Inside Dope takes aim at a growing threat to sports

In ‘Inside Dope: How Drugs Are the Biggest Threat to Sports, Why You Should Care, and What Can Be Done About Them’, Pound, who is currently chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), explains what doping is and how it is affecting the sporting youth of the world. He makes reference to 13 different cases in the book’s introduction where young athletes have died prematurely in connection with performance-enhancing drugs.

“People are always out there looking for the edge,� Pound told The Examiner last week. “(Performance-enhancing drugs) were not developed to help athletes perform better.�

Throughout the 1950s, Pound said some athletes, mainly shot-putters, began to look into veterinary research in order to find new ways of getting stronger. He said the Cold War also contributed to the growing popularity of doping in sport because the war “continued on the playing fields.

“There wasn’t much money for testing,� he said.

To try and put an end to the doping threat, Pound writes a 10-step program that aims to rid the sporting world of all anabolic agents, stimulants and other performance-enhancing drugs. In step three, learn why athletes dope, Pound tells some parents to create a barrier between what they want and what their children want.

“The first thing (parents) have to do is become aware that there’s a problem,� he said. “Watch for the signs of it. Encourage your kids to be open about it.�

In chapter 12, Pound describes what he said is probably the next big fight for WADA, gene doping. Although this is still a relatively new doping method, gene doping occurs when athletes will modify their cells to increase strength and endurance, and change their genome forever.

“What we did with (gene doping) is we got on the curve right away,� he said. “(We were) initially worried that there wouldn’t be a test but at (WADA’s) conference on genetic doping, the doctors had some very positive results.�

With Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics fast approaching, WADA, which is part of the organizing committee for the forthcoming event, is aware that there will be some athletes still using performance-enhancing drugs. Despite this, Pound said he hopes “to persuade 99.9 per cent not to do it� and assures that WADA’s “testing will be better.�

Written in a style that is easily readable for young adults onward, ‘Inside Dope’ is an informative piece on how doping has become so deeply involved in the world of sports.

With critical analysis of pharmaceutical companies and certain governments, Pound shows how this problem has become an international affair and urges everyone to get involved and stop doping in sport.



• ‘Inside Dope’ by Dick Pound is published by Wiley and available at all bookstores.