Why I Won't Watch the Beijing Olympics: Performance-Enhancing Drugs

When I was a kid, I'd watch televised coverage of the Summer Games for hours on end. If I didn't have to go to school the next day, I'd be glued to the tube until early morning.

I was a competitive swimmer, and in 1972, Mark Spitz was my hero. I vividly recall competing in a local swimming meet with unusual enthusiasm shortly after seeing Spitz and his teammates rack up medals. I also enjoyed watching track and field, gymnastics, basketball (despite the detestable Russian victory that year), and boxing. To my 11-year-old mind, the Olympic Games epitomized sports at their best and purest. Here, the world's greatest amateur athletes competed for love of sport, teammates, and country while spreading goodwill everywhere.

My attitude began to change in 1988. That year, the Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who had won the 100-meter dash in a world record time of 9.79 seconds, was stripped of his gold medal because he tested positive for anabolic steroids.

The use of performance-enhancing drugs had long predated the Johnson debacle. During the 1970s, the East Germans infamously pumped steroids into their female swimmers, sometimes without their knowledge. The East German swimmer Cornelia Ender, who won several gold and silver medals at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, later revealed that she suffered physical disabilities from steroid use.

But I was more offended by Johnson. He was a Canadian, and, therefore, literally closer to home. I had spent time in Canada, not in Germany. The Cold War was still on. East Germany, a Soviet satellite, was an enemy of the United States, while Canada was one of America's closest friends. Moreover, the misdeeds of the East Germans, although suspected at the time, weren't verified until years later.

The Olympic Games, of course, were never entirely pure. Among the 25 biggest sports cheating scandals identified by ESPN are the cases of Fred Lorz and Stella Walsh. Lorz, who hailed from New York, finished the marathon far ahead of the field at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis. He was later stripped of his medal when it was discovered that, during the race, Lorz rode in a passenger car for 11 miles. Stella Walsh, a Polish native, was a gold medalist in the 100-meter dash at the 1932 Games. Although Stella competed as a woman, she was actually a man.

But those were relatively isolated incidents. Today, elite athletic competition is rife with cheating, and performance-enhancing drugs are the instruments of choice. Professional sports have also been extensively tainted, but the widespread corruption of Olympic competition is particularly disappointing. You see, I have this old- fashioned notion that the Olympics are supposed to be about fair competition, sportsmanship, and honor. But that idea seems to have gone the way of the Model T.

It's very easy to get nationalistic about all this, but no country is immune from corruption, whether it's perpetrated by athletes, coaches, or governments.

CBS Sports Online has an excellent summary of the 10 greatest sports doping scandals of all time. Six of them involve Olympic athletes, including Johnson and Ender.

According to CBS Sports Online, 40 Chinese swimmers have tested positive for steroids since 1990, triple the amount for any other country in international swimming competition during the same period. On August 4, 2008, The New York Times reported that the Chinese are feverishly trying to avoid another doping scandal during the Games in Beijing, whose opening ceremonies begin on August 8. I'm sure they are, since they would lose tremendous face if the government hosting the world's greatest amateur sporting competition were found to be involved in cheating. And anyone the least bit familiar with the Orient knows that "saving face" is a big deal in that region.

The more interesting question is whether the Chinese government is trying to eliminate the problem or just wants to avoid getting caught. The same New York Times article reported that 120 steroid-related arrests were recently made in the U.S. Nearly all of the contraband seized was manufactured in China.

And what about the extreme heat and smog hovering around Beijing? The cover story of the August 6, 2008 edition of The New York Post describes a hullabaloo that ensued when four American Olympic cyclists wore face masks during their arrival at Beijing International Airport. The athletes were reprimanded by the U.S. Olympic Committee even though it was the USOC that recommended that they wear the masks! I guess public relations is more important than breathing clean air. According to The Post, the air in Beijing is so bad that a miasma is permeating the city's $200 million indoor Olympic swimming and diving complex.

