There’s a thing adults tell kids sometimes – cheaters never win. That’s horribly untrue, of course. They win constantly because they cheated. Now, if they get caught, they may face consequences, but that’s sort of the same as crime. Crime never pays unless you get away with it. But we’re trying to keep the kids on the straight and narrow, so you get the idea.
In sports, doping stands out as one of the most egregious forms of cheating. Using a substance that gives you an advantage over other players is cut-and-dry cheating. But it’s also hugely popular and has happened in some remarkably weird ways.
10. Most Tour de France Winners Have Been Found Guilty of Doping
Thanks to Lance Armstrong, everyone in the world became aware of doping in the Tour de France. But for those who never followed the world of cycling before, and the Tour in particular, it may have come as a shock. Doping in cycling? Surely that’s an absurd outlier, right? How often can that happen? The answer is always. It always happens in the Tour De France and has always happened.
Nearly every Tour de France winner has been guilty of doping at some point in their career. In 2022 it was shown that 42 winners of the Tour de France in the previous 55 years had been guilty of doping at some point. That’s over 75% of the winners. That’s a lot of doping.
In recent years the Tour has tried to clean up their act, and the scandals have lessened. This is due to increased scrutiny, of course, and it’s hard to say if anything would have changed if not for Armstrong cycling too close to the sun.
In recent years the Tour has tried to clean up their act and the scandals have lessened. This is due to increased scrutiny, of course, and it’s hard to say if anything would have changed if not for Armstrong cycling too close to the sun.
9. A Belgian Bodybuilding Competition was Canceled When Everyone Ran From Anti-Doping Officials
Bodybuilders have long been associated with doping thanks to the steroid stereotype that still hangs over the entire sport. That’s not to say it’s necessarily undeserved as there have been several scandals and bodybuilders outed for using steroids and other muscle-enhancing products over the years, but it has painted the whole industry with the same brush.
Getting out from under the stigma, the way the Tour De France has been trying, isn’t easy. And stories like this one don’t make it any easier. In 2009, a Belgian bodybuilding competition was canceled when anti-doping officials made a surprise visit and every single competitor literally grabbed their stuff and ran away.
The event was a championship competition that had 20 competitors signed up and ready to go. That every single one took off the moment officials arrived was probably disheartening for any fans that had been in attendance.
Officials noted that the people who run such competitions have never actually invited them to an event so they have to make surprise visits and this event was actually being held in the Netherlands, which they felt was done explicitly to keep Belgian anti-doping officials away. Obviously, it didn’t work and officials were forced to conclude, as most rational people would, that everyone was using something illegally.
8. Russia Had Secret Pee Swaps At the Olympics
Russia has had a sometimes sketchy history when it comes to the Olympic games because they don’t always play fair. In 2019, Russia was banned from the Olympics for four years because of doping scandals, even though some individual athletes from Russia still had workarounds. So what exactly were they doing that was so egregious that it got the entire country banned?
Let’s head back to the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. Four years earlier the country had done relatively poorly, so they needed to up their game. Now that could have meant higher caliber athletes, but what it actually meant was smuggling pee through mouse holes.
Officials drilled a hole through the wall of the anti-doping lab and swapped urine samples from their drug-enhanced athletes with clean urine samples so they could pass the tests. The Russians won 33 medals. Good job, drugs!
The former head of Russia’s anti-doping agency helped expose the scheme and Russia naturally denied there was any state-run doping afoot. That said, the country and its athletes are constantly being investigated and five different Olympic games since 2014 have been scrutinized. One athlete said about 99% of Russian Olympians are doping.
Russia has been banned from not just the Olympics but international track and field events. Every time they have been given latitude to compete on any level, new info emerges of tampered data and samples from labs. It’s like they can’t not do it at this point.
7. Over 50% of Athletes In Anonymous Surveys Admitted to Doping
Usually, you need to catch someone doping to prove doping because people don’t volunteer that information. It kind of ruins the point of cheating. Unless you give them a way out, like an anonymous survey. That happened in 2011 and the results were not encouraging for anyone who likes sports “pure.”
Info from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) suggested maybe 2% of athletes were doping. But a pair of surveys that asked athletes about their habits over the previous year came up with results that said 57% admitted to it.
The surveys covered over 2,000 runners. One was conducted at the world championships where 29% admitted to doping and then 45% at the Pan-Arab Games admitted to using in the prior year. That data first came to light in 2013, two years after the surveys, and it was never officially published at all until six years later.
That the reports were commissioned by WADA and came up with results they absolutely didn’t want to hear may have played a part in the delay. One author alleged as much, saying that there was a lot of pushback from professional organizations who didn’t like the results.
