An open industry of chemical ("legal") sporting performance enhancement has mushroomed across the Internet. The Stanford swimmers pay $500 per month for their "legal" chemical fixes from "sport nutritionists."

If either or both Thompson and Torres go on to win Olympic medals they will be hailed as heroes. They will have competed within the Olympic "rules." If, in later years, any of the chemicals they used were to be added to the banned list because they were deemed performance enhancing, they still would remain heroes.

At the Atlanta Olympic Games, some athletes from former Eastern Bloc countries tested positive for bromantan and were initially banned, only to have their punishments overturned later. At least one medallist swimmer was among those athletes. Many athletes used DHEA. Those are just two substances that were used for chemical enhancement of performances that were "legal" at that time. After the Games, both were added to the banned-substances list.

Athletes, who now acted the same as those in Atlanta, would be sanctioned.

Why is it reasonable to ask that the East Germans be stripped of their medals when they passed all the drug tests, and not strip the Atlanta athletes who did not pass the drug tests but got away with it on some technicality? In the sporting world, where fairness is fast being diluted as an admirable characteristic, is it right to have selective multiple standards for condemnation?

The wholesale explosion of this chemical-enhancement industry, which has nothing to do with ethical nutrition, is fraught with dangers to which athletes are exposed. No one knows what are the long-term effects on health of ingesting concentrated massive doses of refined chemicals. Of particular importance are the interactions of these chemicals with each and with legitimate therapeutic medicines. What is the social value of publicly exhibiting drug/chemical taking to achieve performance advantages? What sort of example or model is this setting for impressionable minds? Can enhancing other physical and mental states be seen as very different to using chemicals to enhance sporting performance? Is non-medically supervised drug taking to be endorsed in one arena, and condemned in others?

What happens if Australian, USA, and other nations' athletes all pass their drug tests in Sydney? What if blood and urine samples are stored as advocated by Australian athletes? What happens when new drugs are added to the banned list and those stored samples eventually test positive? Should the Australians or Americans be retroactively stripped of their Sydney medals? If it is good enough for the East Germans, then it should be good enough for all athletes.

It is reasonable to assume that more than 90 percent of all finalists in all sports at the Sydney Olympics will be ingesting some substances/chemicals believing they will derive performance benefits. Some will use banned substances and not get caught, particularly those who use substances for which there are poor or no tests; and some might get caught, but probably only a very few. None will be caught if they use legal (read that as "non-banned" or "yet-to-be banned") substances.

Indeed, Sydney will not be the "drug free" Games as hoped, but will be the most open Games for chemical ingestion/injection to date.

A legacy of the Sydney Games could well be a parade of very ill individuals, 10 to 20 years down the road. There could be a similarity to the sorry parade of unfortunate former East German athletes who have manifested their health problems so publicly in the past few years during the trials of former East German sporting officials.

This situation will only get worse as society accepts and marvels at attempts to introduce unnatural chemicals into the body to derive a sporting edge.

What does this say about modern sport?

Respectfully submitted,

Brent S. Rushall, Ph.D.,R.Psy.

Professor of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences
San Diego State University

The martial art-Sambo

A Crisis In Swimming  Athletes Perspective  Long Term Health Risks Steroids-Side effects  Testosterone And Older Men  Women Bodybuilders

Check out the rest of our website for more information about the college recruiting process and how we can help you get recruited.

If you want to know more about our service or have any questions then please feel free to contact us.

PLEASE CLICK BELOW FOR MORE DETAILED SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE COLLEGE SPORT