From Lance Armstrong fall from grace to Russia state-sponsored doping program, the world of sports has been rocked by countless doping scandals. Discover how East Germany secretly drugged thousands of athletes, why the 1988 Olympics 100m final was called the Dirtiest Race in History, and how designer steroids evaded detection for years. These facts reveal the dark underbelly of elite competition and the ongoing battle between cheaters and those trying to keep sports clean.
Lance Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France titles and banned for life from cycling after a USADA investigation revealed he was the key…
Floyd Landis won the 2006 Tour de France but tested positive for elevated testosterone levels during the race. He was stripped of his title after an…
Marion Jones became the first woman to win five track-and-field medals at a single Olympics in 2000, but was stripped of all medals in 2007 after admitting to…
Tennis star Maria Sharapova tested positive for meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open. She received a two-year ban, later reduced to 15 months on appeal, after…
Barry Bonds holds MLB records for most career home runs (762) and most in a single season (73), but his achievements are clouded by allegations of…
Diego Maradona was expelled from the 1994 FIFA World Cup after testing positive for ephedrine. The Argentine legend was sent home in disgrace during the…
Mark McGwire admitted in 2010 to using steroids during his playing career, including when he broke Roger Maris single-season home run record with 70 homers in…
Alex Rodriguez was suspended for the entire 2014 season, 211 games total, for his involvement with performance-enhancing drugs. It remains the longest doping…
The first synthetic anabolic steroids were developed in the 1930s by German scientists. They were initially created to treat hypogonadism and other medical…
The Tour de France has faced numerous doping scandals, with multiple winners stripped of titles including Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, and Bjarne Riis…
East Germany operated a systematic state-sponsored doping program from the 1960s to 1980s, giving thousands of athletes performance-enhancing drugs without…
The 1998 Tour de France was nearly cancelled after the Festina team doping scandal. Team staff were caught with hundreds of doses of EPO and other…
The Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) scandal revealed that athletes were using designer steroids specifically created to evade detection. The scandal…
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was established in 1999 in response to the Festina scandal. It was created to coordinate the fight against doping in sports…
Erythropoietin (EPO) became the most widely used doping drug in endurance sports during the 1990s. It boosts red blood cell production but can thicken blood to…
Before synthetic EPO, athletes used blood doping by removing and later reinfusing their own blood to boost red blood cell counts. The practice was particularly…
The 1988 Olympic 100m final became infamous when winner Ben Johnson tested positive for stanozolol. Six of the eight finalists would eventually be linked to…
The first Olympic drug testing took place at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. The IOC began testing for narcotics and stimulants after growing…
Human growth hormone (HGH) became widely used by athletes in the 2000s to build muscle and recover faster. It was particularly difficult to detect until a…
Russia was banned from international athletics competition in 2015 after revelations of widespread state-sponsored doping. Russian athletes have competed under…