What's the distinction? What about taking something when you have a cold, or nutritional supplements? It seems weird to draw an arbitrary line between things that make a body perform by stimulating natural production vs directly using synthetics.
Asthma meds for cycling, some of which are steroids, are one of the more popular examples:
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/the-truth-abo...
Two out of three factors have to be present to ban a drug:
- be performance enhancing - present a health risk - violate the spirit of sport
The third one is a bit harder to define but there is a WADA code defining the spirit of sport.
Most banned drugs are banned because of the first two.
> - be performance enhancing - present a health risk - violate the spirit of sport
There also are drugs banned that mask the use of performance enhancing drugs. You could call that “violate the spirit of the sport”, but that’s so vague a term it could cover anything.