The story of athletes ‘from the dawn’ of time attempting to enhance their performance is a colorful history. Recorded history speaks of ancient Greek athletes munching on animal testicles to extract testosterone or athletes taking small doses of various poisons as ‘stimulants.’ In 1927, the Nobel Prize was won by a German — Heinrich Weiland — discoverer of ‘steroids’ and athletics has never been the same …until now.
Today, there are rumors of ‘gene doping’. Simply stated, gene doping is the insertion of a performance gene into the athlete via a virus. So far this has proven to be a dangerous process with some non athletic deaths from introducing genes into the human body. The one of the genes likely to be introduced is is associated with EPO. The other gene — associated with certain rare strong athletes — is a form of non fatal muscular dystrophy.
Trying to ‘get an edge’ over a competitor — by any means — is certainly not new and working to provide ‘ a level playing field’ is certainly a worthy but somewhat unrealistic effort. The ‘solution’ to this problem will come from the athlete. The question each athlete has to ask themselves is how good do I want to become and at what cost? There are plenty of athletes who appear to be suffering from the effects of anabolic steroid use of 20 or 30 years ago. Some of the apparent problems that have developed with athletes who dined on steroids are liver & kidney problems and joint replacement and death. Some of these same fellows often find themselves in wheel chairs. Do they think it was worth it now?
It’s hard to wag the finger at these old timers because drugs used for performance enhancement were ‘legal’ in many of those years. Team doctors prescribed to their athletes every need. It was apparent that very little thought was given to the future health of the athlete, even by the athlete himself. I remember, one American weightlifter was quoted as saying that he couldn’t afford to compete with the world record holder’s steroid consumption, but he was working on getting enough money to do so. Times were very different then and somewhat innocent to the dangers.
However, I do remember that some of the athletes would profess in interviews about the evils of drugs … but, let’s just say, I knew they were being less than truthful. They — like many young athletes today — are paying a lot for their 15 minutes of fame.
I guess I just find it hard for me to read stuff in the papers about ‘good guys and bad guys’ in the sport. It might be more accurate to say, ” those who got caught, those who haven’t been caught and those who are clean.” I also suspect that the farther down the rankings one goes on the performance list, the ‘cleaner’ the athletes… but that is just my opinion. What raises one’s eyebrows early on is seeing dramatic increases in performance from ‘unknown’ athletes as a result of working with questionable coaches. In addition, early associations with former athletes/ coaches who had been involved in ‘performance enhancement’ in their careers is a warning. Interestingy enough, these questionable folks are sometimes deeply embedded in the sport…. and well known.
30 years ago, athletes and coaches didn’t know very much about the future implications of steroid use… but today, the risks are better understood.
The ‘solution’ I have offered young athletes, including my own, is very simple. Although, it is important to capture every ‘reasonable’ edge available, one must remember that athletics is only a ‘vehicle’ for the next part of your life. Sport is not an end in and of itself for most people. You can’t eat your gold medal when you’re 40. I know many penniless former athletes, they are sad figures without any skills. I did not want this to happen to anyone I knew.
My daughter Karen has accepted the fact that although athletics has provided her with many wonderful experiences, friends, travel and paid for her college education, it is her ‘continuing’ education that will ultimately make her way in the world. Track — after all — is not a big money sport.
Nevertheless, I do sympathize with athletes like Karen, it’s hard to see others pass you by with a ‘win at all cost’ mentality. Athletic competition gives you quite a unique rush…. but the pursuit of fame is a most cruel mistress… sometimes, it’s better to just settle for the bronze … or less. It’s should be easier for a ‘retiring athlete’ to accept when they realize that if they also took those ‘shortcuts’ … they would — no doubt — also suffer physically and emotionally later on. This should give any young athlete cause to pause.
So my friends, don’t be angry with the ‘cheaters’… there are too many of them … just feel sorry for them, because their current glory is short lived and their future pain and physical stress is likely to be significant.
Roger Freberg
PS. The UCLA athlete at the top of this article was me… a fun time while it lasted, but then it was time to live, love and compete in the real world.