The atmosphere in Beijing reminds me of a "Star Trek" episode in which Captain Kirk fights Mr. Spock over a pointy-eared woman on the planet Vulcan during mating season. Dr. McCoy warns Kirk that "if the heat doesn't get you, the thin air will."

In all seriousness, between dubious drugs and polluted air, it'll be a miracle if none of the athletes gets sick in Beijing. That goes doubly for the spectators, who are much less well-conditioned, and, therefore, more vulnerable. Let's hope everyone comes home in one piece.

All that said, the Chinese have no monopoly on dirty dealings. Irish swimmer Michelle Smith, who won three gold medals at the Atlanta Games in 1996, was later found to have submitted a false urine sample to testers. At the same time, her husband and trainer, the Dutch discus thrower Erik de Bruin, was under a four-year doping suspension.

An August 1, 2008 New York Times article discusses the suspension of seven Russian female track and field athletes. Five of them were supposed to go to Beijing. The article also noted the suspension of 11 Greek weightlifters who ingested banned substances which the Chinese government has traced to a firm in Shanghai.

And this year, Americans are also under suspicion. A July 30, 2008 Times article reported that Jessica Hardys, a California swimmer who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, was suspended by the USOC. Hardys has appealed the ruling.

An August 4, 2008 Time Magazine article about five-time Olympic swimmer Dara Torres, a 41-year-old mother of two who is headed to Beijing, raises disturbing questions. In the article, Ms. Torres says that she's on a legal amino acid regimen administered by a trainer, who comes from, of all places, Germany. Ms. Torres's qualifying time in the 100-meter freestyle at the Olympic trials was 2.47 seconds faster than her performance in the 1988 Games. She's also twelve pounds lighter than she was 20 years ago. Ms. Torres insists that she has done nothing wrong and has readily submitted to repeated testing.

Most disturbing is Time's picture of Ms. Torres. The online version is only a head shot, but in the hard copy, Ms. Torres looks like a wiry man in a sports bra. The author of the article repeatedly mentions Ms. Torres's bulging veins.

A picture of a much more feminine-looking Ms. Torres accompanies an August 3, 2008 New York Post article on older athletes. Though still well-developed, Ms. Torres's muscles look different than in the Time shot. Her face also appears less drawn and more naturalistic in the Post portrait. The stark contrast between the two pictures cannot be accounted for by makeup and lighting. It would be interesting to know when each photograph was taken.

I don't know whether Dara Torres is taking performance-enhancing drugs, but the circumstances are incredibly suspicious. I sincerely hope that Ms. Torres is truly "clean". Her personal story is deeply moving, and it would be a profound shame if she were found to be mixed up in this ugly business.

Performance-enhancing drugs are often-illegal substances that are banned by athletic officials because they provide an undue competitive advantage to users. They include anabolic steroids, erythropoietin (EPO), and human growth hormone (HGH).

Anabolic steroids are the most well-known of the performance-enhancing drugs. "Anabolic" refers to their muscle-building properties. According to a WebMD primer on anabolic steroids, these substances, chemically similar to testosterone, are used by doctors to treat anemia and low testosterone levels. The journalist website Poynter Online cites information from the Drug Control Policy Office stating that steroids were developed in the 1930s to treat hypogonadism, a condition characterized by low levels of testosterone that impede normal physical and sexual development in boys.

According to WebMD, steroid abusers take 10 to 100 times the amounts required to treat medical conditions. Common steroids include anadrol, oxandrin, and winstrol. Steroids have caused liver tumors, heart attacks, heart disease, strokes, severe acne, and baldness. Female steroid abusers have been known to have facial hair, reduced breast size, and abnormally deep voices. Male steroid abusers have experienced enlarged breasts and shrunken testicles.

A March 11, 2008 Sports Illustrated article notes that steroids were invented by--you guessed it--the Germans. The article cites anecdotal reports which say that steroids were given to German soldiers during World War II to make them stronger and more aggressive. According to Sports Illustrated, Hitler may also have used steroids. The paranoid and violent behavior he exhibited during his final days was consistent with symptoms associated with "'roid rage".

