Join us in the ek robotics Sports Campus at the Royal Latin for a sport science lecture by Dr Mark Homer of Buckinghamshire New University, entitled, Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sport. The Science, The Risks and The Rules.

Performance enhancing drugs have always been a contentious issue in sport. Using substances such as anabolic steroids and EPO, the choices of high profile athletes such as Ben Johnson, Lance Armstrong, and organisations like the Russian Sports Federation have implications for fairness, health and the integrity of sport itself. In recent years, there has been growing incidence of dangerous and often illegal supplement use for amateur sports performance and vanity, fuelled by social media. 

This lecture will explore the history of PEDs in sport, describe the different substances that are used – why they were developed, why they are taken, and the risks to health they can cause. We will also discuss the moral and ethical implications of everyday use and high-profile doping scandals, before highlighting the work of anti-doping organisations and their quest to protect sport and clean athletes.

Mark is a senior applied sports scientist with over 12 years’ experience in high performance sport. He provided physiology support in preparation for, and during multiple international training camps and competitions; including the Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. Mark was responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of the Great Britain Rowing Team Sports Science & Medicine team, accountable for delivering a world leading service to rowers and coaches in the field. After this, Mark worked with British Swimming in their preparation for the Tokyo Olympic games, before moving to academia. Mark is now a senior lecturer in Exercise Physiology at Buckinghamshire New University, he is director of the Human Performance Laboratory and continues to work with elite athletes, coaches, and teams including the World Rowing, Oxford University Women’s Boat Race squad and development squad cyclists.

For more information about our Lillingstone Lecture programme, please visit the Lillingstone Lectures web page.

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