Dope: A History of Performance Enhancement in Sports from the Nineteenth Century to Today

by Daniel M. Rosen

Overview

Since the dawn of athletic competition during the original Olympic Games in Ancient Greece, athletes, as well as their coaches and trainers, have been finding innovative ways to gain an edge on their competition. Some of those performance-enhancement methods have been within the accepted rules while other methods skirt the gray area between being within the rules and not, while still other methods break the established rules. In modern times, doping - the use of performance-enhancing drugs - has been one method athletes and their trainers have used to beat their competition. The history of sports doping during the modern era can be traced through the events and scandals of the times in which the athletes lived. From the use of amphetamines and other stimulants in the early 20th century, to the use of testosterone and steroids by both the USSR and the United States during Cold War-era Olympics games, to blood doping and EPO, to designer drugs, the history of doping in sports closely follows the medical and technological advances of our times. In the early 21st century, the possibility of genetically engineered athletes looms. The story of doping in sports over the last century offers clues to where the battle over performance enhancement will be fought in the years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313345203
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/30/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Daniel M. Rosen is a graduate of the School of Jourbanalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Since 1982, he has worked as a photojourbanalist, technical writer, multimedia developer, and instructional designer. In his spare time, Rosen publishes Rant Your Head Off, (http://rant-your-head-off.com), a blog which covers a number of issues, including various sports doping scandals. He is an avid cyclist.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Foreword
Chapter 1 — The Early History of Performance Enhancement Drugs
Chapter 2 — The Beginnings of Modern Doping
Chapter 3 — The Rise of East German Athletics And Other Tales of Doping
Chapter 4 — Blood Doping, EPO and Human Growth Hormone
Chapter 5 — An Explosion of Doping Cases and the Rise of Custom Tailored Drugs
Chapter 6 — Is Everyone Doping?
Chapter 7 Future Perfect: Genetically Modified Athletes?
Afterword
Chapter Notes
Timeline
Index

Editorial Reviews

He corrects inaccurate stories about doping deaths in cycling and offers very current detailed developments in the Floyd Landis case. He explains difficult and changing drug detection methods and results. …Recommended. Larger university coaching and sports medicine collections supporting lower- and upper-level undergraduates; general readers.” —Choice

From the Publisher