Professional wrestler Chris Benoit has become posthumously associated with the latter phenomenon. In 2007, Benoit killed his wife and young son. He then committed suicide. It is widely believed that he acted out of 'roid rage.

Medical experts say that steroids cause chemical changes in the brain that often lead to a dramatic increase in aggressive behavior. I suspect that there are psychological factors at work as well. If a guy bulked up on steroids has four times the strength of the average person, he also has a sense of great power. That kind of power can be extremely intoxicating and trigger hyper-aggression.

According to a March 12, 2004 USA Today article, between 1997 and 2004, 65 out of 1,000 professional wrestlers under 45 years old died, an extraordinary percentage for that age group. The article cites medical officials who believe that 25 of those deaths are linked to steroid use. Professional wrestlers are 20 times more likely to die before age 45 than are professional football players, according to USA Today. Unlike football, basketball, and baseball players, professional wrestlers are not tested for steroids. As a result, nearly all of them use steroids.

In the December 5, 2004 Times article, University of Wisconsin bioethicist Norm Fort reportedly says that there is no moral difference between an athlete using EPO, a drug that increases stamina, and a marathoner training at high altitude in order to maximize endurance. That is such bull.

The runner practicing at high altitude is acclimating himself to a difficult environment in order to optimize his or her natural abilities. It's the functional equivalent of lifting weights or engaging in other forms of resistance training to build muscle. By contrast, ingesting EPO or other performance-enhancing drugs introduces synthesized chemicals into the body which change a person's internal makeup, giving him or her preternatural abilities. Performance-enhancing drugs change the structure of a person's body, sometimes permanently. This is very different from taking vitamins or a small spoon of dextrose, which my swimming coaches would hand out at meets for a quick energy boost. The latter make the best of what you've got. Exotic laboratory compounds create Aryan supermen and superwomen.

According to WebMD, EPO increases the production of red blood cells. Like many performance-enhancing drugs, it has legitimate medical uses. Physicians use EPO to treat certain types of anemia caused by kidney disease and other illnesses. Abusers of EPO and similar substances ingest far greater quantities than are used to combat sickness. Abuse of EPO can cause high blood pressure, heart attack, heart failure, and stroke.

According to a Jan15, 2008 WebMD article, HGH is undetectable by standard urine tests. Like steroids, HGH increases muscle mass along with the highly abnormal side effect of making adults taller. Baseball players, like Houston Astros pitcher Andy Pettite, have reported faster recovery from injuries after using HGH. A new test has been developed to detect the substance.

During a mammoth congressional investigation, former Senator George Mitchell identified a plethora of major league baseball stars who have used steroids. Several years ago, "The O'Reilly Factor" reported that the size of pro linebackers had increased in recent decades from about 260 pounds to 330 and up.

The corruption of professional sports by performance-enhancing drugs is reprehensible, but when these suspicions and misdeeds permeate the Olympic Games, it's obvious that the moral fiber of the civilized world has reached a new low. Marion Jones, a 200-meter track and field gold medalist at the Sydney Games in 2000, is currently serving a six-month prison sentence for using steroids during that competition and lying about it to federal investigators. Her repeated, vehement denials over many years makes her belated confession and incarceration all the more shameful. According to a recent USA Today article, six American swimmers have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, and two have refused to be evaluated.

I wish I could say it ain't so, but it is.

The American public is understandably cynical. According to a USA Today poll cited in the same article, 69 percent of Americans believe that at least some Olympic weightlifters use performance-enhancing drugs. A majority believe the same about track and field athletes. The figure is 33 percent for Olympic swimmers.

