Badminton and doping: Kinda Touchy Subject

There have been a number of bans over the years for players that have been caught, whether it be steroids or other stimulants. As the recent Victor Conti events have unveiled - most drug testing programs are lagging behind the performance enhancing drugs being used.

I have no doubt that many top players are on something.

 

I disagree, steroids are not that useful in Badminton as opposed to other sports, there is no straight line sprinting, no long distances over long periods of times, and no strength requirements such as lifting huge wights etc.

I believe only two players have been busted over the time for taking supplements, on Indian female for taking a diuretic to lose weight, and one Indonesian male for taking supplements to build up his body in attracting females.

 

I don't know in general

but I do know that xxxxxxxx used to be on the National Danish Team and participated in the national training which is closely supervised by anti-doping agents.. The Danish players are all tested on a regular basis and have been for years.. so I think it is fairly safe to assume that he is just very strong.. and that all the weight training the Danish players do actually results in a lot of power.. other then that.. I must say that I doubt that any kind of doping is wide spread in badminton.. steroids would have serious side effects.. maybe epo could be usefull for some singles players.. but then again... It would be marginal the difference it could make so why run the risk..

 

also consider their training from a very young age, and the intensity of some training regimes...and you only see the best in the countries competing in the big tournaments, they are probably just very talented. Its not like they just pulled some random people off the streets and made them into the players the are now.

 

i'm sure that proper footwork training would easily reduce court coverage time (perceived superior speed), and maximize movement economics (perceived superior endurance)
sounds like something kwun would say tho

of course years of training, refining, honning, and conditioning of the sport does help.

jug

 

and also i'm sure most of the pros have great technique and dont actually use as much physical effort as we do to clear, smash (and probably jump) etc...also making them seem to have amazing stamina.

 

That's what they said about tennis and baseball too.

Keep in mind that most people associate steriods with big muscular dudes that bench 600 lbs with their eyelashes. Most steriods allow people faster recovery such that they can train so much more often and attain better results.

Now I agree that "steriods" may not be the correct term, thus I used the term stimulants. I don't know about other countries, but Canada has one of the stricktest testing program IN THE WORLD. A former national champion was telling me he would have 24 hours from the time he was phoned to show up to a testing facility and he tested something like 14 times in two years leading into the 1996 olympics.

There is lot of pressure in Asian coutries to succeed, who knows what lengths they will go to attain the top.

I have an older banned subtance list for Canada - at one point you could fail a drug test for drinking too much coffee ( though I know that caffiene levels were recently revised).

As much as I love this sport, I don't think it's free from doping either. I know of one guy that used to trake non-drowsy sudafed to hop him up prior to playing. It sin't steriods, but it sure worls well as a stimulant ( ephedrine is banned for that reason) .

 

In tennis.baseball it can obviousley help, considering the weights uses are larger, and the game is more about power.

Same goes for athletics.

Badminton however requires less strength to hold and swing the racket, and speed of muscles and reaction time more important.

The biggest reason I would doubt it though is that badminton require fine techniques and supreme balance to play.


Also I would doubt if JR knew anyway.

 

that doesn't stop people though.
e.g. Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou

 

I think you can take things like Creatine to help muscles recover faster (possible result) because it occurs naturaly in the body and is supposed to help stave off fatigue.

As for any IBF sanctioned event there was a list of banned substances posted on the SBU site recently and if I wanted to take part and was tested I need a certificate from my doctor telling them I use inhalers and certain pills for my knees and they need to be officially aware of this before playing in case they are covered on the list.

 

In the 56kg class the womens world record bench press is over 300 pounds, for a 75 kilo man the record is over 650 pounds , while 300 pounds is very high for a badminton player it is not unrealistic for a man of the right genetics who strength trains for years, without the use of drugs etc.

WHether that would convert to any advantage on court is another matter, I can think of some players who would struggle to do good press ups

 

but didn't they ban things like storing your own blood, and then pumping it back in just before an event to give yourself a higher red cell count so your blood could deliver more oxygen...

