A substance can be included on the "World Anti-Doping Code Prohibited List" if it meets two of the following three criteria: 1) it is performance-enhancing, 2) it is harmful to the athlete's health, and 3) it violates the spirit of sport.
The first athlete to die in Olympic competition due to doping was Danish cyclist Knut Jensen, who died on Aug. 26, 1960 at the Summer Olympics in Rome during the 100km team time trial race. His autopsy revealed traces of an amphetamine called Ronicol.
The International Olympic Committee first instituted doping controls at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France and again at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City that same year. Anabolic steroids were added to the list of banned substances in 1975.
Of 52 German athletes given anabolic steroids during the 1970's and 1980's who were examined in a 2007 study, one quarter got some form of cancer, one third reported thoughts or attempts of suicide, and the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth was 32 times higher than in the normal German population.
Of the 21,849 drug tests conducted at the Summer Olympics from 1968-2008, there were 105 cases (0.49%) of doping violations. There have been 22 positive results (0.28%) from 7,783 tests conducted at the Winter Olympics between 1968 and 2010.
Although not a performance-enhancing drug, it seems relevant in the context of this debate to note that professional golfer Tiger Woods used LASIK eye surgery to improve his vision to 20/15, meaning that he can see at 20 feet what the average person can see at 15 feet. Professional baseball player Mark McGwire wore specially-designed contact lenses to improve his vision to 20/10.
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