Abstract

Sport is, among many other things, an activity where man seeks his limits. Throughout the history of Sport, man has continued discovering the mechanisms of this adaptation to physical stress and continually increasing his performance. At the conference we described the mechanisms and principles that affect the human body and those on which sports training is based. From this analysis we conclude that the two ways which serve to better performance are based on the continuous improvement of these two aspects:
•    The careful dosage of the intensity and volume of training.
•    Putting the maximum of legal possible means of recuperation. We also analyzed the evolution in the sporting calendar, and how it has increased, both in the number of competitions and the pressure to break records. This phenomenon is much more evident in sports of greater participation and of greater economic power.
The phenomenon of doping is certainly not new, but is as old as sport itself. But with the increase of competitions and the demand for records, together with the large amount of money and social recognition of the results, this has put the sportsman in the face of pressure that could increase the possibility of choosing a third illegal way of increasing his performance: doping. But if Sport itself wants to continue with its own essence and not change into something completely different from itself (a type of competition of chemical substances) we must establish the mechanisms that can help this spiral of necessities not to allow doping to “win the match”. The text expresses a series of considerations and proposals in this line of thought.
Finally, a very important idea that has to be repeated again and again is that it is perfectly possible to perform at the highest level without drugs. Maybe not so many times, not so often and not so soon as is required at present in some sports, but many of the present day medals are won without having to turn to doping.