Some can view sport as a question of make-it or break-it. But questionable training cultures and concerns around toxic training environments have been under the spotlight in recent times. The Nike Oregon project and British Cycling, to name two of the more high-profile cases, have been rocked by accusations of a culture of bullying, shady practices and medical mismanagement (https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/51599747). These accusations often centre around dominant, didactic coaches. Some athletes have now broken their silence and given their perspectives on the culture inside these highly successful teams. Are these isolated cases? Doubtful. But what is it about the culture of...
I am sure many people have watched in raptures at the sight of Usain Bolt sweeping all before him to win World and Olympic sprint titles. But what makes him so fast and so good when it matters? It is commonly suggested that he doesn’t train very hard. His eating of chicken nuggets during the Olympic games is well documented- quite different to what many nutritionists would advise, I am sure. He races people previously banned for steroid use. There have been arguments made that some of the benefits of steroid use may continue for many years after their cessation....
Doping is cheating, cheating is wrong, cheaters should be punished. This view is ingrained in many psyches. Yet evidence builds every week that doping is rife in sport. Many of those caught – and many who aren’t – will have been raised to share exactly the ethical standpoint outlined above. Nevertheless, they choose to dope. Sports medicine, inevitably, is essential to performance enhancement. Physicians enable doping and some – the evidence suggests – encourage it. But all over the world clean athletes too will look for a physiological edge, and turn to teams of nutritionists and physiologists and physicians for...
What can sports medicine really achieve and just as importantly what should it be aiming to achieve? This may seem like a simple question, but the answer has a myriad of competing influences. Should sports medicine be aimed at merely optimising the sports person’s health? Should it try to improve their performance? Perhaps prevent them from getting problems? How much to intervene and what to leave to nature is a common dilemma in physiotherapy and medicine. The shades of grey are no less opaque in sports. The history of sport includes many unsavoury events where clinicians have intervened too greatly...
