Question: Is there a way to impeove the way your body works through surgery?

Helen O'Connor answered on 22 Jun 2011:

There are some kinds of surgery that people have to help how their body works – like hip and knee repalcements – but this is for parts of the body that are broken or worn out and gives them a much better quality of life.

Some athletes take out their own blood, store it, then inject it back into themselves just before an event (like a cycling race) because it carries more oxygen around to help them perform better. This is called blood doping, and it is banned in sport as it’s considered to be cheating.

Tiger Woods, and other athletes including baseball players, have had laser eye surgery. Our natural vision is 20/20 if we are healthy. But Tiger Woods had his eyes corrected to 20/15 through laser surgery – this means he can see at a distance of 20 feet what a person with normal, healthy vision could see at 15 feet (e.g. he can see things from further away – great for golf!)

So the simple answer is yes there is: Whether, in professional sport it is fair to do this, is another question!