![Paralympic Games: some athletes self-injure to boost their performance](https://img.passeportsante.net/1000x526/2016-09-05/i39868-jeux-paralympiques-certains-athletes-se-mutilent-pour-doper-leurs-performances.jpg)
Sensitive readers, hold on tight. Self-harm, or “boosting”, would be a form of doping specific to the disabled, assures an article by 20minutes.fr.
Olympic Games: disabled athletes doping themselves by mutilating themselves
The article specifies that this practice concerns athletes suffering from a spinal cord injury.
When they self-injure, these people do not feel pain in their numb limbs. However, this allows them to increase blood pressure, improve the flow of blood into the muscles and therefore, ultimately, obtain better performance.
Boosting: prohibited practices
” Electric shocks, bleeding, blockage of the urinary catheter to distend the bladder, leg straps too tight on the lower limbs, twisting or crushing of the testicles, fracture of the big toe »: The article lists the horrible list of boosting techniques.
” It’s very marginal “, Relativizes all the same Michaël Jérémiasz, standard bearer of the French delegation in Rio and wheelchair tennis player. And it is obviously perfectly prohibited by the Paralympic Committee since 1994 …