Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, sport was a means of political struggle, and some athletic records best prove how (mis)doping was used then. Czechoslovakia's result Jarmila Kratohvilova at 800 meters, no one has surpassed it for four decades, and the other records from the 80s are also doubtful - Jurgen Schilt from East Germany (discus throw), his compatriots Marita Koh (400) and Gabriele Reinš (disc), of the Soviet Union Jurija Sediha (hammer) i Natalia Lisovskaia (bowl), American women Florence Griffith-Joyner (100 and 200)...
However, doping was used and continues to be used without the knowledge of autocratic regimes, as shown by two cases that have "shaken" the world sports scene in recent days, as French footballer Paul Pogba and Romanian tennis player Simona Halep were "caught in the act". And they, like countless other athletes before them, claim that they are innocent and that the whole thing was just set up for them.
There have been many great scandals in the history of sports, but none of the scale of the one at the center of which Lance Armstrong. The American cyclist survived testicular cancer, quickly returned to the sport and won seven consecutive titles at the most prestigious race, the "Tour d'France", from 1999 to 2005. He was an idol to many, his slogan "Livestrong" was just behind the famous "Air Jordan", but it turned out to be a lie.
Armstrong in 2013, in an interview Opry Winfrey, admitted that he had been doping throughout his career, which is why he was stripped of all the Tour de France titles.
The first big doping scandal is connected to the "Tour", because he is British Tom Simpson died on July 13, 1967, during the climb to one of the most difficult peaks in that race, Mont Vent. He collapsed and died on the track, and it was later discovered that the cause of heart failure was a combination of alcohol and amphetamines. Simpson was known for using doping, but until his death the World Cycling Union (UCI) did not punish it. His death changed the sport…
One of the most famous cases of doping is related to a Canadian sprinter Ben Jonson, who broke the world record in the 100 meters (9,79) in the final of the Olympic Games in Seoul and surpassed his biggest rival Carl Lewis. But he got to it by a shortcut, because he was using stanozolol, so he had to give the gold to Luis.
Diego Maradona is a career during which he was too often on cocaine, for which he was punished with a 15-month suspension, and he said goodbye to Argentina in an infamous way - at the 1994 World Cup, he failed a test for using ephedrine.
There were many more cases that attracted attention, such as the one in 1998 when the entire Festina cycling team was caught in doping, then the famous BALCO scandal, because the American Victor Conte invented the steroid THG, which could not be detected in tests. They failed the tests and Marion Jones, Tyson Gay, Sun Yang... and that some countries never stand still (or are not protected like some others), the fact that due to systemic doping, Russian athletes could not perform under their flag at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and the Olympic Games in Beijing also speaks for itself. There won't be any in Paris at all, but for a completely different reason...
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