Doping is generally classed among the so-called negative phenomena in sport, which also include the use of recreational drugs, gambling, corruption and match-fixing. It follows from the nature of sport that throughout its history it has been accompanied by athletes’ efforts to achieve better and better performances, which naturally creates room for cheating just as in other aspects of life.
Elite athletes undergo doping tests constantly, throughout the year, both at home and abroad. It is routine for them and before competitions the checks intensify.
Tomáš Pagáč is head of the testing and prevention department at the Slovak Anti-Doping Agency. We asked him what an elite athlete risks if they consume unknown foods, which include food supplements.
According to Pagáč, athletes who do not know the exact composition of the foods they consume risk an adverse analytical finding, so they have it very hard when it comes to what they can and cannot have. It happens that an athlete consumes a supplement containing creatine, which in itself is not banned. But they have experience that even creatine was in one case contaminated with an anabolic steroid. Athletes therefore have to verify and read the composition on the packaging carefully. According to Pagáč, however, even that is not always a guarantee of certainty. “Unfortunately, not all ingredients are always listed on the packaging, and the unsuitable ones are often even masked. Our agency therefore recommends turning directly to the producers with every food supplement and verifying the purity of the composition before the athlete decides to consume it.”
The Anti-Doping Agency therefore does not recommend specific supplements to athletes. “We can recommend collagen as such, but never a specific brand,” Pagáč explains.
“When it comes to individual supplements, we go through the advantages and disadvantages of supplements with athletes and our clients. But we discuss it in general terms, never according to specific brands.
“If I did have to single out one based on personal experience, then for example I consider Powerlogy Natural Collagen 300 g, their beef collagen, to be very good quality. But on principle I cannot guarantee to athletes that it does not contain banned substances – only the producer can do that.”
Elite athletes today already know how to deal with all of this. They are careful and take into account what they can and cannot have. Even so it can sometimes happen that even with great caution a person takes something they did not want to. Especially in the case where a food supplement also contains substances that are not listed in the composition.
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