Steroid use in sports...

DMara

Have you guys watch 30/30's "9.79*"? That's quite a powerful documentary about the rampant steroid use in the world of sports!!! The funny thing was it took an Andre Jackson spiking Ben Johnson's beer to get him caught and eventually admitted to taking drugs Today there also was a report about 11 of Lance Armstrong's teammates' confessions. It made it really hard for the fans to put their complete trust in any athlete. What a disgrace!!!

stretchl

Now if our esteemed political leaders would spend as much time and money investigating Wall Street and the investment banks/hedge funds that precipitated the housing bubble and mortgage banking crisis.

I'm not holding my breath.

zingo

If we expect ultimate performance from our athletes, we have to expect they'll get there anyway they can. What's more exciting, a good batting average and season, or watching McGuire break the home-run record? Lance Armstrong to dominate cycling for years, or have a different rider win the Tour every year and possibly every stage?

tonyb

stretchl wrote: »

Now if our esteemed political leaders would spend as much time and money investigating Wall Street and the investment banks/hedge funds that precipitated the housing bubble and mortgage banking crisis.

I'm not holding my breath.

Nah, in order to do that the politicians would also have to investigate themselves....never gonna happen.

badchad

It's unfortunate that steroid use is so rampant among professional sports. It's nearly impossible to keep up and enforce steroid laws. We're clearly in the "post-enhancement" sports era.

bikezappa

I bike raced for over ten years and never suspected anyone of using drugs but what do I know. I suspect that there is drug use in more than professional sports. Every wants to win and drugs appear to help geting to that goal.

Many non biking friends have asked me about Lance and drugs and I just don't know what to say.

How can a bike racer use drugs for about 10 years and never test positive?

Is the drug testing accurate or even worth doing?

How can the 10 bike racers on aLance's TDF team never test positive while being on the team for 9 years?

How can Lance be the mastermind of determining who gets what drugs in what amount on a team of 10 riders for 9 years and still ride 700 miles a week?

Is he superman?

We hate to see our heros discredited. But bike racing is taking a big hit.

I just don't know what to think.

BlueFox

Adults should be able to do pretty much whatever they want to their own bodies. Amateur sports, and the Olympics, should be for drug free players.

cnh

I don't see why this is so shocking to so many. Whenever humans in the first world are allowed to cheat, they usually do. That includes: Politicians, Wall Street Boys and Girls, Banks, Corporations, students at Elite colleges and Universities, famous scientists who have faked data sets, etc.

The sad thing about this "culture of Cheating" we have encouraged is that most of the cheaters will tell you, and they themselves often believe their own lies, that they are "self-made". That's right, even though they cheated their way to the top, they did it "themselves"! And now they "deserve" to be venerated and "they" validate the competitive system and culture that we all live in. And that is not only "laughable" it is depressing!

Competition is "good" up to a point. But when it turns us to "poisoning" our selves and our bodies. Then maybe there is still something to learn from the simpler nature of our gatherer/hunter counterparts? Maybe civilized man ain't as hot as he thinks! Little "cheater"!

cnh

badchad

bikezappa wrote: »

How can a bike racer use drugs for about 10 years and never test positive?

One reason is that there are (literally) thousands of different, investigational drugs under development. They can't be tested for because they're unknown (to the testers). There are likely an equal number of ways to beat the tests.

bikezappa

badchad wrote: »

One reason is that there are (literally) thousands of different, investigational drugs under development. They can't be tested for because they're unknown (to the testers). There are likely an equal number of ways to beat the tests.

What I don't understand is how none of the riders who were on Lance's 9 TDF teams tested positive. Yet some of them now state they used drugs under Lance's direction. How did they do that? And are the tests worth doing? Maybe they, who ever they are, should get better test methods.

Maybe as the science of drug testing improves we could test blood samples from people 10 years later after the event. Would that stop them from using drugs?

Maybe Lance's new job should be in charge of all drug testing.

badchad

In my hypothetical scenario, the entire "team" would be taking an unknown, unmarketed, steroid-like drug that hadn't been fully characterized. There is no way to test for it, since nobody really knows what it is, or how to test for it.

Depending on the stability, sure, they could test for it years later. I believe that's why they keep samples.

I'm no expert, but I've attended seminars by WADA (world ant doping agency), and these are just some of the issues they mentioned. I'd guess that the "testers" think its worth doing, because they catch people.

squeeb

If someone offered you a pill to take and everyone else who had been taking it was earning 100 times more than they were before taking it, would you do it? Very close to the premise behind the movie Limitless.

I saw the 7.97 on 30/30. Very interesting what the person who kept samples from 1984 and started testing them in 1988. He said there was a high percentage who used illegal drugs. Same with Lance (or, fill in your sports figure) - if you cheated, there will eventually be a way to detect it.

shawn474

I am just glad that Lance Armstrong is finally exposed for the fraud that he is. He doesn't have a leg to stand on anymore. He asked USADA to name names and conveniently gave up the fight against them because he was tired. well, they named names and the evidence is overwhelming against him. I actually have little problem with the fact that he used steroids or the fact he was caught. What I have a huge problem with is him parading around as a martyr and being put on this pedstal as some kind of hero. His foundation has done a lot to help fight cancer, but in my humble opinion, the guy is a self centered narcissistic **** who is a complete fraud. He is caught and he knows it; time to fess up and face the music like a man. People will forgive him quickly and move on. Until then, his legacy is of a cheater, a fraud and a liar. He can at least lose the liar title if he comes clean.

bikezappa

There's certainly a lot of hate to go around. I don't know anything about Lance except what I read in the papers and how accurate is that?
I do know that it's not fair to the athlete who doesn't use drugs to compete against one who does use drugs.
I like the idea of testing an athlete's blood 10 or 20 years later to determine if they used drugs. It's nice to know the truth but sad to lose the hero, if they ever were that hero.
I got into bike racing because it was fun getting faster and healther by training and racing. Drugs never make you healther in my opinion.