Olympic Rings: Athletes Turn To Cupping In Search Of Competitive Edge

August 8, 2016 4:33 PM ET

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The most-decorated Olympian[奥运会选手] of all time won his 19th gold medal last night*, and that wasn't the only circle on his body. Swimmer Michael Phelps had a bunch of reddish-purple[紫红色] marks almost like bruises[青肿;擦伤;瘀青] or hickies[墨皮斑;白环;墨屑]. They are the result of cupping[拔火罐], an ancient Chinese healing practice that has recently become popular with athletes. Jie Jin is a second-generation acupuncturist[针灸医师] in the Washington, D.C., area.

JIE JIN: Today we usually use glass or plastic cupping. In the old days, it would be ceramic[陶瓷制品], bamboo[竹子]. It can be made of different materials.

SHAPIRO: The cups are placed on the skin, and then the air inside of them is removed to create a suction effect[吸气作用/效应;吸力效应;吸盘效应], leaving behind those round marks. Some techniques use a tube almost like a vacuum cleaner[真空吸尘器]. Others use fire to burn up the oxygen. People use it on their back or their legs. Jie Jin says Michael Phelps uses it where you would expect given his sport.

JIN: I see cupping marks on his shoulder, on his upper back. So he's a swimmer, and that has to do with the style of swimming he does. The practitioner needs to look at the condition and to palpate[1] where the tenderness of the muscle and diagnose it correctly and then find out where to put the cups.

SHAPIRO: In Eastern medicine, people use cupping for all kinds of ailments[小病;微恙]. Sports therapists have started picking up the technique in just the last five to 10 years. They use it for a narrower set of problems like sore muscles[肌肉酸痛] and stiff joints[关节拘紧/僵硬]. Dr. Karyn Farrar has a sports therapy clinic called Rehab 2 Perform.

KARYN FARRAR: Just like a soft tissue massage[软组织按摩法] can apply pressure directly to the tissue in order to bring blood flow to the area, the same is used with the cupping. So negative pressure is actually pulling tissues apart.

SHAPIRO: There is not scientific evidence showing that this actually has a physiological impact. Do you think this is anything more than just a placebo[安慰剂;安慰药(给无实际治疗需要者或试验药物时用)]?

FARRAR: I think that the research just hasn't been fully completed. But based on what I see in my clinic every day, it absolutely has a physiological impact.

SHAPIRO: Placebo or not, Olympians are always looking for anything that will give them a competitive edge[竞争优势]. Dr. Bill Mallon is an Olympic historian and editor in chief of the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Injury. We called him in Rio via Skype, and he said he only recently started spotting those telltale round hickies on Olympic swimmers.

BILL MALLON: I did see it during the U.S. Olympic trials, and I know myself, I was kind of dubious[怀疑的;不确定的;半信半疑的] a little bit because I just hadn't seen much literature on it yet.

SHAPIRO: And now...

MALLON: I still have not seen much literature.

SHAPIRO: This is just the latest - I don't know whether you want to call it a fad[一时的风尚;短暂的狂热] or a trend - in trying to get optimal performance. What have we seen before cupping?

MALLON: Well, the biggest one for the last probably 10 years now has been kinesio taping[肌内效贴布(法);肌内效贴紮].

SHAPIRO: Explain what kinesio taping is for people who aren't familiar.

MALLON: It's the taping you see the athletes putting on their skin in certain areas of their body where there's some sort of injury or dysfunction[(身体)功能障碍]. Especially around shoulders you see it a lot. And what it's supposed to do is kind of give a sort of a kinesthetic feedback[动觉反馈] to the muscles to kind of keep them functioning more properly whenever you have something out of a little bit of alignment.

SHAPIRO: Does it seem at all odd to you that at the highest levels of athletic performance and competition, people are using techniques, whether it's K-tape or cupping, that really are not proven in the medical literature to do all that much?

MALLON: No. Actually it doesn't seem odd to me at all just because the margins between first and second, second and third or being on the podium or not - I mean it's so small that they're looking for any edge they can get, and that's what's led to doping[服兴奋剂] of course.

But you know, in these cases, they're looking for a legal edge. So if it's something that doesn't impede[阻碍;阻止] their performance or doesn't make it worse, you know, they try it. It may just give them that little hundredth of a second edge that may lead to a gold medal instead of a silver.

SHAPIRO: Dr. Bill Mallon, thanks a lot for your time.

MALLON: No problem. Thank you very much.

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*本文原文发布于August 8, 2016，北京时间8月10日，在里约奥运会男子4×200米自由泳接力决赛中，美国队获得金牌，这枚金牌是菲尔普斯奥运生涯收获的第21块金牌。上午结束的里约奥运会男子200米蝶泳决赛中，菲尔普斯以1分53秒36夺冠，这也是菲尔普斯在奥运会上拿到的个人第20枚金牌。

[1]palpate [pæl'peɪt] to examine something, usually an organ or part of the body, by touching it with the fingers or hands 触诊；触摸检查

[2]原文摘自NPR News 点击下方“阅读原文”可见

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