Dame Alas – Give Me Wings

Until the 1960s, the use of different substances to increase physical capacity was something accepted in the sports community. It was not even conceived as breaking the rules of fair play. In fact, it was not the records achieved by athletes that drew attention to doping, but the deaths caused by the consumption of such substances. Nowadays, in sports doping, we find many different types of substances: from stimulant agents as common as caffeine to new synthetic drugs including new anabolic steroids, chemical modifications of testosterone, and new amphetamine derivatives. The WADA agency oversees doping tests but does not publish the results to avoid further manipulation. However, this lack of transparency raises concerns about the sensitivity and specificity of such tests. In this article, Enrique Ortega Forte discusses the limitations of current doping regulations. This article was previously published in El Gato y La Caja on June 24, 2020 (https://elgatoylacaja.com/dame-alas/).