The Use of SARMs in the Olympics

The history of the Modern Olympics is more than 120 years old. From the day it began, the athletes started using performance-enhancing drugs. Every official knew that athletes were using various drugs like steroids, narcotics, hormones, and many more.

No athlete was caught testing positive for using various banned drugs till the Mexican Olympics in the year 1968. It was possible after the formation of the International Olympic Committee, which framed multiple rules and regulations regarding the usage of drugs and the punishment for using PEDs.

After the formation of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA), the number of athletes caught using the banned substance has only increased. In the last three Olympics alone, a substantial quantity of athletes were suspended for using drugs.

Russia was banned from sending any team to any international games when many of its sportspersons were found using PEDs in the 2018 Winter Olympics.  The athletes are addicted to winning at any cost. Many athletes have been practicing since childhood and have dedicated all their prime years to participating in and winning medals in the Olympics and international tournaments.

Athletes get into PEDs mainly for two reasons: the first reason is to win, and the second is when they don’t win, they start using drugs to ensure that they win the next time. Though there are many drugs to increase the strength and capacity of a sportsman and woman, steroids are the most widely used PED.

Athletes knew about the side effects like infertility, damage to male sex organs, liver, kidney, and heart damage. The long-term effects of drugs on athletes’ bodies are enormous, but sportsmen neglect them for the sake of glory.

Many companies are spending huge amounts of money to find new drugs that would not be traced in a test and which would have fewer side effects on an athlete’s body. Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (PEDs) are the next level, targeting hormones to develop muscles and reduce fat.

SARMs are not approved by any medical regulator and have only alpha-numerical names; hence, they are sold in the market as research chemicals.

Many steroids that were used earlier had a similar structure to the hormones, and thus, they were easily traceable. However, these newly developed SRMs are non-steroidal drugs and do not possess any similar chemical structure with any available drug.

SARMs have the desired effect on muscle and fat and have a less negative effect on other body organs, like the liver and prostate.

SARMs are labeled safe by the manufacturers of these drugs. Athletes who are desperate to win at any cost use these drugs without knowing the constituents of the drug.

Many athletes use these PEDs, and a few are surprised and shocked when they test positive for specific chemicals. One such chemical is Ostarine UK, an unapproved drug that was used as a supplement and sold for muscle gain. Many sportsmen do know the names of all the drugs banned by WADA.

The athletes must be meticulous about what they buy, such as a drug and supplements. Supplements are used by many sportsmen who need to genuinely know the risk they are taking. Many supplements contain a minimal quantity of chemicals that do not cause any harm to their body but will be large enough to be detected by any anti-doping agency.

A medal in the Olympic Games is the ultimate goal for all sportsmen. They practice hard from a young age for glory. After years of practice, some athletes get misguided and try PEDs for success. Athletes use drugs as a shortcut to success. For such athletes, SARMs are a boon. Either they take them directly as a drug or a supplement. Whatever the reason for using a drug, athletes must realize the risk of getting caught.

Companies promote these drugs as safer to use, but athletes must understand that all PEDs are banned. Every year, companies come up with a new set of performance-enhancing drugs and market them as safe and non-traceable. In the past few years, many companies have manufactured PEDs that are high in quality. Some companies have manufactured the directly consumable drug, and some are marketed as supplements. Before buying any supplement, the athlete must go through all the product details and then decide to use it or not.

Even though the quality of PEDs has improved, IOC, in the last few years, has also improved its process of testing for banned drugs, and they use many sophisticated ways for testing. As the medicines improve, so does the testing. IOC has introduced new machines to test the athletes, which helps the agencies like WADA to a great extent. Thus, athletes must understand that there is no shortcut to success, and the probability of getting caught, even if they use the latest SARMs, is very high.