History

 

Doping originated long ago, since the beginning of time. In the early history-mid-century, warriors all around the world ate hearts, brains and livers of animals in the belief that they would become more intelligent, swifter and stronger. In pre-history, West Africa tribesmen consume cola nitida to improve performance and China commanders ingested Ma Huang for various stimulation purposes. In 5 BC and 3 BC, Greek athletes consumed special diets such as dried figs, wine, wet cheese, meat and a variety of mushrooms to improve performance like in their Olympic Games. In Roman era, stimulants mixed with alcohol were consumed by roman gladiators to recover faster from tiredness and injuries. In Ancient America, citizens in Peru and Mexico ate coca leaves for endurance in competitions.  All these evidences are sufficient to prove that doping did not just begin but had its roots long time ever since the beginning of time. Source

 

Due to the increasing use of doping in many sport games, by the 1920s doping had become evident that drug restrictions were essential in 1963. France was the first country to enact an anti-doping legislation in response to the proliferation of drug usage in sports. Please refer below for the timeline of the history of doping.

 

Doping Timeline