Doping and sports - 1910-1919
1910
Polish chemist Alfons Bukowski (1858-1921) was the first to detect the use of prohibited alkaloids in horses via saliva. He was invited to do so by the Austrian jockey federation, after very strange results were recorded in some races. However, the good man forgot to register his method, which allowed Viennese scientist Sigmund Fränkel (1868-1939) to do so. Thanks to this method, the number of doping cases in equestrian sport decreased by 30 to 40%.
1910
The British physiologists George Barger (1878-1939) and Henry Dale (1875-1968) discovered the similarity between the chemical structure of amphetamines and that of adrenaline.
1910
After he was beaten by his fellow countryman Jack Johnson (1878-1946) (on the right in the picture), American boxer James Jeffries (1875-1953) on the (left) claimed that his tea had been contaminated/doped to beat him. The first dope accusation between athletes.
1911
Four-times Belgian world champion of stayiers' race Victor Linart (1889-1977) heard during the first six days of Bremen how a competitive team asked his caregiver 'quick pills' to speed up. The caregiver handed over pills as big as walnuts, but advised to take them with some coffee only during the 'hunt'.
1911
In 1911 Paul Duboc (1884-1941) came in the news during the Tour de France through a mysterious incident. The Frenchman was in excellent form and won four stages, including the stage to the top of the Tourmalet. When he was in the lead during the race Luchon-Bayonne, he was offered a drink from a rival sports director at the checkpoint in Argèles, which he promptly drained. Suddenly he became unwell, he was the victim of poisoning and would never perform at a high level again.
1912
New Zealand newspapers reported on doping in international cycling at the 1912 Olympics.
1913
German Professor of bacteriology and hygiene Ferdinand Hüppe (1852-1938), who from 1900 to 1904 was also the first chairman of the German Football Association, published the book 'Sport und Reizmittel' in 1913, in which he described alcohol, strychnine and arsenic as 'doping', but he also warned about its dangers for health.
1913
Organizer Henri Desgrange (1865-1940) reported in his newspaper 'l'Auto' about the excessive consumption of alcohol during the fourth stage of the Tour de France that he had organised. That alcohol use had to make the last effort possible but also left a lot of drunks on the road. The Frenchman concluded that some did not shy away from doping. That conflicted with his ideas about sport, but he partially protected the riders by placing the responsibility with the managers and especially with certain doctors who provided the resources.
1919
Because of the excessive use of doping, cycling gradually came into disrepute, on which an insider defended the riders of the six-day races with the argument:
"Sportsmen, actors, singers, mountaineers, wrestlers, etc. use stimulants, but not enough, because otherwise one would not always talk about the doping use of cyclists."
1919
Doping is usually associated with performance-enhancing drugs, but sometimes alcohol was also used to calm down, as proven by Suzanne Lenglen (1899-1938) in 1919. The scent of alcoholic could be smelled 20 meters from the French tennis player. During the first set of the finals she received a bottle of cognac from her father, which she drank to the bottom. It worked relaxing and took away all her inhibitions. The fact that it could also become dangerous was proven in 1967 when a shooter had drunk a bit of the stuff during a competition in Austria and shot at the judges instead of the bull's-eye.
