Text | pineapple
Recently, the Beijing Winter Olympics are in full swing. In this arena, fairness is absolutely paramount.
In the past two days, there have been many cases of disqualification for fouls on the field, from the physical obstruction of speed skating to the excessive clothes for skiing, the logic behind it is because the referee feels that it affects the fairness of the competition.
But sometimes it's hard to decide whether it's "fair" or "unfair," such as the "long-term doping" person below.
The image comes from the internet
The Finnish skier is named Eero M ntyranta. He took seven Winter Olympic medals, three gold, two silver and two bronze.
The most exaggerated one was 15 km cross-country skiing in 1964, which was a full 40 seconds ahead of the second place.
As a result, something went wrong during the medical examination. The doctor found that the number of red blood cells in his blood was very large, 165% of ordinary people. This look is problematic because it is a typical reaction after the use of the banned drug "erythropoietin EPO".
One of the most popular illegal drugs used by the Ma family military is EPO, and the legendary American cyclist Armstrong was also found to be using EPO and failed.
EPO is a normal hormone in the human body that promotes the production of erythrocytes and helps to temporarily increase the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. Usually, the body volume is very low, and it will secrete a lot when there is generally lack of oxygen (such as when going to Tibet), which can help the body adapt to the low-oxygen environment.
When there is no lack of oxygen, direct injection of EPO hormones can make the muscles get more oxygen, which is very helpful for aerobic endurance exercise. Therefore, for a long time, EPO was a high-grade tonic for athletes, an essential artifact for traveling at home and competing for gold and silver until it was banned.
Due to the abnormal number of M ntyranta's red blood cells, many people questioned that he used an EPO class of contraband and should cancel the score.
But strangely enough, no matter how much he looked it up, no one could find out what he was using. This mystery hung over M ntyranta until his retirement. Many people are convinced that he used some kind of new stimulant, but it just can't be detected.
It wasn't until 20 years after he quit the sport that the secret was revealed.
He was so fierce, he really benefited from EPO, and he began to use it from the first day of birth, and used it for a lifetime.
But he did not use contraband, but because of the congenital genetic mutation, he brought his own "stimulant".
Everyone guessed the beginning, did not guess the ending.
In 1990, Finnish scientists genetically tested the M ntyranta family and found that he carried an extremely rare mutation in the EPOR gene.
The EPO hormone is effective by binding to the EPOR protein on the surface of the cell and then generating a signal that stimulates red blood cell growth. M ntyranta's mutation in the EPOR gene made him super sensitive to EPO, and ePO can play a strong role.
In the average human body, EPO stimulates it to create a little red blood cell.
In M ntyranta, EPO stimulates and makes a large pile of red blood cells.
He didn't need to use drugs at all, and by virtue of his own talent, his red blood cells grew like stimulants every day. There's no way, it's genius. Where's the reason?!
The Olympics emphasize the principle of "openness, fairness and impartiality" and therefore limit the use of doping. But what if you encounter m ntyranta, who comes with a stimulant? Is it fair?
If you know that someone is born with an EPOR mutation, is it really fair to let other athletes who do not have mutations supplement a little EPO?
Equality, or fairness? is an interesting puzzle.
Interestingly, even after the sequencing results were made public, M ntyranta still thought he had trained not primarily by talent, but by hard work.
Pineapple believes that top talent in any industry, including Olympic gold medalists, needs three things: innate genes, acquired efforts, and the Bó Lè environment that creates the conditions to play. All three are indispensable.
M ntyranta, Gu Ailing, Su Yiming, of course, hard work is very important, but to become the world's first, it is impossible without talent.
If I don't believe me, I tell you that there are two people in M ntyranta's family who also have the same EPOR mutation, his nephew and niece, respectively.
Both of them are world champions in the middle and long distance running.
I really don't believe it.
Hail to life!
bibliography:
1."Truncated erythropoietin receptor causes dominantly inherited benign human erythrocytosis". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 90 (10): 4495–9.
2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eero_M%C3%A4ntyranta
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