NYCkayaker Anabolic steroids et.al. [was: Re: YPRC Commodore]

[L Bleich]

I never answer these e-mail discussions - I usually just read them - 
but I had to put in my two cents.  It's really good to see all these 
discussions about steroid use in sports, since it's such an important 
current issue.  I think that last discussion about it not being 
harmless was excellent and well stated.  In fact, I wasn't aware of the 
violence (both against self and others) connected with steroid use, but 
it certainly makes sense.

I also feel badly for athletes, such as Marion Jones.  It seems to me 
that if this problem is so widespread, that it should be addressed 
universally, and not by singling out individuals and ruining their 
lives.  It kind of reminds me of things like alternate side parking, 
when occasionally the police decide to enforce the "law" and give 
tickets for  double parking, when it's been accepted practice for 
years.  I think it would be much more fair to promote some kind of 
educational and warning approach prior to enforcing a law that has not 
been enforced for years, as opposed to retroactively singling out 
athletes who have been working hard all their lives and punishing them 
after the fact.  Maybe that would provide some preventive help  to the 
next generation of athletes - who knows.

Laurie Bleich
On Feb 8, 2008, at 12:09 PM, Rich Kulawiec wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 06, 2008 at 11:31:26AM -0500, mike wrote:
>> At least the anabolic in sports is really harmless to the other
>> people, except for the rage acts.
>
> Two-part answer.
>
> First, it's not harmless.  It is Not Much Fun to train 300+ days a 
> year,
> alone, in all kinds of weather, with no coach, no support, nothing, and
> then travel hundreds of miles to a race...only to finish seven tenths
> of a second behind a guy whose already-toned biceps have somehow 
> doubled
> in size from October to March.
>
> If you're me, and you're in your 40's when that happens, and there's
> really nothing on the line but your own pride, then eventually you just
> get over it.  But if you're 22 when something similar happens, and you
> just finished third in a qualifying race that selects the top two for
> an event that only happens once every four years -- an event that 
> you've
> been training for since you were 10, an event that was important enough
> that you put college on hold, an event you may never get near again for
> the rest of your life, then maybe you don't just get over it.
>
> Or maybe, even worse, because you're young and don't have the long view
> yet, you decide to pre-empt that possibility by out-doping your rivals.
>
> And then, when you're 57, and your body is destroying itself while your
> family and friends look on in horror, and while your doctors 
> desperately
> try to figure how the hell to stop it, and while every financial 
> resource
> you once had is drained to try to keep you alive, maybe you figure out
> that it wasn't such a bright idea.  Too late.  Oops.
>
> Now multiply by the number of kids in sports who are good enough to
> be competitive, but not quite good enough to be the among the best
> without a pharmaceutical assist.  Make sure there's a generous dose of
> the didn't-win-the-silver-medal-really-lost-the-gold attitude in play.
> Add in peer pressure, coach pressure, team pressure, parental pressure,
> societal pressure, financial pressure.  And factor in ready 
> availability
> of an vast assortment of drugs -- many of whose primary effects, let
> alone side effects, are barely understood.  Set clock to "February 
> 2008"
> and you have arrived precisely: here.
>
> And that's the benign part, when compared to:
>
> Second, "except for the rage acts".  Yeah.  Except for the assaults, 
> the
> rapes, the suicides, the homicides.  You know: minor, transient 
> problems.
> Nothing to see here.  Move along, move along.
>
>
> So I completely reject your assertion.  It does a lot of harm,
> and that harm extends well beyond the individual taking the drugs.
> And I'm profoundly sad to say that competitive kayaking isn't immune
> to the problem -- I suppose it would be quite surprising if it were,
> but I still find myself very disappointed every time that thought goes
> through my head.
>
> ---Rsk
>
> p.s. I am not, by the way, advocating the stunningly idiotic approach 
> of
> the "War on Drugs", which is proving to be as complete and monumental a
> failure as the "War on Poverty" was and the "War on Terror" will be.
> I'm not actually advocating any approach at all to *solving* the
> problem in this message; I'm just arguing that it (steroid and other
> performance-enhancing drug use in sports in general and in kayaking in
> particular) really *is* a problem, therefore worthy of debate over how
> it might best be addressed.
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