Performance-enhancing drugs in sports is sickening
Posted: 05/25/2011 12:24:25 PM MDT
May 25, 2011 8:0 PM GMTUpdated: 05/25/2011 02:00:18 PM MDT
By Patrick Saunders
The Denver Postdenverpost.com
Former Broncos linebacker Bill Romanowski, who admitted to using steroids, mixes Neuro, one his nutrition powder drinks, at Nutrition53.com in Lafayette, Calif. in 2009. (AP | Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Like a nasty, lingering virus, performance-enhancing drugs continue to infect sports at the highest levels.
Ugly accusations against American hero Lance Armstrong blew up last week.
In a recent issue of ESPN The Magazine, the Chicago Bulls' Derek Rose was asked to rate performance enhancing drug use in the NBA on a scale of 1 to 10. His response: "Seven. It's huge and I think we need a level playing field, where nobody has that advantage over the next person."
On Sunday, Rose issued a statement denying the quote, adding, "Let me be clear, I do not believe there is a performance enhancing drug problem in the NBA."
Unfortunately, I believe Rose was telling the truth the first time. That's how jaded I've
become.
I have a running disagreement with a friend of mine about PEDs. I get angry and judgmental about the subject. I say that athletes who dope should be rooted out and punished. For me, this is not a gray area. I consider Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemons, Bill Romanowski, Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis, Marion Jones and others to be cheaters. Pure and simple.
My friend rolls his eyes at my outrage. His basic premise: The physical risks of PEDs are overblown, and drugs have become an inescapable and integral part of athletics.
He views steroids, human growth hormone, blood doping and the like as part of the evolution of sports science. He sees nutrition, high-tech training techniques, advanced equipment and PEDs as all part of the same package.
Plus, he argues, it's ridiculous for leagues and governments to spend millions of dollars in a losing effort to make sports drug free. Just sit back and enjoy the show, he says.
I know other sports fans share my friend's view. In the wake of the most recent allegations against Armstrong, I saw numerous readers' comments like this: "I don't care what athletes put in their bodies. I just want sports to be as exciting as possible."
Statements
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones cries as she addresses the media during a news conference on Oct. 15, 2007 outside the federal courthouse in White Plains, N.Y., after pleading guilty to lying to federal investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs. (Frank Franklin II, The Associated Press)
like that make me cringe. So I'm going to get up on my soapbox for a moment to shout my opinions:
· Athletes who use PEDs know full well they are cheating. What's more, they go to great lengths to mask their drug use. They know it's wrong, why else would the hide it or deny it? I don't buy the lame argument that "everyone is doing it."
· I don't want to watch athletes set records and wow me because of better chemistry. Remember back in the 1970s when the East German women's swim team won all of those Olympic medals. Those women were freakishly, abnormally strong. Do we really want that?
· Use of PEDs diminishes the historic achievements of clean athletes from other eras. I want to be able to compare Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Albert Pujols without drugs being part of the equation.
· I worry that giving permission for athletes to dope sends a terrible message to kids, who'll think that winning at any cost is OK.
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