I have never been able to make up what I think about people who use drugs to improve their performance in sport. Having suffered from asthma all my life, I have relied on inhalers to keep me going. Since I also play games requiring significant physical exertion, the inhalers let me play. Of course, there’s a difference between letting an average player like me stay in the game and giving a top performer an extra edge over his or her competitors. But the principle is the same. However you look at it, we are both playing at our best level because of the drugs. So let’s take an everyday drug like viagra — that rather notorious little blue pill that gives a man a little performance boost when he needs it most. It seems that top athletes have been using the pill for slightly different performance enhancements.

When the drug that was to become viagra was first being tested, it was aimed at dilating the main arteries that carry blood through the lungs. In fact, a version of the drug is now on the market for this purpose under a different brand name. Reading the background history to the drug’s development gave athletes and their trainers an idea. If the supply of blood is improved through the lungs, this improves the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, and carries more oxygen to the muscles. They guessed this would improve endurance so started using it in training. Now the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has commissioned a high-powered research team to test whether the performance advantage is sufficiently real to justify placing viagra on the list of prohibited substances.

Now please don’t get too amused by the apparent irony in banning the use of viagra by top athletes. What will those poor men do if they suffer from erectile dysfunction? What a choice to have to make. Win a gold medal or be a success in bed. Think just how much money a top athlete can earn so long as he is at the top of his game! Millions of dollars are at stake. This is a powerful incentive to use any and every substance to get to, or stay at, the top for longer. So here come the team from Marywood University. They have found some willing volunteers to start taking viagra during training. The results of their experiments will be known next year. While you’re waiting, there’s always sex to enjoy with a little help when you buy viagra before it’s banned.