NO END TO DRUG ABUSE BY ATHLETES

It has been 22 years since East Germany stunned the sporting world with its
drug-stoked successes at the Montreal Olympics. Yet the uses and abuses
continue and one wonders if they will ever end.

In a Berlin courtroom this summer, government prosecutors are trying a
number of former East German officials for allegedly administering banned
substances to swimmers as part of a state-sponsored campaign to achieve
athletic excellence. In Montreal, the East German women won 11 of 13 races;
four years earlier, in Munich, they had won none. Amazing.

Performance enhancing drugs work, obviously. Why else would someone as
prominent as U.S. sprinter Dennis Mitchell test positive for a steroid as
he has this summer (he has pled innocent, but the IAAF has banned him from
international competition)? Why else would entire teams of cyclists use the
banned drug EPO, as has been proven beyond a doubt at the current Tour de
France?

No one knows how widespread EPO use is, but everyone agrees it is nearly
ideal for its cheating purposes - it boosts performance and is nearly
impossible to detect. Oh, and it also increases risk of heart attacks and
blood clots. ``EPO is completely undetectable unless we test on the same
day that the rider has taken the drug. Even then it is undetectable when
taken with a growth hormone,'' says Anne-Laure Masson of the International
Union of Cycling.

In London this week John Brown, a prominent British distance runner, told
reporters he's certain the use of EPO is as rampant in his sport as it is
in cycling. Brown said its use was endemic among European runners competing
in distances from 5,000 metres up, but said he did not believe the
record-setting runners from East Africa feel the same need to cheat.

``It is mainly the European athletes from countries with a background in
cycling. The same people are supplying the cyclists and the runners. Once
you go down that road - the same as cycling - sport is not real sport and
the barriers are unlimited.''

MOOOOO-VING RIGHT ALONG: ``We are fed up with being treated like cattle. So
we are going to behave like cattle. The sport is no longer interesting to
anyone. We won't cycle and that's the end of it.'' That's Laurent Jalabert,
the world's No. 1-ranked cyclist, in leading a protest a few days back over
the drug scandal at the Tour de France. Quite an apt comparison. Consider:
There was a time cattle grazed the free range, but these days cattle are
bred selectively and force-fed nutrients and all sorts of drugs.

Garth Woolsey's Fair and Foul appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and
Saturday. You can message him at sports@thestar.ca

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)