Cyborgs in sports

The cyborgization of sports has come to the forefront of the national conscious in recent years. Through the media, America has been exposed to the subject both with the BALCO scandal and the accusations of blood doping at the Tour de France levied against Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis. But, there is more to the subject; steroids, blood doping, prosthesis, body modification, and maybe in the future, genetic modification are all topics that should be included within cyborgs in sports.

Steroids


The most commonly used steroid in sports is anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids are synthetically created to function like male hormones. Athletes use it to enhance their strength and performance beyond their natural means. Anabolic steroids increase the amount of testosterone in the body, which promotes muscle and bone growth in the body. Anabolic steroids also make it so an athlete can workout for longer periods of time than they naturally can.

Anabolic steroids also can have effects that are not advantageous to an athlete. Excessive use can result in some of the excess testosterone to convert into estrogen, a reduction in sexual function, temporary infertility, and the development of breasts in males. Athletes take other drugs to stop the conversion of testosterone to estrogen. Anabolic steroids can also cause growth in the left ventricle. An increase of cardiovascular exercise can counteract the growth in the left ventricle. Use of anabolic steroids can also cause an increase in blood pressure in both males and females due to the decrease of high density lipoprotein and the increase of low density lipoprotein.

Blood Doping
Blood doping usually refers to three forms of adding red blood cells to the blood stream. The first form of blood doping is called homologous transfusions, in which the red blood cells from another person of the same blood type as the athlete are concentrated and frozen for a later transfusion when the athlete is going to start an event. The other form of blood doping is autologous. Autologous transfusions are when an athlete takes out their red blood cells body before a competition and transfuse them back in their body right before the competition. The other form of blood doping is done through the injection of a hormone called erythropoietin. Erythropoietin increases the production of red blood cells in the blood stream. All of these forms of blood doping are used to increase the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. Blood doping is mainly used in endurance sports such as cycling and cross-country skiing because the extra oxygen carrying capacity given to the blood through blood doping gives the athlete more endurance.

Blood doping does have dangerous aspects to it. During a blood transfusion you run the risk of getting a severe infection. After an autologous transfusion, an athlete can becomes anemic due to the lack of red blood cells in their blood. Erythropoietin injection is the more dangerous form of blood doping. Erythropoietin injections can create too many red blood cells, which make the blood thicker and the thicker blood strains the heart. The strain on the heart can cause an athlete to die while they sleep due to the slow in heart rate while sleeping.

Prosthesis
The most common forms of prosthetics and enhancement we see in sports today are prosthetic legs Tommy John surgery. Tommy John surgery is has resurrected many careers in Major League Baseball, actually allowing the pitchers to throw harder than they ever were able to do before. Some prime examples of this are Eric Gagne, Kerry Wood, and John Smoltz. "I hit my top speed (in pitch velocity) after the surgery," says Wood, the Chicago Cubs' 26-year-old All-Star. "I'm throwing harder, consistently." Gagne went from an average pitcher to being hall of fame eligible, winning the National League Cy Young Award in 2002, by tying the National League record for most saves in a season, and the National League Rolaids Relief Man of the Year in 2002 and 2003. Again, allowing this surgical modification raises the question, is prosthesis just the next step?

Tommy John surgery was invented because the pitcher Tommy John didn’t believe that his career was over. Dr. Frank Jobe invented the surgery and used Tommy John himself as a guinea pig. The surgery involves replacing the torn ligament with a ligament from another part of the body; such as the hamstring, knee or foot. What’s interesting about the surgery is that it is being used more and more for younger and younger arms. The other intriguing part, at least in this conversation, is when the surgery is being performed in terms of deterioration of the arm. Tommy John got the surgery after his ligament was completely dead, while pitchers now have the procedure done as it becomes irritated. This puts the decision to have a surgery that may improve one’s pitching under a microscope when it comes to the ethics involved.

As of now, prosthetic legs and feet are not advanced enough to give the athlete the edge, and people with these prosthetics are allowed to compete, possibly only because they are not actually competitive in the Ironman event among other such -athlons. Prosthesis in track and field, however, is a budding issue. Prosthetic legs and feet may soon be better than their human counterparts. Some prosthetic legs and feet allow for runners to adjust the length of their stride which could potentially improve run times and in time actually allow a runner with prosthetic legs to be the fastest in the world.

League Policies On Cyborgs In Sports


Major sports leagues have encountered these athletic enhancements being used in their sports. Some leagues have dealt with enhancements by banning them to keep the way the game is played the same, but leagues have adopted some of the enhancements and made them standard.

Major League Baseball (MLB) has been in the media mostly for the amount of steroid use in their league. In 2003, many major league baseball players were linked to BALCO, a company on trial for producing steroids. Such players as Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa were called in to be asked about their steroid use. All the players either dodged the questions or denied their use of illegal steroids. After denying use of steroids in the trial, Rafael Palmeiro tested positive to steroids in one of the MLB random steroid tests. After the trial and Palmeiro’s positive test, most fans were suspicious if all the modern day baseball players were using steroids like the players that were on trial. In 2005, the MLB decided to enact a harsher penalty for players who use steroids. The first positive test for steroids results in a 50 game suspension, the second would result in 100 game suspension, and a third positive test would result in a lifetime ban from the MLB. The MLB hasn’t frowned upon all forms of athletic enhancements in humans. Tommy John surgery has become a normal procedure for pitchers who are having problems with torn elbow ligaments. Before Tommy John surgery was successfully performed, damage to the elbow ligaments would end the career of a pitcher.

The National Football League (NFL) has had its own share of problems with athlete steroid use. The NFL has have had a policy against steroid use since 1987. Their modern day policy was adopted in 1989. The first positive test for steroids results in a 4 game suspension, the second would result in 8 game suspension, and a third positive test would result in a one year suspension. In 2006, Shawne Merriman, a linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, tested positive for steroids in a random test. Currently the NFL only uses urinalysis, which doesn’t detect the use of human growth hormone. Even though he tested positive Shawne Merriman was still selected to play in the Pro Bowl. After the 2006 season, the NFL decided on a policy that players who test positive for steroids would be ineligible for the Pro Bowl in the same season.

The International Cycling Union (UCI). has had to deal with blood doping and steroid use in their races. Usually any proof of use of an athletic enhancer will result in the cyclist being stripped of their medal. The UCI uses urinalysis to detect if the cyclist has an enhanced amount of testosterone in their body. Blood doping is much harder for UCI to test for. The UCI usually searches a cyclist's house for any proof of blood doping such as erythropoietin. After winning the Tour de France in 2006, Floyd Landis’ urinalysis came back with a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio of 11 to 1, which exceeds the maximum legal ratio of 4 to 1. A ratio that large is evidence of steroid use. Landis has not been stripped of the medal due to questions about how valid the positive test is, but he is not recognized as the winner of the race.

With the vast amount of sports included in the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has to deal with different forms of athletic enhancers. The IOC formed the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 1999 prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney to combat the use of performance enhancers in Olympic events. WADA was used to standardize the rules about banned substances in different sports and different countries. In 2004 prior to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, WADA created World Anti-Doping Code to help standardize the doping policies. Since the formation of WADA positive test results have decreased. In the 2006 Winter Olympics, only one athlete was stripped of their medal due to a positive test for illegal performance-enhancing drugs.