Drugs and sport? In principle, not necessarily. Especially in theory, because as we know drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes is harmful and unhealthy, and an unhealthy athlete is not an athlete but a clinical case. However, practice rarely confirms theory.

So rare that it almost disproves it. I do not mean the scientific side of the issue. The destructive influence of stimulants on the human organism is documented by research, and an athlete is also a human being, only that he or she is severely enhanced, both physically and mentally.

For this reason, he should avoid anything that might weaken him. However, numerous examples show otherwise. Athletes drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and win medals. The theory of health hygiene does not seem to convince them. That is what I mean.

I can already hear the voices of indignation that, after all, not everyone does. Of course not everyone, but after years of sporting experience I know that sport and stimulants are more the norm than the exception. Sometimes less, sometimes more. Even in the case of outstanding champions.

Smoke evacuator

When I was running hurdles, I had a buddy who was French. His name was Guy Drut and he had a Polish grandfather. So the grandson swore very well in Polish. Most often when we knelt next to each other in the starting blocks. However, this was not the most surprising thing.

Guy was a compulsive tobacco smoker and a virtuoso of the minnow technique. He smoked only Gauloises. Two packets a day quite comfortably, obviously training hard. Also speed endurance, which requires good lung ventilation.

Often during the warm-up before a run he would suddenly disappear from the stadium, somehow without making sense. He would come back a quarter of an hour later as if nothing had happened. I wondered what he was doing that for? I began to suspect that he was "doping". But nothing of the sort.

Guy would sneak out for a few smokes simply. He would lock himself in the loo for a quick smoke of a few cigarettes. He would occasionally smoke between runs in competitions. I have to admit that I was a little taken aback when I saw this at a meeting in Formia.

After his performance in the qualifiers, before the start of the final Guy appeared in the window on the first floor of the club building with a cigarette in his teeth. With little time to spare, he smoked two, at most three Gauloises. In the final, he broke a personal best close to the European record.

Not only did this smoke-swallower become the world's best hurdler in less than a decade, he was also the Olympic champion in the 110 metres hurdles, breaking the dominance of the Americans in this discipline.

Apart from his smoking habit, which the sport apparently did not suffer from, Guy was a free spirit and entertainer. He sometimes ended after-party banquets with dancing on the table. Of course, this was among friends and long before he became France's Sports Minister.

From drug addict to champion

Roughly speaking, no kind of drug addiction makes a person healthier or fitter. It lowers physical and intellectual abilities. In extreme cases, it degenerates personality and organism, and finally kills.

But there is the question of where the limit lies, beyond which there is no going back. It undoubtedly exists somewhere and seems to be linked to the type of addiction. Hard drugs supposedly don't stand a chance, especially if used for a long time. But do they really?

Something has happened in Polish sport that contradicts this. There was someone who achieved the impossible. This someone's name is Jerzy Górski and he broke through the bottom of a long-term addiction to heavy drugs to be born again and become a triathlon champion.

The black hole in his biography lasted several years. He took everything that was on the market. He stole to buy drugs, so he was in prison. He reached the state of a human wreck. Finally he ended up in Monar and with Marek Kotański.

It is difficult to pinpoint the cause of the breakthrough that occurred in his life at that time. Jerzy claims that his talks with Kotański activated his hidden passion for physical exercise, which was one of the methods of his therapy. But it's not that simple.

A man who could barely get out of bed and was weak on his feet could not smoothly switch to sports mode. The talks alone did not do it. Neither did morning jogs around the compound. So what worked?

Generally and briefly speaking, it was the strength of human character that worked. It exists in each and every one of us, and it is often only triggered by extremely difficult circumstances, for example those connected with survival, and there are numerous examples of this. Ernest Hemingway put it this way: "a man can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated".

Jurek Górski's story fits in with this statement. His transformation started in 1984 and in 1990 he became the world champion in Double Iron Triathlon (double Ironman) covering the distance of 7.6 km in swimming, 360 km on bike and 84 km on run.

Theoretically, he was way overboard and drowning. He had one slim chance to return to normal life. Almost none to become a sports champion. He crossed and pushed the impassable limit of possibility. And it is still not clear where it is.

No kidding with volume

Watching some of the sports careers, many people are puzzled and wipe their eyes with amazement. It is not easy to explain how one can be an addict and a star of the arena at the same time. You can alternate between litres of alcohol or lorries of white powder and medals.

The media industriously report on the exploits of idols, most often and most readily the drunken ones, although as civilisation advances it is impossible to be sure whether they are shaken by alcohol alone or by mixing vodka with drugs. To this day it is not clear what the divine Diego mixed with what.

I do not know who invented the adage that long drinking shortens life. Probably some abstainer, therefore a non-professional, maybe that is why it did not catch on. But it should, because the black list is extensive and at least one name suggests that there is no joke with booze.

George Best was considered a footballing genius. But when you have a name like that, everything is clear. He was compared to Pelé for his talent. They called him the 'fifth Beatle' because of his hairstyle. He scored 179 goals for Manchester United. He toasted many more.

There is no doubt that Best had an alcoholic disease. He was fired from Manchester City for that reason, played for weaker teams for 10 more years and drank. He didn't stop even after a liver transplant in 2002, so he died three years later.

Best's case is drastic, although it does not exhaust the list of active alcoholics who have actively played or are playing professional sport at the highest level. Until the time comes, of course, because sport suppresses the warning signals. After all, a career doesn't last forever anyway.

