Doping scandals marred¹ the runup to the Rio Olympics and other games of the recent past. Now, scientists warn that cheating could rise to a new level using genetic² research.

兴奋剂丑闻给里约奥运会和最近的其他比赛蒙上了一层阴影。现在，科学家警告称，如果使用基因技术，作弊将上升到一个新的高度。

There are already a number of products and methods used to boost athletic³ performance that the International Olympic Committee considers to be illegal.

目前国际奥委会已经认定很多用来提高运动员成绩的产品和手段是非法的了。

For example, there's a hormone⁴ that can boost red blood cell production, making more oxygen available. That increases endurance. Then there are anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, which promote muscle growth.

例如，有一种激素可以促进红细胞生长，制造更多氧气。这样就可以提高耐力。还有可以促进肌肉生长的同化性类固醇和人类生长激素。

There are a couple of types of blood doping. One involves a transfusion⁵ of the athlete's own blood that had been removed earlier and stored.

还有两种血液兴奋剂。一种是运动员提前把自己的血液抽出并储存起来，赛前再输回去；

The second method uses blood from another person, but of the same type as the athlete's blood. Both methods raise the number of red blood cells that carry oxygen.

另一种是使用相同血型的其他人的血液。这两种方法都能够提高血液中红细胞的数量。

Carl Johan Sundberg, a professor of molecular⁶ exercise physiology⁷ at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency's gene doping panel, said scientists have gotten pretty good at detecting doping substances, as long as there's not too much time between doping and testing.

瑞典斯德哥尔摩卡罗林斯卡医学院分子运动生理学教授、也是世界反兴奋剂机构基因兴奋剂小组成员卡尔·乔安·桑德伯格表示，科学家们已经很好地掌握了检测药物成分的方法，只要服药时间和检测时间不要间隔太久。

"The illegal substances used fade out over — depending on the type of drug — days, weeks or months," he said.

“运动员体内的的非法药物含量“依药物种类而定--会随着时间减少，可能是几天，也可能是几周、几个月。”他说道。

"But with the new techniques and the new discoveries of long-term metabolites, metabolic⁸ steroids, weeks have become months.

“但是随着技术手段的发达和长效代谢类固醇的问世，这个时间还会延长。

So the chance of detection has gone up a lot, which is why retesting recently of samples from the London and Beijing Olympic Games has shown that there's a higher prevalence of doping usage than was assumed with the previous testing methodologies."

所以检测的机会提升了很多，这就是为什么伦敦奥运会和北京奥运会之间进行的重新检测，检出的药物使用率非常之高，比用传统技术手段检测高得多。”

The next phase of cheating, however, may involve gene doping, which Sundberg defined as "the administration of nucleic acids of some sort — mainly DNA⁹ or other types of similar molecules¹⁰ — that are put into the body normally in health care for the purpose of gene therapy to treat specific disorders¹¹."

桑德伯格认为，下一阶段的作弊可能会是基因层面的用药，用他的话说就是“控制一些核酸——比如脱氧核糖核酸和具有相似分子的核酸——这种手段本来是作为基因疗法用来治疗一些紊乱的。”

But athletes, he said, would be seeking "to boost certain genes¹² that may improve performance. We don't know yet whether this has been done anywhere, but presumably, nevertheless, it will be used sometime."

但是他表示，运动员们可能会刺激一些可以帮助提高成绩的基因。我们不知道有没有过这种做法，但是无论如何，这种方法早晚都会出现的。

Sundberg warned that there are health risks to athletes who use gene doping. For instance, there can be adverse¹³ effects on the immune system from the virus that carries the artificial genes through the body.

桑德伯格警告称，使用基因兴奋剂的运动员可能会有健康风险。例如，免疫系统会产生副作用，病毒会随着人造基因游走全身。

Those genes also could cause cancer because of an enhanced growth of cells.

因为细胞的异常生长，这些基因还可能引发癌症。