it was at the expense of its own athletes. In fact, Heidi Krieger, made famous by the TV show Surprise, was a talented female shot putter for East Germany who was tricked into taking anabolic steroids, a type of male hormone, under the guise of vitamins. Heidi Krieger eventually won a gold medal, but retired in 1990 at the age of 24 due to an excess of androgenic hormones, and as a side effect of the medication, she transitioned to male.
These are all examples of people who were forced to take drugs against their will, and it’s obviously a terrible thing to do with no regard for human dignity. The problem is that these things are still happening in the year 2024. In fact, one of the reasons Lance Armstrong got in trouble was because it was revealed that he was pushing drugs on his teammates.
Some people may have doubts about whether controlled substances are really dangerous, so let’s take a quick look at the types of controlled substances and their side effects. There are three main types of banned substances: permanent banned substances, banned substances during competition, and sport-specific banned substances. The first category includes anabolic agents, hormones and related drugs, beta-2 agonists, hormone antagonists and modulators, diuretics, and cover-ups. Secondly, the banned substances during competition include stimulants, narcotics, cannabinoids, and adrenocorticotropic hormones. Finally, specific sports banned substances include alcohol and beta-blockers.
Some of the most common side effects of these drugs are liver damage, myocardial infarction, gender changes, decreased sexual function, muscle and skeletal damage, increased aggression, brain damage, and the list goes on and on. In terms of deaths related to banned substances, between 2003 and 2005, more than 10 athletes between the ages of 16 and 35 died of heart attacks. In South Korea, an independent organization dedicated to doping, the Korea Anti-Doping Agency (KADA), was established in 2006 to conduct systematic doping tests. However, studies have shown that despite these risks, the rate of doping violations continues to rise year after year. The irony is that the more anti-doping education and promotion is emphasized and implemented, the more athletes are caught doping.
According to statistics provided by the Korea Institute of Sports Science and Technology, the number of cases in 2020 was 37, 42 in 2021, 45 in 2022, and 50 in 2023, increasing each year. In other words, athletes continue to use drugs despite the risk of losing their lives and the increasingly systematized doping tests.
Not all athletes who use drugs were tempted to do so in the first place. However, we believe that many athletes who are unable to overcome the slumps that come with being an athlete are easily tempted. There are many reasons for slumps. It could be that no matter how much you practice, at some point you stop getting better, or that you have a jinx where you always perform well enough in practice but make mistake after mistake in practice. They no longer have faith in their practice and skills, and they turn to drugs.
The best way to save them from drugs is to use a psychological approach. The slump itself is a mental illness, so if they learn to stabilize their psychological state, they”ll be able to resist the temptation to use drugs. The first step is to help them regain their faith in themselves. This can”t be done by simply encouraging them or giving them advice, but by giving them the scientific evidence that they need to be confident.
Alvaro Pascual Leon, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, has studied the brain remotely through a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation. He wanted to find out what happens to the brain when you improve your skills through practice. When he had volunteers play the piano repeatedly for a week, the part of the brain that controls the movement of each finger grew significantly. He then divided the subjects into two groups, with one group stopping practicing and the other adding four more weeks of practice. Surprisingly, both groups’ brains reverted back to normal within a week. This is a result of the brain’s ability to work efficiently, as it undergoes long-term structural changes when practiced consistently. Many of the neural bundles that were initially created are effectively integrated into the brain’s basic circuitry and become more efficient. However, for those who practice their specialized skills day and night, the brain’s structure expands once again to accommodate all of the finely honed neural wiring. Those who have reached this level of mastery have all of their skills wrapped up in their primal movement.
It may be boring to write about, but showing these stories to athletes with tangible research will help many athletes feel more confident about their efforts. There is a field of sports psychology that is currently underutilized, and in fact, the Hanwha Eagles, a professional baseball team, officially hired a mental trainer this year to help them get out of a slump. If this perspective is further expanded and a systematic structure is established that is responsible for the psychology of athletes in all fields, not just certain sports, it is expected to play a big role in preventing drug use.
And it’s not just the psychology of athletes, but also the way our society views athletes. The basic meaning of sports is not just to beat others and get first place. It”s about training the mind and body and achieving better results through good-natured competition. Putting pressure on athletes by expecting them to always be first is not the right way to support them. A mature culture of support and enjoyment of the sport itself will allow athletes to relax and enjoy the competition.
Doping is a problem that cannot be blamed on the athletes alone. The desire of unscrupulous adults to use athletes as a tool for their own desires and interests is even greater.
Korea has had an anti-doping committee for 18 years. It’s time to come up with a structural and institutional solution to doping, not just blame it on the desire of athletes.