In addition, the denial syndrome prevails in every alcoholic. A glass of wine at a banquet after a competition has never harmed anyone, say people who do not acknowledge their illness. So they rarely end up with just one bottle.

He left the pub, won the competition

But banquets or occasional drinking is not a problem for athletes. The problem is drinking at work. Janne Ahonen won two Olympic medals and ten world championship medals in ski jumping. He only recently admitted to being an alcoholic.

He often jumped, as they say, drunk. When he fell on the slope because of a loss of balance, he got up faster than any of the judges could run to help him. He didn't want anyone to smell alcohol on him because that could lead to disqualification.

Matti Nykänen, considered by experts to be the best ski jumper in history, used to leave the pub in the morning, sit on the bar and win competitions. He showed signs of a bipolar personality. Secretive and shy in everyday life, he would go completely crazy after drinking.

He did not have to admit that he was an alcoholic. The press described his scandals in detail. A bad reputation, an even worse way of life and a sack of Olympic medals bigger and heavier than Santa Claus's, so it's hard to understand while sober.

These two Finns represent a much larger group of ski jumpers who "don't go around the bend", to put it mildly. In the same way that George Best was not a particular peculiarity in the football industry and that is not changing, as is well known.

Ronaldo, Leon the Professional

And here the question returns, how do they do it that they do it as well as they do? Especially when drunk, more often when hungover, sometimes in fleeting moments of sobriety. Not all of them, not all of them, because there are some who conduct themselves beautifully and hygienically and also have results.

For example, a Leon pro like Cristiano Ronaldo. With the exception of hair brilliance, he uses no other stimulants. In any case, he publicly praises a healthy, that is to say monastic, lifestyle and behaviour. He is an icon of strict discipline.

Or a Leon pro like Robert Lewandowski. He also does not show flawed inclinations. And if he does use a razor, it is for the benefit of the male population, which has fun that it can also do at least one thing like him.

So much so that athletes without addictions are not as complicated as those on the contrary. They do not require the special care of those around them, who try their best to keep their protégés walking and mobile by various effective methods.

I know of a case where a coach drank a litre of vodka in twos with an athlete the evening before the Games to reduce his high stress levels. The therapy was very successful, because the next day the boy became not just anyone, but an Olympic champion.

More often, however, coaches use less experimental, more pedagogical techniques. Edward Budny, as is well known, brought up Józef Łuszczek, who, as is well known, was the first Polish world champion in cross-country skiing.

Józek's talent for running was as great as his entertaining nature. During training and especially during foreign trips Budny lived with him in one room. He would read him poems at bedtime. No kidding, because Józuś was sensitive to poetry, and he later married a poet.

The gold medal in the 15 km in Lahti was the fruit of this cooperation, a reward for both of them. However, after the famous victory, the protégé disappeared. He did not return to his room at ten o'clock in the evening. He had a 30 km race ahead of him, so the coach went looking for him and found.

The athlete was heading for his quarters, elegant and cheerful, in just a suit, only that it was freezing minus twenty degrees. In the next run he won another medal, this time bronze. The result went around the world and Łuszczek made history in Polish sport.

To be honest, at that time Józek was and remained a big kid for a long time. As such, he needed friendly supervision and this warm care was provided by Budny, sprinkling him with nutritious porridge, squeezing juices. It was a bit like a caring father and an unruly son, which worked, although it probably could have been better.

A marathon runner can't make it

If I wanted to describe all the cases of athletes with unsportsmanlike tendencies that I know from my own experience, I would have to write a book. But there is enough information circulating in the public domain to delude ourselves into thinking that there is no case.

Is there a logical, irresistible argument to justify addiction to drugs and, at the same time, professional sport? Of course it can: addictions are sometimes stronger than willpower and intellect.

Should success in arenas achieved by alcoholics, for example, be considered a miracle of sporting genius? Yes and no. Undoubtedly people like Best or Nykänen had uncommon talents and iron bodies that were more slowly destroyed by the qualities with which nature had armed them.

Moreover, they did not always compete drunk, sometimes in sanitary breaks from drinking, which probably prolonged their careers. The type of sport practised is also of great importance. Especially the motor base and mental qualities needed for a particular sport.

A striker, like a jumper, does not have to rack up the miles to build up solid endurance, something that cannot be done with an alcohol-stressed body. Reflexes, bravado and motor automatism are enough to get the job done. At least for a while.

However, no marathon runner can afford alcoholic strings or to puff fag after fag like Drut. Neither can a road cyclist, volleyball player or basketball player. No one who practices a sport based on endurance - although there are undoubtedly exceptions.

A new chapter in this story is drugs such as cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy, etc., etc. This problem is also growing in sport. In the eyes of sporting law, drugs are doping, but sport has become entangled with doping, although it still pretends to fight against it.

Recovery from addiction is not easy, but it is possible. Even in seemingly hopeless cases. The example of Jurek Górski confirms this. It does not happen by itself. However, determination and awareness of the disease does not hinder, but can help.

– Marek Jóźwik
– Translated by Tomasz Krzyżanowski

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

At the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, the author was an athlete, hurdler and three-time champion of Poland. In 1972 he competed at the Olympic Games in Munich, where he reached the semi-finals in the 110 metres hurdles run. After ending his sports career, he became a journalist and sports commentator, among others, for TVP.