 

Badminton and doping

A top badminton athlete undergoes as strict testing as any other athlete (I believe Jonas testified about this in an old thread). But the drugs are constantly evolving, and testing methods is always a step behind. Cheaters will always find ways to cheat.

It would be naive to think that badminton is a clean sport. And in fact, there are doping cases in badminton, although we don't get to hear of them. According to the 2003 WADA Laboratory Statistics report, there were 4 "adverse analytical findings" in 697 samples from badminton athletes. Unfortunately, the report does not differ between sanctioned cases and "adverse analytical findings". In other words, these may be cases where athletes were undergoing therapeutic treatment, etc. I have not been able to find out more about these 4 cases.

However, in 2001 UK Sports Doping Report (p. 29), there is one sanctioned badminton case recorded, a finding of "Class 1A Stimulant". "Class 1A Stimulants" is a large group, but the top 5 (percentage wise) substances are: pseudoephedrine (36%), ephedrine (19%), cocaine (9%), amphetamine (8%), and caffeine (7%). The report doesn't say what this particular athlete had been using, and in a sense it doesn't matter because a substance is either legal or illegal. It's either doping or not doping. But certainly in terms of cultural acceptance, the difference between the first four substances and the last (caffeine) is enormous. (In fact, caffeine was dropped from the WADA's 2005 Prohibited List.)

Anyway, it's a doping case, in badminton, in the UK. To me, that just means there are other cases waiting to be found.

However, compared to other sports we can probably conclude that badminton is relatively clean. Again, looking at WADA's statistics for 2003, it is worth noting that the overall percentage of "adverse samples" in Olympic Sports is 1.51%, compared to 1.96% in non-olympic sports. This is interesting, because athletes in Olympic sports are monitored more closely and tested more often, yet there are fewer cases found. Is this because the cheaters are better at cheating in Olympic sports, or because testing actually reduces doping? I'm certainly hoping for the latter!

It is also interesting to compare badminton to other sports. The "bad sheep" of the Olympic sport family are:
Cycling (3.93% adverse cases)
Boxing (3.68%)
Baseball (2.47%)
Equestrian (2.15%)
Weight lifting (2.06%)
Basketball (1.97%)

(By the way, on the list of "IOC Regognized Sports", Bridge and Bowling have an unrivalled amount of doping cases: 9.09% and 4.72% respectively! )

Incidentally, the list above pretty much coincides with what most people would consider "dirty sports". Badminton comes in very low at the list, at 0.57% "adverse cases". Obviously, badminton is a relatively clean sport.

The reason might well be that drugs doesn't significantly improve performance in badminton. But that can't be the whole truth, for two reasons:

* Other sports, where tactics and tecnhique plays a major role, have more "adverse cases". In comparison, archery, fencing and table tennis have more than twice as many "adverse cases". I would have guessed that table tennis, due to its extremely technical nature, would be even less "suitable" for doping than badminton.

* Doping is not always in order to increase in-competition performance. A common reason is to make a quicker comeback after an injury time-out, for instance in order to quickly rebuild lost muscle mass, or in order to be able to train harder and longer.

So is there a "cultural" factor involved? Badminton athletes just don't do dope? It might well be.

 

hi guys, i would doubt that a big advantage could be gained in our sport by taking drugs. the only one i can think of is EPO, since it would improve your endurance. but since baddy isn't all about endurance and is probably more about outhinking and out playing your opponent, short of a shot of joe-90 style intelligence transplant i don't see that simply being fitter would make the difference at the highest level.

 

Like I wrote above: banned substances can shorten rehabilitation time after injury. That's definitely an "advantage" -- for anybody who's prepared to cheat.

 

Mag,

Thanks, great stats and information. I don't think there is such an advantage in Badminton as other sports for doping, even with possible shortening of rehabilation time.

Regards

Stuart

 

as for the 'Equestrian (2.15%)', the rider or the horse