A minority of athletes continues to use prohibited drugs in sports to enhan
ce performance. Athletes discovered using these drugs can be subject to sev
ere penalties, often resulting in media and public scrutiny, especially at
major events such as the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee
(IOC) has set out the classes of the substances it bans in the IOC Medical
Code. In many cases "old" drugs such as anabolic steroids are still used,
and current testing regimes can test for these. Advances in the therapeutic
treatment of illness have resulted in new drugs or practices, many of whic
h are difficult to detect and which have been turned to the sinister role o
f performance enhancement. Detection of some newly developed drugs which ha
ve been placed on the banned list offers a major challenge to laboratories
involved in sports dope testing. In some cases this requires research into
new applications of research techniques. These techniques involve the novel
use of gas chromatogaphy/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) techniques, high-resolu
tion mass spectrometry (HRMS), carbon isotope ratio mass spectrometry, and
immunoassay techniques.