Unconventional warfare

The United States is going to war, and with it, the rest of the world is hoping for a quick resolution to the terrorist threat that caused the immeasurable suffering of the World Trade Center bombing. The term "unconventional warfare" is being bandied about as the mode of attack to be used.

In sports, unconventional warfare has had several meanings through the last three decades. But generally, it has come to mean severe attempts to cheat the system and give an athlete an unfair advantage on the playing field. And there are six main entry points for these desperate maneuvers.

Age. China and Romania have been the chief suspects in falsifying passports and birth records of their gymnasts. Until the 1990’s, they and other countries were accused of getting away with sending 12 or 14-year olds to international competitions. The damage that such stresses place on fragile, underdeveloped bodies has been chronicled in many published medical journals. It was only until the Atlanta Olympics that the International Olympic Committee finally imposed a minimum age of 16 for gymnasts. Of course, there is still no way of verifying with finality any documents submitted to the OIC.

Blood. Perhaps the most difficult form of cheating to detect, blood doping or self-transfusion gained popularity during the running boom of the late 1970’s, when endurance became an even more crucial factor in road races. Basically, an athlete has some blood extracted and put in storage within a few weeks of competition. After a few days, his or her body would have already replenished the diminished blood supply. Immediately before a competition, the runner has the blood injected back into his bloodstream, and therefore has an additional source of oxygen and nutrients that could make all the difference in a close race.

Pregnancy. There have been rumors that some communist countries have actually gotten their female athletes pregnant a month or two before a major event like the Olympics. The hormone change accompanying the body’s adapting to support an undeveloped fetus give the pregnant swimmer or runner or weightlifter a boost in strength and endurance, and is a gray area in terms of the rules in international competition. After all, how do you prove the motive in getting pregnant? What these countries do with the fetuses and women athletes afterwards is something I’d rather not know.

Urine. The trickiest and possibly the most dangerous to detect. In many international events, athletes are selected randomly and escorted to a convenient comfort room where they are asked to submit urine samples. Some steroid-using athletes have gone to the extent of taking "clean" urine from other people and pumping them through a catheter into the penis, all for the sake of winning a gold medal. Needless to say, the risk of infection – not to mention the pain – of such a procedure makes it the choice of only the most desperate cheaters.

Steroids. This has become the most common form of cheating, thanks to advances in medical technology. Synthetic chemicals have been known to boost performance, speed up healing, add muscle mass, stave off fatigue and increase tolerance to pain. With all those benefits, it is very tempting to athletes who only need to pop pills or inject themselves regularly to suddenly feel like supermen. Popular athletes from the late NFL strongman Lyle Alzado to tie-dyed pro wrestler Superstar Billy Graham have confessed to having used illegal substances to prolong or increase their careers. Alzado died of cancer and other degenerative ailments, while Graham says his knees disintegrated as a side effect.

Human Growth Hormone. The frightening use of this extract from human brains and related tissues was first revealed to the public in the early 1980’s. The CBS program "Sixty Minutes" even interviewed the late wrestler, 7-5 Andre the Giant, and wondered out loud whether or not he used HGH. The French behemoth’s brow protruded, his nose was flattened and splayed out across his face, his teeth were abnormally spaced apart. His torso, said the report, was too short for his height, like that of a gorilla. All of these were symptoms of genetic mutation that may have been caused by HGH use. The Giant died at a very early age.

There may be other ways of getting an edge that allows you to train harder, last longer, recover faster or lift more, but these have been the most documented cheats. Luckily for us, the most common Filipino shortcut has been to cheat on age. Our entire youth basketball team was declared ineligible for the ABC Youth tournament here in 1987, and head coach Joe Lipa had 42 days to whip a new team together. Luckily, we still managed a bronze.

Perhaps that’s one advantage of having a less sophisticated sports program.