6. Nike Alphafly Shoes Have Been Banned as “Technological” Doping
There’s more than one kind of doping in sports. Drugs are the obvious and most common one but you can also engage in technological doping. That’s when you use tools or gear that gives you an unfair edge. Like, imagine if you played basketball with those cool cartoon rocket shoes that let you fly across the court to dunk. Like that, but less cool.
Shoes have been banned as technological doping before. They are called Nike Alphafly shoes, and they were banned from the Tokyo Olympics. The shoes have been used by runners to provide greater energy return and speed. And they work so well you can’t use them.
Eliud Kipchoge brought the shoes to light when he became the first person ever to run a marathon in under two hours. The shoes, it’s been argued, were the reason. The shoes enhance spring, have added cushioning, and all that performance-improving technology that governing bodies felt was against the spirit of the competition.
5. In 1930, Tour de France Officials Had to Explain That Drugs Wouldn’t Be Provided
One last trip to France here and their infamous bike race. We already mentioned that many winners have been shown to have doped at some point in the past, but let’s go back further. The Tour de France has been around for over a century and even way back in the day it was shady.
In the early days, competitors drank wine and smoked cigarettes while they rode. Ether, nitro, and other enhancers were also par for the course. Things were so bad that, in 1930, the official race rule book had a section to remind racers that the Tour would not provide drugs for them. Imagine how bad it was that they needed to publish it. Competitors were so used to being loaded they expected the race to dope them up before it started.
4. Doping in Chess is Done With Ritalin
Doping isn’t necessarily a problem in sports, it’s a problem in competition. When two or more people go head to head in any way, there’s always a chance one might use something to give them an edge. That’s why even chess players need to be tested because you never know if someone’s after your bishop with the help of performance-enhancing substances.
In 2008, a professional chess player had a public meltdown after he was asked to provide a urine sample. It was later decided he hadn’t fully understood the request because of language barriers but he was never tested. This still stands as the most public and well-known doping incident in chess, despite no one ever being found guilty of doping.
The incident also proved that there is an anti-doping body in chess, and they do test. Sometimes even too much, as one player had to give three samples in a row because he drank too much water and it was diluted.
Ritalin and modafinil are two drugs that are considered performance enhancers for chess players. Tests show players on the drugs are slower but better players overall.
3. Racing Pigeon Doping is a Big Problem
Doping doesn’t have to be an exclusively human issue. Obviously, humans are the ones behind it, but even racing pigeons have to be monitored because there’s always someone out there willing to slip a pigeon a mickey to get ahead in this world.
If you’re not aware, pigeon racing is precisely what you think it is. People take homing pigeons up to 1200 km from their homes and let them go. Then they race home and whoever gets back first wins. Belgium is at the forefront of the sport and had its first race in 1818.
Like anything that races, a pigeon can be slipped various drugs that range from steroids to something like analgesic painkillers that can help it endure a race better than the competition.
In 2013, six Belgian birds were tested and found to have been doped. Five of them had anti-inflammatories on board but the sixth one had been given cocaine. People are out there making birds into cokeheads to win races.
The reason for drugging pigeons is the reason for drugging anyone or anything in sport – money. One single racing pigeon was sold in May of the same year as the scandal for $430,000.
2. Esports are Subject to Doping Scandals
If you’re of a certain age, you probably smirk when you hear the term “esports.” Not everyone considers esports the same as other sports but you can’t deny two things. Esports are very popular and they are certainly competitive. There’s also a lot of money on the line and that’s the prime breeding ground for doping scandals.
Drug testing became a part of the esports world in 2015 after a massive Adderall scandal involving a championship Counter-Strike team who were all said to be using the drug. Because these guys don’t need steroids; they need focus. You play to your strengths in the doping world.
Since that time, many more accusations have plagued the gaming world and other drugs like Adderall have been brought up, things like Ritalin and other ADHD drugs believed to improve focus, concentration, and reaction time. Despite the promise that there would be some kind of regulation, little has come from it.
1. There’s a Speedo That was Banned as Technological Doping
We covered technological doping briefly before but no technological doping reached the heights, or depths, of the banned Speedo swimsuit. Considered an unfair edge for competitive swimmers, the Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit has faced some hard times.
As silly as it might sound, there is evidence that technology, even simply technology, helps swimmers a lot. In 1976, once goggles were permitted, tons of records were broken. In 2008, nearly every record-breaking swimmer wore the LZR suit. In fact, 62 records were broken wearing this suit.
Speedo used full-on NASA scientists to develop the LZR suit to offer as little resistance and drag as possible. The technology is actually very complex, and the result is a super microfiber suit that improves swimming efficiency by up to 5% while reducing drag by 38%.
Criticism of the suit is that it’s a device that helps you win. It costs $550 and you can only wear it 10 times before it loses that competitive edge. In 2009, the international body that oversees swimming banned the use of the suits because they “diminish natural ability.”