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

[David Gottlieb]

Yeah... The NY Giants??? You mentioned it... Are they a kayak racing
team?????



On 2/14/08 8:33 AM, "jtobin at warpdriveonline.com"
<jtobin at warpdriveonline.com> wrote:

> Did I mention the fact that the Giants won the Super Bowl?
> On Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:51:14 -0500
>   L Bleich <kayakmidwife at mindspring.com> wrote:
>> 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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>>> Watertrail Association. Learn more about HRWA at
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>>> 
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>> 
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>> 
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> 
> Joe Tobin
> Murray Fire and Life Safety
> 30 Crest Road
> Hillsdale, N. J. 07642
> P 201 956 0707
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