The crusade against the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) in sport has always been a challenge faced by “clean” athletes, sports administrators, and leaders. One reason for the continuing use of PEDs is ignorance or lack of education on the use of substances that are sometimes packaged as vitamins or energy drinks which turn out to contain banned substances. Another, and probably the more prevalent one, is an expensive, well-planned, and tailor-made doping program that includes masking methods to elude detection by authorities like the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and National Anti-Doping Organizations or NADOs. Such guarantees embolden athletes and athletes’ managers to take calculated risks.
There have been many athletes, professional and amateur, who have figured in doping controversies not because they were confirmed to have taken banned substances but merely had the signs of doping. One such example was a female Dutch track and field sprinter who was the subject of loose talk in Athletics circles because of acne or pimples.
In an interview with Francesca Menato several years ago, Dafne Schippers complained, “I hate it when people ask me those questions (about the relationship between acne and doping). I work so hard as a really good athlete, do my diet, follow the sleep patterns, and live my life for the sport. When someone asks you things like that, it’s really hard. What can you say?”
Schippers, continues, “It’s hard with my skin. It’s me and who I am....
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday (April 6, 2026) accused Congress of unleashing a “foreign-influenced misinformation campaign” against him and his wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma ahead ...