especially in the competitive world of the Olympics.
Throughout the history of sports, people have turned to
‘doping,’ or using illegal substances to enhance their
performances in sports, giving them a leg up on their fellow
athletes. Even back to when the Olympics were started by the
ancient Greeks, the competitors would ingest mixed drinks full
of drugs and herbs to help their performance (Top Athletes
Looking For An Edge, And Scientists Trying To Stop Them). In
the early years of the Olympics, the use of drugs and
performance enhancing mixtures was allowed in full force,
never being monitored. It wasn’t until after the death of an
athlete during the Olympic games in 1960 due to drug
overdose that the Olympic Committee started testing athletes
for performance enhancing drugs (sic). Now 54 years later,
the Olympic Committee has over 200 substances that athletes
are banned from taking, and if ingested, the athletes will be
banned from competing and stripped of any previous titles and
wins (sic).
What does all of this have to do with genetic engineering,
you ask? The case of doping in the Olympics is a perfect
example to showcase how humans are editing themselves,
because as technology has improved, and the bar in the