Big sports would tie WADA up in court and bankrupt them if they went after a big sport pro athlete. So WADA chooses not to fight
The big lie is that PEDs are super crazy dangerous. These pros take the PEDs during their pro career, then go off of them, shrink down to normal size and live a long life.
This isnt what we want to hear, but it appears to ring true.
This is a gross oversimplification.
PED use wasn't really common until about the 60s. So we haven't had that many athletes take tons of PEDs, retire, stop taking PEDs, and live out the rest of their lives. We've had like one generation since the 60s. And I'd go out on a limb and say PED use was hardly rampant in the 60s.
Things like test or HGH or EPO have well-studied side effects as they're often used in legitimate medical practice. We know how they can not be good for you. We know how you can mitigate some of those effects.
Now we have athletes taking all sorts of crazy SARMs, RCs, and analogues with zero long term studies. IIRC Amos was popped for one that was a suspected strong carcinogen.
You sound like the kinda guy that when Arnold S. dies in his mid80's you will point to his steroid abuse/use as to why he expired.
"See! He took steroids and now he's dead!!"
It's the dose that makes the poison. There are plenty of examples of guys that destroy their liver taking HUGE amounts of junk (the quantity of drugs bodybuilders take is truly amazing), but.. I'd say they are the exception, not the rule.
they're doping even more than track athletes and no one cares.
WADA is a disgrace.
Paul Pogba is current banned. There's a long list of athletes in combat sports, baseball, cycling, american football etc that have been supsended for banned substances.
It’s less about the money and more so about athletics being a sport where performance depends heavily on physical limitations.
While strength/physicality impacts performance in all sports, most place greater emphasis on skill and strategy when compared to athletics. Other sports allow greater room for improvement through long-term, consistent practice. A 100m sprinter will enjoy far more benefits from steroids use compared to a golfer or basketball player, meaning they are more willing to take that risk. This also means that drug use compromises the integrity of athletics far more than many other sports, so drug testing is of greater value.
Other sports that place greater emphasis on a competitors physical strength, like cycling, powerlifting, or swimming, also face massive issues with doping and performance enhancing drugs.
I actually don't agree with this. Team sports also depend heavily on physical limitations, it's just not as obvious when you're competing against someone else instead of the clock. But look at what happened to baseball in the late 90s.
It's very likely that 100% of NFL and NBA players are doping. You simply couldn't make the league if you didn't, since there is essentially no testing. Fans either don't know this or have made their peace with it. In track, at least there is enough testing that one can hope athletes are clean.
Nowhere near 100% of NBA/NFL players are doping. It's probably more than people realize though
Yes the NBA and NFL are rife with PED use bit there's a lack of testing to start and most importantly protection for star players/revenue cows such as LeBron James. Anyone being busted is just for show and must not be in good standing with the players association or league overall.
This.
Count the PGA Tour on that list.
I know a guy that played in some PGA Tour events and he told me that Dustin Johnson had failed a test for cocaine and they were going to lie and say he hurt his back pulling a jet ski out of the water to account for his absence (guys were openly talking about it in the locker room). Then that was exactly what happened.
Sounds a lot like when Shacarri was banned from the last Olympics for "Marijuana" cover.
You sound like the kinda guy that when Arnold S. dies in his mid80's you will point to his steroid abuse/use as to why he expired.
"See! He took steroids and now he's dead!!"
It's the dose that makes the poison. There are plenty of examples of guys that destroy their liver taking HUGE amounts of junk (the quantity of drugs bodybuilders take is truly amazing), but.. I'd say they are the exception, not the rule.
"You sound like the kinda guy that when Arnold S. dies in his mid80's you will point to his steroid abuse/use as to why it's not dangerous."
See how easy it is to make a stupid argument?
Yes, it's the dose that makes the poison. As I pointed out, many PEDs have been well-studied and we know they're mostly kind of safe-ish.
Many, many, many have not been studied sufficiently. The smartest pharmacologist in the world has zero idea what their long term effects may be. Don't worry though, the guy who constantly gives bad training advice on a forum clearly knows better than them though!
In moneyball, they talked about how a guy who hit for average could develop power, but someone who hit for power would never develop the ability to hit for average. Now it's pretty clear that the way the guys who hit for average developed power was through PEDs. I would love to see Michael Lewis add a chapter to his book that discusses how things look different now that we know Oakland was the center of the doping universe for baseball. The key to their success might have had more to do with biochemistry than statistics.
As a Brit who read Moneyball many years ago but never watched / followed baseball, I was unaware that the Oakland team was linked to doping. Can you point me to an article that covers this?
It wasn't that team. But the Oakland team of the late 80s that had Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire was the roid team. Those two guys were poster boys for roids in baseball.
It wasn't that team. But the Oakland team of the late 80s that had Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire was the roid team. Those two guys were poster boys for roids in baseball.
I see. So the post I replied to was perhaps conflating the two issues.
It wasn't that team. But the Oakland team of the late 80s that had Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire was the roid team. Those two guys were poster boys for roids in baseball.
I see. So the post I replied to was perhaps conflating the two issues.
It's possible the moneyball teams had some steroid users too. But the earlier team with Canseco and McGuire was better hitting through chemistry.