기사 메일전송
Was It a Choice or an Unavoidable Outcome?
  • 김현아 기자
  • 등록 2022-05-02 16:34:04
기사수정
  • The Controversy over Doping in Sports

 The Winter Olympics, which attracts the attention of people around the world every winter, ended on February 20. Again this time, many people cried and laughed at the performance of sports stars while watching the games. The Olympics are a festival for people around the world that goes beyond various differences in culture and nationality. The slogan of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was "Together for a Shared Future," which expresses the intention of the Olympics well. However, there was an incident that caused public outrage at the Winter Olympics, which was the suspected doping of a Russian athlete.


 A Russian athlete named Kamila Valeryevna Valieva drew attention as a rising star at the  Beijing Winter Olympics. Valieva is the first female figure skater to succeed in landing a quadruple jump and she won a gold medal in the figure skating team event held at the beginning of the games. However, immediately after, the International Testing Agency submitted evidence that she had used banned drugs, ending her short glory. Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine. This drug was banned as it is known to increase the oxygen use efficiency of the heart as a treatment for angina and improve endurance. Nevertheless, the Court of Arbitration for Sport allowed Valieva to participate in the games.


 In 2016, Russia was caught running a doping program at the national level just before the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics. As a result, Russia will not be able to participate in international sports events until December 16 of this year. Instead, Russian athletes can participate in the Olympics as Authorised Neutral Athletes along with the Russian Olympic Committee flag. Olympic athletes from Russia cannot play the Russian national anthem or have their medals recorded under the Russia flag. Valieva also participated in the Olympics as an OAR athlete.


 There are two main reasons for banning doping. One is that it violates good sportsmanship, and the other is that it can seriously damage the health of athletes. Doping is an easy and quick way to improve performance, but it puts a heavy burden on the player's body. Without rules banning doping, many players will be exposed to the pressure of doping, which strongly violates bioethics. In particular, the younger the player is and the more coercive the atmosphere of their country of origin is, the more likely they are to be under pressure. Doping is, above all, banned for the sake of the  athletes' own health and human rights. The issue of doping at the Olympics was linked to the controversy over child abuse, drawing even more attention. Kamila Valieva is only 15 years old. Valieva's coach, Tutberidze, is suspected of child abuse through videos of grabbing her student’s hair and shaking it. The young players who were coached by Tutberidze had to suffer from severe training and medication at an early age. From this circumstantial evidence, people speculate that the coach was involved in Valieva's doping case.




 "There are many discourses on the ethical issues surrounding doping regulation. However, it is true that the Olympics banned drugs before discussing the ethics of doping itself. Considering the purpose of hosting the Olympics, it is difficult to justify the choice of athletes who violate the rules of the game. But there is room to think about whether using drugs was really the choice of the athletes themselves. Wouldn't it be even harder to resist the temptation of doping, especially if you are under a huge amount of pressure to produce good results? I hope that an environment will be established as soon as possible for athletes to participate on a level playing field without unfair pressure."



77th Cub Reporter • KIM HYEON A • hangitup@kyonggi.ac.kr

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