Like their professional counterparts, Olympic athletes are role models. Olympic doping scandals encourage young people to misbehave. In fact, steroid use has become downright fashionable among the under 18 crowd. Reporter Timothy Egan has described heavy use of steroids among teenage boys in a November 22, 2002 New York Times article. According to the article, steroids "can be found in nearly any high school or college." The Times cites a federal drug agency survey showing that almost 500,000 teenagers use steroids. Some kids use them for athletic advantage; others just want to look good for the girls. Egan recounts an incident in which a group of high school students was busted for dealing steroids obtained from a veterinary store in Tijuana. Possession of steroids is a felony.

Many steroid precursors like androstenedione, made infamous by St. Louis Cardinal's slugger Mark McGuire, are legal and readily available as over-the-counter supplements. Steroid precursors are converted by the body into steroids after they're ingested. According to The Times, they've been found to produce the same type of damage that steroids cause: stifled bone growth in developing bodies; shrunken testicles; liver tumors; and male breast enlargement.

And that's why Dara Torres's refrain of "test me" rings hollow. The mere fact that a particular substance is legal, or absent from a "banned" list, should not be a green light for its use. Many athletes and coaches studiously follow the latest medical literature and contact scientists about cutting-edge chemicals before they're out of the laboratory. Those drugs won't be prohibited--at least not right away--because Olympic and other athletic officials are either unaware of their existence or have had insufficient time to study them.

To his credit, McGuire has urged people under 18 not to take "andro" and other steroid precursors. Package labeling contains the same admonition, but given the popularity of these substances, it's unlikely that young folks who are so inclined will heed these warnings.

Isn't it bizarre that steroids are illegal, while their precursors, which are functionally identical inside of the body, are not? According to The Times, congressional leaders have introduced legislation to ban steroid precursors not prescribed by a doctor, but don't expect action anytime soon. The multibillion-dollar corporations manufacturing these concoctions are vigorously fighting that proposal.

A December 5, 2004 Times article discusses undetectable steroids. Some steroids are metabolized so quickly that it's impossible to test for them. Others can be masked with copious amounts of water. According to the article, the ultimate goal of people seeking non-detectability is genetic engineering. If an athlete could be given performance-enhancing advantages by manipulating his or her DNA, drug tests would become obsolete.

Genetic engineering is a 21st century version of Hitler's Aryan "superman". "Space Seed", an episode of the "Star Trek" series, dealt with this subject way back in 1967. In "Space Seed", Ricardo Montalban plays Khan Noonien Singh, leader of a cryogenically preserved race of genetically engineered supermen, a group of ruthless dictators who simultaneously seized power in over 90 countries on late-twentieth-century Earth. The supermen were bred to be far stronger and more intelligent than ordinary human beings. Kirk, unaware of the identities of these people, revives them after he discovers the clan aboard a "sleeper" ship.

During a senior officers' meeting, Mr. Spock is asked how these formidable supermen were eventually defeated. His answer addresses the performance-enhancing drugs issues of today: "They took to quarreling among themselves. Superior ability breeds superior ambition."

While we debate the propriety of performance-enhancing drugs, athletes are being pumped full of them. The disastrous effects of this mass experiment are only beginning to be understood. Athletes are willing to risk their health--and freedom--to win at all costs because the prize they seek is so sweet. An Olympic gold medalist in a high-profile sport can make many millions of dollars from endorsements and other opportunities. Successful coaches and trainers become famous overnight. The most promising athletes flock their way, along with big bucks. And small things like fair competition, sportsmanship, and honor get lost in the shuffle.

Olympic competitors should be concerned about who is the better athlete or who has the best team--not with who has the smartest mad scientist.

As a former competitive swimmer and general fitness enthusiast, I am emphatically pro-sports. Athletics are great, especially for kids. For most folks, they're healthy and fun. They provide camaraderie. Sports teach discipline and teamwork. The problem lies with the corruption of elite athletics. That corruption is particularly disgraceful in the Olympic Games, which were founded for a purpose far nobler than commercial gain. And it sets yet another terrible example for young people.

If you watch the Beijing Olympics--and most of you will--I'm sure you'll enjoy them. The Olympics are exciting and enthralling. They're just no longer my cup of green tea.