Boosting: Why some athletes with disabilities self-harm for a competitive edge

The world's paralympic athletes have done a lot to boost national pride at the 2014 Sochi games. Whether they've done any boosting themselves is a secret. Boosting is a performance enhancing technique that some call cheating and others call leveling the playing field. Some athletes with spinal cord injuries deliberately hurt themselves which "boosts" their blood pressure -- and apparently their performance. Methods include sitting on tacks, uncomfortably full bladders, electrical shocks to the legs or genitals and even breaking toes. The practice was banned in 1994 by the International Paralympic Committee but it's almost impossible to detect.

For obvious reasons, paralympians are reluctant to talk about it but Brad Zdanivsky has been open about his need to boost. He's a quadriplegic rock climber. Brad was an avid climber before a car accident crushed his spine. He wasn't prepared to give up his sport but found he couldn't do it without "boosting".