Relationship Between Substance Abuse and Physical Performance in Cycling.
Hook: Doping is today a hidden issue in sport that blurs the honesty and clarity of major sporting events. Many institutions and specialists make an effort to try to prevent this type of dishonest act by a large percentage of athletes worldwide.
Background Information: Doping is known as prohibited substances, treatments or drugs used by athletes to increase sports performance. This illegal practice has been carried out since almost the beginning of modern sports games. The first case of doping appeared specifically in the year 1904 at the Olympic Games, an athlete used a substance called strychnine to increase speed and endurance (American College of Medical Toxicology, 2017). The use of prohibited substances by some athletes affects the credibility of sporting events and the results go beyond human limits following economic and media interests (Adv Pharm Bull. 2018). Some sports such as cycling require a lot of physical effort and such hardness is demonstrated by the great cycling tours with up to 21 days of competition at the highest level with stages of up to 150 miles. So much is the rigor of the competitions and the pressure from the sponsors to obtain results, that the cyclists are involved in consuming certain substances or undergoing treatments to have good results or maintain an image within the sports world. The substances used to improve performance and without forgetting that they are prohibited are divided into categories, substances that have an effect on muscle growth, those that accelerate recovery, substances that increase resistance, and another group widely used in recent times that mask other prohibited substances
