Bulgarian Olympic Committee chairperson Stefka Kostadinova has described as a matter of national shame for Bulgaria the withdrawal of this country’s weightlifting Olympic team because of alleged doping.

Kostadinova has called for coaches and trainers to be penalised so that not only the individual sports people face sanctions.

Few countries have escaped this kind of disgrace in various fields of international sport, but it is unfortunate that Bulgaria’s name has appeared so regularly over the years in connection with incidents of doping.

At four Olympic Games since 1976, Bulgarian competitors have been excluded because of doping, with variously weightlifting or athletic participants being ordered out of competition. Overall, there is a long list of names of Bulgarians who have been caught fouling the rules, and again, weightlifting and athletics dominate the list. In recent years, there have been other controversies, including that involving tennis player Sesil Karatantcheva and a test that reportedly detected nandrolone, and more recently, the allegation that pistol shooter Antoaneta Boneva was found to have used cocaine.

Privately, sports scientists have said that the incidence of doping in sport is much more prevalent even than that indicated by the outcomes of regular and random tests.

It cannot be forgotten that sport is an industry, and by definition a competitive one at that, involving extremely lucrative sponsorships of individuals and teams, advertising and other commercial opportunities, and the potential glories of careers at the top. With so much at stake, there can be no surprise in the fact that some of those involved use performance-enhancing substances to get an extra competitive edge.

Yet, among many of the public at least, the concept remains of the ideal of success in sport being achieved through the natural advantages of skill, training and the mental and physical capabilities to succeed. If a person succeeds as an entrepreneur in an industry, as a chief executive, as a political leader or, for that matter, as a stage performer or a journalist no one would regard it as much of an issue that they may have swallowed some caffeine tablets or a few energy drinks to help them keep from flagging. But of sports people, something more is expected, that success is based on natural capacity rather than being the outcome of the best work in a pharmaceutical laboratory.

Success, of course, is not the only criterion by which the issue of doping must be judged. There are also the failures, in the form of athletes who, whether or not they accumulate trophies and medals, inevitably face the consequences of using artificial substances. Even were the world to accept that many sporting achievements may be ascribed to sophisticated substances that escape detection, or the correct timing in using doping while being lucky about not being randomly tested, competitors fall victim to chemical timebombs. It can be all the more tragic when a young competitor is effectively forced by an authority figure to use performance-enhancing substances, because in the long term, it is the competitor that pays the price.

No country and no international body has succeeded against doping, but is clear that for the sake of protecting the interests of its sports people and its international reputation, Bulgaria must do a lot more to eradicate doping.