BackgroundDespite the efforts of the World Anti-Doping Agency and national anti-doping agencies at the international level, a relatively low and steady rate of positive doping tests still persists all over the world. Evidence on adolescents using doping substances exists, and the proportion of adolescents engaging in doping practices is small but significant. In relation to the international research trends on anti-doping, this study aims to evaluate doping knowledge, practices, and attitudes among Korean adult and adolescent elite athletes to provide effective information on anti-doping policies and education programs.MethodsThis study was a cross-sectional study of 454 Korean elite athletes (249 adults in 23 events and 205 adolescents in 22 events). Data were collected by an interviewer-administered questionnaire containing items regarding doping practices and knowledge, brief definitions of performance-enhancing substances/methods and recreational substances, and the Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS).ResultsAdolescent (47.3%) and adult (57.0%) athletes received information on banned substances of their respective sports from the Korea Anti-Doping Agency, and 39.0 and 53.4% of adolescents and adults, respectively, had knowledge of banned substances and had permissive attitudes toward doping compared to those who were unaware. Adolescent and adult athletes have inadvertently (1.5 and 3.6%, respectively) or knowingly (1.0 and 2.8%, respectively) taken banned performance-enhancing substances, and 2.4 and 3.2%, respectively, knew someone who had taken banned substances. And the adolescent athletes in motor skill category (PEAS: 40.24 ± 10.91) were more permissive toward doping than those in team category (PEAS: 35.08 ± 10.21).ConclusionAn in-depth anti-doping education for Korean athletes should be more widely implemented, and effective anti-doping policy should meet the athletes’ demographic characteristics, personalities, and values.

BackgroundThe motives for elite athletes to dope are related primarily to maintaining and improving their physical performance. Especially, elite athletes training to compete in the Olympics may feel unique situational pressure, which may in turn induce powerful motivation for doping and predict doping behavior. This study aimed to investigate possible factors associated with attitudes towards doping in Korean national athletes who competed in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.MethodsA total of 198 athletes (95 female, 103 male) completed the questionnaire, which covered demographic information, doping-related experiences, Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS), Perfectionism in Sports Scale (PSS; coach’s criticism, concern over mistakes, and personal standards), and Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2 (PMCSQ-2; ego-involving and task-involving climates). Pearson’s correlation coefficients were used to identify correlations among PEAS, PSS, and PMCSQ-2 scores, and stepwise multiple linear regression was performed to investigate possible factors significantly associated with attitudes towards doping.ResultsThe coach’s criticism of PSS was slightly or weakly related to the concern over mistakes of PSS and the ego-involving climate of PMCSQ-2, respectively. And the concern over mistakes sub-scale of perfectionism was related to attitudes towards doping, but weakly.ConclusionsEffective anti-doping policy should meet athletes’ perfectionism, and more studies that identify other factors that influence athletes’ doping attitudes are needed.

This study aimed to analyze the characteristics of injuries and illnesses that occurred during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games for Korean team by using a prospective cohort design. In total, 204 Korean athletes competed in 24 sporting events during the Olympic Games. The entire medical staff of the Korean team recorded injuries and illnesses on a daily basis that occurred during training and competition using the International Olympic Committee injury and illness surveillance system. During the Olympic Games, 308 injuries and 73 illnesses were reported; the incidence was 150.9 injuries and 35.8 illnesses per 100 athletes. In addition, 56.3% and 24.0% of all athletes sustained at least one injury or illness, respectively. The highest rate of injuries was observed in boxing and wrestling, whereas the highest rate of illnesses was seen in boxing and swimming. Twelve percent of all injuries resulted in absenteeism from training or competition for at least 1 day. Of all infections, 75.9% occurred in the respiratory tract. In addition, 2.7% of all illnesses prevented athletes performing their sport for 1 day. These results may be used to further analyze mechanisms of injury and their risk factors in Olympic sports to develop effective preventive strategies for athletes.

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Medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS) is one of the most common exercise-induced leg pain. The navicular drop (ND) was identified as a risk factor for MTSS. This study aimed to evaluate the short-term effects of sports taping applied to the supporting lower leg during sitting, standing, walking, and jogging to restrict the ND in healthy elite athletes.Twenty-four healthy elite athletes without a history of exercise-induced pain or injuries in the lower limbs participated in this study (median age: 21.00 years; 1st--3rd quartiles; 19.25–22.00). The 4 taping conditions were used: rigid taping (RT), kinesiology taping (KT), placebo taping (PT), and non-taping (NT). The order of taping techniques was randomly assigned. Normalized navicular height (NH), ND, and normalized ND evaluated using 3-dimensional motion analysis, and normalized peak plantar pressure (PP) were compared in 4 taping conditions during sitting, standing, walking, and jogging.During sitting, the normalized NH of RT is higher than that of NT, KT, and PT (χ2 = 17.30, P = .001), while during jogging, the normalized NH of RT is higher than that of NT and PT (χ2 = 10.55, P = .014). The normalized peak PP of NT is higher than that of PT (χ2 = 8.871, P = .031) in the lateral midfoot region.This study showed the RT technique maintained NH during sitting and jogging, and the RT technique could be an effective preventive and treatment strategy for MTSS.