On Mon, 20 Aug 2001, lehane wrote:
> Many of the perfromancing enhancing pharmacological innovations have
> unacceptable health risks.
Arguably, so does competing "clean" at an elite level. It isn't healthy
to break bones or tear muscles and ligaments. It isn't healthy to neglact
friends and family in pursuit of training. It isn't healthy to become
anorexic or suffer from psycholgical problems brought on fromt he stress
of competing. When you are pushing your body to its limits you'ce already
crossed over the lien of godo health. I'm not so sure these are any
better than the risks associated with many banned drugs used under a
docor's supervision.
> I suggest that the use of drugs has resulted in a great drop of
> interest in our sport because if one suspects the champion of winning
> on the virtue of illegal substances, what is there to cheer about in
> his or her win?
Isn't this suspicion due to various governing bodies catching people from
time to time? When was the last time anyone really thought about drug use
in major sports? It's certainly higher than in track and field but people
don't seem to care. Mark McGuire was caught using an anabolic steroid
during his 70 home run season. It wasn't banned by baseball so no one
cared much and in fact, it led to sales of the product in question goign
through the roof.
More strange is that many (if not most) of the things that are on the
banned subsatnce list are things that are availible over the ocunter to
non-athletes. If I can go and buy some steroids legally in the U.S., why
can't athletes? In many countries, most steroids are legal without a
prescription, yet athletes in those countries are banned from taking
substances that are legal for their non-sporting countrymen.
I agree that the rationale for banning substances is based on health
concerns rather than ergogenic ones, but certainly under a doctor's
supervision, many of them could be used without any significant side
effects. Thsi is why Juan Antonio Samaranch argued for legalizing EPO and
reviewing other drugs (hmm... a coincidence he is Spanish?).
Paul
