[ExI] Fwd: [tt] NS 2767: Superhuman performance could betray sport drug cheats

[Bryan Bishop]

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Subject: [tt] NS 2767: Superhuman performance could betray sport drug cheats
To: Transhuman Tech <tt at postbiota.org>


NS 2767: Superhuman performance could betray sport drug cheats
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727673.900-superhuman-performance-could-betray-sport-drug-cheats.html
* 30 June 2010 by Jim Giles

HEROICS will be performed this July. The Tour de France lasts 21 days,
covers 3600 kilometres and includes 25 lung-busting climbs in the Alps
and Pyrenees. Each extraordinary performance in the race will, however,
generate suspicion as well as admiration. Allegations of doping have
plagued the Tour for so long that any rider who excels now inevitably
attracts talk of drug use.

But what if a superhuman performance itself could be used as evidence
of doping? That's the thinking behind a new strategy, which asks: "Is
this physiologically possible without the aid of drugs?"

The idea is straightforward: work out the boundaries of human ability,
based on what we know about physiology and its maximal capabilities. If
an athlete's performance lies outside this limit, they are highlighted
as a potential drug-taker and given more frequent and extensive drug
screenings.

The strategy has the backing of many sports physiologists. The French
government is considering using it in sporting events, and the World
Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is running pilot studies. But there is a
fundamental difficulty: elite sport is all about extraordinary
abilities. Can we really distinguish between exceptional athletes and
their chemically enhanced rivals on the basis of performance?

A key measurement that could be used to investigate its potential is a
cyclist's power output. This is a measure of the energy a rider uses to
drive the bike up a hill (see diagram). One popular drug, the hormone
erythropoietin (EPO), has been shown to increase the peak power output
of healthy volunteers by 16 per cent after four weeks of taking the
drug. It also increased the "time-to-exhaustion", the duration over
which a subject could maintain a high pace, by over 50 per cent
(European Journal of Applied Physiology, DOI:
10.1007/s00421-007-0522-8).

Several successful Tour de France riders, including Bjarne Riis, the
1996 winner, have admitted to using EPO in the mid to late 1990s. Prior
to widespread EPO use, Tour winners' average power output was 380 watts
on big climbs, with none exceeding 410 W, says Antoine Vayer, a
professional cycling coach based in Pordic, France. Riis had an average
power output of 445 W on Tour climbs in 1996. From 1994 onwards, Vayer
calculated that around six riders per year averaged over 410 W. Levels
dropped at the end of the decade as EPO detection, in urine or blood
samples, became more accurate.

Something else that could raise suspicions about a cyclist is a high
VO[2] max--a measure of the maximum rate at which a person uses
oxygen.

The highest VO[2] max figures on record--around 90 millilitres of
oxygen per kilogram per minute--come from cross-country skiers and
rowers, who use a high proportion of the muscles in their bodies. Elite
cyclists generally score lower because their activity uses a smaller
muscle mass.

In one study of 11 world-class cyclists, the highest VO[2] max was 82.5
ml/kg/min (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, vol 34, p
2079). Levels above 85 ml/kg/min are "very rare", says Ross Tucker at
the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Olaf Schumacher at the
University of Freiburg in Germany agrees, saying that values above this
for cyclists are "definitely very high" and beyond what he feels is
"natural".

At the request of New Scientist, Tucker used Vayer's power output data
to estimate the VO[2] max of several riders on the climb of Alpe d'Huez
--one of the longest and steepest on the route--over a number of
years. Assumptions made in the calculation, such as a rider's
efficiency in converting energy into moving the bike, limit its
accuracy, but on the last eight occasions on which the Tour has visited
Alpe d'Huez, Tucker estimates that a number of the riders had a VO[2]
max above 85 ml/kg/min, with some over 90 ml/kg/min (see graph).

Do these high levels reflect a leap in human achievement, or are they a
signature of artificially enhanced physiology? Power outputs have risen
once more since the dip in 2000 and although several riders have had
positive drug tests, there are several with VO[2] max levels above 85
ml/kg/min who have a clean record. Tucker estimates that Lance
Armstrong, the US rider who has won a record seven Tours, would have
produced a VO[2] max of between 88 and 97 ml/kg/min when he climbed
Alpe d'Huez in 2004. Armstrong has not been found to have used
performance-enhancing drugs, which demonstrates the strategy's
limitations.

On the basis of a person's physiological measurements alone, it is
impossible to say otherwise. "Doping can never be inferred from
performance only," says Schumacher.

Nevertheless, Schumacher and others say that these kinds of
sophisticated physiological analyses could aid doping authorities.
Professional cyclists are already subject to regular blood and urine
tests during and outside of races. The results are added to their
"biological passport"--a regularly updated record of each athlete's
test results. Periodic estimates of power output and VO[2] max could be
added to this.

Pierre Sallet, a physiologist and athletics coach in Lyon, France, has
studied this approach for WADA. When analysing one climb in the Tour,
Sallet observed a rider who produced an average power in excess of 480
W for more than 30 minutes, a level which he considers "beyond all
norms" and reason to investigate further.

WADA plans to introduce steroid and hormone data to its biological
passport scheme this year, and says that physiological performance data
could follow. Fred Grappe of the University of Franche-Comté in
Besançon, France, is meeting with officials from the French Ministry of
Health and Sports in August to discuss a possible nationwide
performance monitoring programme. Grappe says he would like to use a
combination of lab tests and race monitoring to track performance.

Knowledge of what is considered to be humanly possible may not be
enough on its own, but in parallel with drug tests, physiological
monitoring can give authorities "a good idea of those who are not so
clearly clean", says Fabio Manfredini at the University of Ferrara in
Italy, who is integrating performance data into biathlons this year.
"Then we can try and control them."
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