LONDON (AP) — Paralympics officials will be testing for more than just the usual banned drugs in London, where they also will be on the lookout for a practice called boosting in which wheelchair athletes use painful stimuli to cause a blood pressure spike that enhances performance.
In able-bodied athletes, intense physical exercise automatically raises the heart rate and blood pressure. Athletes with a severe spinal cord injury don’t get that boost.
To get a rapid rise in blood pressure, wheelchair-bound athletes may resort to inducing a state called autonomic dysreflexia. That is a reflex that occurs when the lower part of their body is exposed to painful stimuli, like using tight leg straps or sitting on a sharp object.
International Paralympic Committee spokesman Craig Spence says “it’s very dangerous.”
