10 incredible dopings

We offer you 10 unusual substances that our ancestors, and in some cases, contemporaries, used as doping substances. You might be surprised, but this includes soda, arsenic, guinea pig sperm, and much more.

Better known as a deadly poison, strychnine was considered the ticket to success for American runner Thomas Hicks in the 1904 Olympic Marathon. Thomas mixed this substance with brandy and egg white. At the finish line he needed an ambulance and almost died, but still won the gold medal.

Ancient Egyptian athletes took the hooves of Abyssinian donkeys in powder form; they were boiled in oil and seasoned with rose hips to hide the characteristic unpleasant odor.

Sugar cubes in ether helped cyclists complete the 144-hour race in the 1870s. When that wasn't enough, trainers added nitroglycerin and cocaine with a pinch of mint for flavor.

Some modern swimmers swear by soda doping, which helps them save precious seconds during competitions. By increasing pH levels, baking soda can reduce the level of acid produced by athletes' muscles, allowing them to stay in shape. Although doping soda also causes diarrhea.

In the 1930s, Soviet scientists discovered that exposing runners to ultraviolet light would increase their speed in a 100-meter race. In the 1940s, German researchers also discovered similar improvements in bicycle racing.

In the late 1800s, physiologist Charles Brown-Secard injected himself with a serum made from a mixture of dog and guinea pig semen, saying it made him stronger and even “lengthened the arc of his urine,” and while he certainly exaggerated the benefits of his own discovery, it was definitely a precursor to hormone-based doping substances.

Pigeon racing has been marred by doping scandals: while some pigeon owners favored anabolic steroids, others used anti-shedding drugs. The birds were also given a laxative to help them defecate before the competition and thus lose weight.

It wasn't just berserkers who consumed hallucinogenic mushrooms: Olympians in the third century also relied on them to get them to the finish line faster.

In the provinces of Styria and Tyrol, Austrian lumberjacks swung axes under the influence of megadoses of arsenic, which was also taken to improve digestion.

The ancient Aztecs believed that eating human hearts helped in both war and sports.