doping in sports, the next frontier.

[Don't panic]

performance improving genes are approaching clinical trials (for legitimate reasons). it's just a matter of time before athletes start using them. They'll pay the price down the line, but do they care? Are sports as we know themdoomed?

a quite interesting article from the new scientist:

Gene cheats
Drug scandals in sport would be nothing compared to the potential for genetic engineering to create "super-athletes"
...
This may sound like the ultimate sporting nightmare, but the technology to make it come true could well arrive even before 2008. Scientists around the world are working to perfect gene therapies to treat genetic diseases. Soon, unscrupulous athletes may be able to use them to re-engineer their bodies for better performance.

Need more endurance? Add a gene to bolster delivery of oxygen to labouring tissues. Want bigger muscles? Inject them with a gene that will make them grow. Both techniques are under development, and if they work in humans as they do in lab animals, they will change the face of nearly every sport. But at what cost? Knowing how to boost performance is one thing; knowing how to do it safely is quite another. If athletes do turn to gene therapy, these genetically enhanced champions risk paying for their success with heart disease, strokes and early death.
...
So does this mean that the authorities will finally lose their long battle against drugs in sport? Don Catlin, a biochemist who studies gene therapy abuse at the Olympic drug testing lab at the University of California in Los Angeles, has little doubt that athletes and their doctors will resort to gene doping. "I don't like what they do - it's dirty - but I have to admit I'm impressed with the sophistication of doctors on the 'other side'," he says.
...
If history is any guide, scientists will have a tough time staying ahead of the cheats. That, at least, is nothing new. "There's a lot of money at stake, and drug tests are easy to circumvent," say Yesalis, who thinks many of the records set in the past 30 years have been drug aided. "Users have kicked butt on the drug testers for 40 years. What makes anyone think that's going to change?

when we get to that point (if we are not there yet) I think we should just give up and let the athletes take whatever they please.

 

[gwuMACaddict]

this sucks... as far as sports goes anyway

excited about the broader implications though, the people it could help

 

[MacNut]

this sucks... as far as sports goes anyway

excited about the broader implications though, the people it could help

This could hurt more people that it could help, not just the pro athlete but the college and High School wanting to pump up. This could go beyond sports and hit the casual person who just wants to avoid working out to look better might just use some genie hormones.

 

[Don't panic]

This could hurt more people that it could help, not just the pro athlete but the college and High School wanting to pump up. This could go beyond sports and hit the casual person who just wants to avoid working out to look better might just use some genie hormones.

I both agree and disagree with you.
I disagree that this is not going to help a lot of people with a wide array of severe disorders who have NOT chosen to be sick.
I agree on your main point that this can be potentially very dangerous and that amatuers and regular joes are the ones that will pay the higher price (without the benefits of a pro career).
but this is already happening now with the current crop of crap (TM). just look at the abuse of steroids in schools and gyms

 

[MacNut]

I agree that this will help the people in need but that the dopers will abuse it far more than the good of the procedure

 

[meta-ghost]

doping

catching dopers is not as hopeless as it may seem. i was reading somewhere that the most promising solution goes something like this:

- do not test for specific steriods, gene therapies, or other stuff (you will always be behind the curve)

- instead, create "body profiles". these profiles gather a whole bunch of info about the body (oxygen levels, muscle mass, certain efficiencies,...) and are surprisingly consistent despite different periods of training.

so, when profile is tested for and something seems out of place, further testing begins.

apparently, some see this as the only hope.

 

[MongoTheGeek]

- instead, create "body profiles". these profiles gather a whole bunch of info about the body (oxygen levels, muscle mass, certain efficiencies,...) and are surprisingly consistent despite different periods of training.

so, when profile is tested for and something seems out of place, further testing begins.

So that just means that kids will have to start doping in HS or Jr High...

In some ways it levels the playing field. Yes, you do loose something of the "purity" of the sport but where exactly is the line between good and bad?

How do you know someone wasn't born with a particular mutation or if it was introduced after the fact?

 

[apple2991]

Wait, remind me why someone can become a millionaire celebrity catching a football in this world? I mean we've come so far.

Sports=good.

Professional sports=the complete opposite. If only because things like this happen.

 

[Drgnhntr]

This sort of technology is going to become more and more relevant in the future. It is only a matter of time before anyone can get some sort of genentic boost. It may be an immunity boost, height increase, weight control, strength, etc. It will be the equivalent of plastic surgery today.

I don't agree with using drugs in sports but it is something that is going to happen. People like to watch people hit homeruns, throw 80 yard passes, etc. There is a demand for super stong athletes. The only thing I think is sad is that they don't do something to protect the record books. What sports players did a long time ago "drug free" is amazing considering it took a person on enhancers to beat them. Those are amazing records that should be saved as a pure example of what humans can do.