Performance Enhancers: From Battlefield to Playing Field

MIN READMar 6, 2018 | 15:29 GMT

German soldiers in World War II were supplied with amphetamines in one of the first instances of performance enhancers being used in combat.

(STF/AFP/Getty Images)

From the very beginning, a link has existed between the battleground and the playing field on the issue of performance enhancement. The amphetamines that helped soldiers push beyond their human limits during World War II soon made their way into athletics. Whether on the gridiron or at the baseball park, postwar athletes turned to amphetamines whenever they needed a pickup. And this is but one example in a very long relationship between sports and the military that remains today. During the recently concluded Pyeongchang Olympics, Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky tested positive for a banned substance that had been developed for Soviet-bloc soldiers during the Cold War....