drug control

The European Athletics Championships of 1966 constituted the first major international sporting event where human athletes were officially drug tested. Driving this watershed moment was growing alarm that more and more athletes were turning to performance-enhancing drugs with near impunity and no small amount of personal risk. Several amphetamines were found in the system of Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen after he collapsed mid-race at the 1960 Rome Olympics, fracturing his skull. He later died in hospital. Seven years after that, British cyclist Tommy Simpson collapsed and died during the...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) drug control program has encountered some choppy waters since its launch on May 22, encapsulated by events surrounding the law's rules on intra-articular joint injections. At the end of last month, HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus explained that the Authority--the non-profit umbrella broadly overseeing implementation of the federal law--had temporarily suspended full enforcement of its rules surrounding intra-articular joint injections prior to workouts. Under HISA's rules as written, trainers are prohibited from giving their horse intra-articular joint injections within 14 days prior to the...