Dndn wrote:
I agree with a lot of what’s being said on this thread. I don’t like calling out different high school kids over doping but it’s clear that doping exists at this level and it’s getting more and more pervasive.
its also ridiculously sad.
where is the magic in sport if this is a part of things from the start? This kid isn’t a star at all. why not enjoy it? Train hard, see how good you can be for you? Have fun with your friends. Horrible parents tainting everything good. And that goes for kids doping who are fast too.
It's for a lot of reasons. Social media, and maybe before that things like this message board, create a lot of pressure for kids. A 20 minute 5k is objectively fast compared to the population at large, yet on here, "Can't even break 20, you're a slow hobby joggers."
And to some kid who is running say a 22 minute 5k, which is still objectively fast, they go, "I want to be faster but I can't be," and they start researching how to get faster. And the parents who want their kid to be happy and don't like their kid being distressed over running a 22 minute 5k in the B heat of a XC meet, and who has access to things like testosterone and EPO, decided to give their kid drugs, and now the 22 minute 5k runner is running low 17s. Nothing special but maybe just good enough to get a partial scholarship worth tens of thousands a year from a crappy Division II school. And your kid feels better about them self (and justified it by saying everyone else does it too).
I don't for a second think it's right but I see how the incentives are there (and frankly have been there since at least the 80s).
Unless somebody is going to invest a bunch in making a biotech company that makes testing much cheaper, and that's hard to do because the travel costs associated with random out of competition testing are so high, then it'll keep on happening.
Testing at the college level might be a little more feasible.