We are still turning a blind eye to steroids and drugs in sport. Part 2 in a series of 3, By: Robin Parisotto

March 27, 2007

Drugs and steroids are still rife in sport, and we are only paying lip service to efforts to get rid of the cheats.

More and more we hear stories of amateur athletes and even gym junkies popping/injecting steroids. Where do they get their example from? On the other side of the coin we hear more stories of elite athletes indulging in illicit drugs. Where do they get their example from?

It seems the more that sport mirrors society and vice versa, the more the blurring of the boundaries between sport/society and performance-enhancing and recreational drugs. Will it ever come to the point in society,  therefore, where drugs will be accepted into everyday activities like sport?

When you read about Rocky (aka Sylvester Stallone) being busted (for GH in his case) it sends the message that if it’s good enough for Rocky (and look how good he looks), then I want some of that as well. Well-muscled, well-toned and good-looking athletes or film stars like Stallone are a promoter's dream and are also characteristics many young males (and females) aspire to. They don’t want to see what is behind the facade. It’s the ‘now’ that is important. To hell if they get sick or die later. Many teenagers are not going to take notice of some old fuddy-duddy doctor or scientist, are they?

We are reaching a point of saturation with steroid use and one wonders if there is any chance of reaching back. Money, the media and big business exert a powerful influence over sport and body image. The cheats and the vain totally consumed by performance and self-obsession create an environment whereby steroids can provide the illusory result of a strong, fit, healthy, muscle-bound and good-looking body in quick time.
 
Just last week, Michele Verroken, former director of UK Sport's anti-doping programme, revealed the extent of steroid abuse in Britain. "Of the total number of needles exchanged in the UK last year, around 50 per cent were used to inject heroin or other illegal drugs, but the remaining 50 per cent -- the longer thicker needles able to penetrate deep into muscle groups -- were used to inject steroids,'' Verroken wrote in a newspaper article. ''In some inner-city pockets, that figure was as high as 70 per cent. Clinic reports indicate that many users are turning to HGH. Informed estimates suggest as many as 21per cent using HGH alongside the more traditional performance-enhancing drugs."

Drug testing in professional and Olympic sport is not working well, despite the best efforts of WADA, who have come out with all guns blazing since 2000. Despite the plague proportions of steroids being peddled and used, there should be more than one per cent of athletes testing positive. Or do we believe that 99 per cent of athletes are clean? Politicians argue incessantly about drugs in society (and occasionally about drugs in sport) but it is largely rhetoric and rarely do they ‘walk the walk’.

And sporting groups cashed up at the behest of big business continue to pay lip service to educational and drug-testing programmes. How long are we going to be taken for suckers by those cheats who derive their vast fortunes from a society bereft of scruples prepared to hand over their hard-earned to watch them play a false game using falsely crafted bodies?

When we find out that ‘little Johnny’ has been using drugs to play sport or to look good, then we have only ourselves to blame because we stand by and let it happen and don't say anything. We should hang our collective heads in shame. Why do we continue to ignore the problem, all in the name of sport (entertainment) and body image? Virtuosity, it seems, comes a poor second to vanity in contemporary society.