Four Raiders players were identified yesterday who have tested positive for the designer steroids.
MLB, track-and-field athletes and even tennis players are either asked to come for interviews, tested positively or will be required to test for such steroids, respectively.
Question is, what does this wide-spread use of steroids mean for sports in US? Its all highly competitive, so athletes use whatever means they can to stay ahead, and make loads of money. Will the medical labs always try to stay a step-ahead by producing stealtheir steroids which can’t be detected in tests?
Also, (and this easy) what is the fine line which separates energy booster legal drugs from performance-enhancing illegal drugs?
Energy boosters like Hydroxycut and Ephedrin (banned) involve no serious long term damage and basically boost metabolism while burning fat faster.
Anabolic steroids are a different kettle of fish -
"There are labs all over the world where athletes can call a 1-800 number and say, `Can you run a urine test for me because I've got a competition this weekend and I need to know if I'll pass it,'" Ungerleider said. "They're very sophisticated and this is their business, 24-7."
The stakes are high. Big money, personal glory and even national prestige rides on winning and losing.
Anabolic steroids build muscle mass and help an athlete train longer and harder. But they also can have devastating long-term health consequences. The growing bodies of children are even more prone to those effects. And kids emulate their athlete heroes. Studies show that steroid use among high school athletes is on the rise."
Can athletes benefit from energizers? I would think their metabolism levels are already rocketing with all that excercise and protein. So mere energisers are useless for them?
What is the morality issue behind anabolic steroids? Can a sportsperson argue that as long as he/she is taking the drug within safe limits and after a certain age, society should not be concerned. How can a, lets say, high jumper from Malaysia who doesn't take steroids compete with a jumper from Russia who does, especially if the Russian goes undetected!
Yeah i heard about this and i was actually quite surprised - i didn't expect it to say the least.
It's not completely wide-spread in U.S. sports - its just there's the odd one here and there and the entire damn sport seems to be brandished as a collective disgrace through-out the nation.
It is very competetive and it is mainly the casr the scientists here are so knowledgable that they just keep finsing more and more Performance enhancers that are generally probably already in the system and once are detected can be classed as Performance Enhancing drugs that are taken intentionally.
Basically speaking it is getting easier and easier to trace more and more minute and absolute chemicals in the body - which is bad news for Sports in general.
Okay as for what defines Performance Enhancing from say energy boosting drugs well now that is a very fine line. I'll check out the facts and get back to you - this has to be be tackled very diplomatically and carefully however - its a very delicate issue for some.
I heard an interesting point from Bob Costas. He was saying that compared to Pete Rose the steroids is much more worse of a crime since it is changing the game.
I agree with him. How can a player like Eddie Murray lead the league with 22hrs in early 80's and these days some crack heads are getting that many in about 1/3 of a season. Bonds, Giambi, Sosa(especially), McGwire are all juiced up.
If you remember the Black Sox scandal all those players were kicked out of the league. If Bud Selig had any kind of walnuts he would suspend some of these baseball players for atleast 162games. Which offcourse would never happen.