The Drugs in Sport Scandal Is No Longer About Steroids

Ever since the BALCO Labs story broke almost 5 years ago the drugs in sport scandal stopped being about simple, garden-variety steroids that have been available for over 35 years. Once we found out about “the cream,” “the clear” and human growth hormone the issue of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in sport changed dramatically.

But by the way this story is being covered by the established sports media you would never know that the rules of the game have changed.

The old attempts at enforcing drug policy through the drug testing of athletes were made obsolete by the actions of Victor Conte and his BALCO conspirators, and by the actions of chemists – amateur and professional alike - in small private labs throughout the country. What these people did – and are still doing today – was modify known anabolic agents so that the people taking these drugs would not be caught by a drug test.

Conte and company forever changed the status quo with regard to enforcing PED policy.

There are hundreds of steroids that were never made available for clinical or commercial use that can be altered to not be detected by the current version of most organization’s testing protocols. Since drug tests look for specific compounds, and are not a “one test catches all” proposition, designer steroids effectively make these drug tests irrelevant.

Along with these undetectable designer compounds, add to the mix the uber-potent and equally undetectable human growth hormone and the drug police are more like the Keystone Cops than feared enforcement agents. Human growth hormone is an athlete’s dream PED.

But none of this has stopped members of the sports media from speaking in the PED vernacular of a generation ago. We still hear the tired old bromides from an otherwise brilliant guy like Peter Gammons who says things like “Sammy Sosa never failed a drug test,” and “Gary Matthews, Jr. says he didn’t take steroids.”

After all we have learned through the last 5 years, how can the dean of American baseball sportscasters say these things? How can a guy like Gammons not realize that there was no way to catch a Sosa, Bonds, McGwire or any other guy taking a designer steroid or human growth hormone? How can he not know that steroids and human growth hormone are not the same substances?

Article Author: Sal Marinello

Sal Marinello is a National Strength and Conditioning Association Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Certified Personal Trainer, a U.S.A. Weightlifting Certified Coach, a full-time, private Professional Strength and Conditioning …

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