Swimming and Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Performance-enhancing drugs come in many forms, and the results they produce are highly sought after. Some athletes get away with using these drugs, others are caught and suspended from their sports or even jailed, and others die prematurely.

Doping is an important and controversial issue in swimming. Athletes have several reasons for using performance-enhancing drugs, including building mass and strength, increasing the delivery of oxygen to exercising tissues, masking pain, stimulating the body, relaxing the muscles, reducing weight, and hiding the use of other drugs. Not all substances are performance enhancing to swimmers, although they may have been shown to be in other sports.

Competitive swimming conducts “in-competition” and “out-of-competition” testing. In 2013, Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), in English the International Swimming Federation, reported 34 instances ...