The 2016 Summer Olympics open tonight and while several countries prepare to compete, scandal has rocked the Russian track and field team after they were barred from competition after evidence of widespread doping was found.
Doping and athletics have a storied history. Here are 10 facts on the history of doping in sports.
1. State-sponsored drug programs to give a certain country's athletes a competitive edge date back to the Cold War, but individual athletes have been accused of doping for centuries.
2. In the third century before christ, ancient Greek Olympians attempted to enhance performance by using brandy, wine, hallucinogenic mushrooms and sesame seeds.
3. Charles-Edouard Brown-Sequard's "Elixir of Life" was the earliest known performance-enhancing drug in American professional sports. Jim Gavin, a pitcher with the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, took it before a game in 1889. Mr. Gavin won the game, which was taken as evidence of the elixir's powers.
4. The "Elixir of Life" was made out of testosterone from dogs, rabbits, sheep, guinea pigs and several other animals. It was marketed to "embody the very essence of animal energy."
5. In the early 1900s, swimmers, distance runners, sprinters and cyclists had all began using special "doping recipes" to get an edge on their opponents. In the 1904 Olympic marathon, Thomas Hicks was injected twice with sulphate of strychnine by his trainer, which he chased with large glasses of brandy. He took gold in the race, but nearly died.
6. In the 1920s, doping consisted of mixtures of strychnine, heroin, cocaine and caffeine. Doping wasn't illegal and athletes were largely seen doing it. But doping recipes were closely guarded secrets.
7. Competitive walking was "all the rage" in the early 1900s. Participants would routinely walk 500 or more miles in a race. Some of the stimulants used consisted of nitroglycerin to improve breathing, caffeine, alcohol and even sugar cubes dipped in ehter.
8. Amphetamines took off in the mid-1900s, especially during World War II. Soldiers routinely used them to help with morale. After returning from war, the drugs made their way into sporting events.
9. In the 1950s during the Cold War, the Soviet Olympians experimented with testosterone supplements to help increase strength and power. The widespread adaptation of doping started in 1974 when the German Democratic Republic began doping athletes starting when they were 10-years-old. The athletes never failed a drug test, and in the 1976 and 1980 games, Germany won 216 medals with 87 of them being gold.
10. After John Bosley Ziegler, MD, spoke with a Soviet doctor and learned about the gains the Russians were seeing in their athletes using testosterone, he decided Americans needed a chemical edge too. So he developed the first anabolic steroid. The gains the weightlifters had were so impressive, steroid use quickly spread to other athletes.
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