Drugs in Sports Drug use has been a part of competitive sport for almost a century. At the first olympics in Athens in 1896, marathon runners drank a mixture of brandy and strychnine to help them on their ways and used opiates to control pain during a race. Use of alcohol was very common in the early years of the twentieth century. It might be argued that the first athletes to use drugs to enhance their performance were, in fact, cheating. We need to remember that drug use is not new. East Germany athletes used drugs to enhance their performance. Soviet Union was also involved in drug experimentation. In the United States the drug cu