I was inarticulate. When I spoke of performance as a primary goal I wasn’t thinking of just training and exercise, I was thinking about life in general.
You seem like thoughtful posters, so you no doubt have come across the type of masters athlete for whom their training/performance are almost everything, to the exclusion of other things in their life. I don’t know about this guy’s personal situation, but if he is using, that is evidence that his priorities aren’t laudable, if that use is to improve his performance.
When I said that these people should be derided, I was only half-serious, hence the happy face. But, I was half serious, because their behaviors arise from a deeply-rooted sense of inadequacy, or often of “unfinished business”, which amounts to the same thing.
There can be many ways to respond to a person like that, derision being one among the many. Of course there are both gentle and mean-spirited species of derision, and the strongest derision should be reserved for the most outrageous douchebags who have little else to commend them to society. This guy seems like might be worthy of the gentler kind of derision.
Pity is another response, and among a kinder and gentler personality type than myself, I find it quite common. In my world, a sense of pity and derision are not mutually exclusive.
As far as trying to hold off time and living life to its fullest, I have essentially nothing against somebody going to some anti-aging clinic and getting anabolics or T or HGH or SARMS or IGF/LR, etc., as long as it doesn’t adversely affect anything I’m involved in, or society at large.
If it keeps them uninjured and out of publicly-subsidized medical care, and if it is economic to do so, then great, I’m all for it, until they enter a race in which I’m competing—or, in fact, in any event that is based on principles to which I ascribe, regardless of whether I’m competing in it or not. Their participation is then an offense against those principles and, by extension, an offense against myself and others who believe as I do.
I don’t do thons, but I feel for the other clean masters out there who toil away honorably, only to be eclipsed by a douche—not just in the race results, but as someone already pointed out, in the publicity, support, and acknowledgement.
Get the most out of life, but don’t do it at the expense of others, if you can help it. And he can, but he doesn’t, and neither his actions nor his attitudes in this matter are worthy of any respect, IMO.
All this only IF he is using, of course.
Among my friends is a super masters swimmer who has some WR’s in the toughest events in the toughest age groups, and he is clean as a whistle. His performances are out of this world, and he pays a huge price—almost no social life, bed at 8pm every day, no drinking, workouts at 5:30 every morning and then sometimes 2x per day, etc., no family, no kids. So, seemingly insane performances are possible, but the price to be paid is absolute.
One more thing: he doesn’t look like this guy, and he is quite younger and, I guarantee you, trains more, trains harder, and is more religious about his training-related lifestyle. It is impossible for an individual to be more dedicated than the guy I know, his dedication is total. And yes he is lean, built, and muscular as you would expect from a WR-type sprint swimmer—but, as others have pointed out, he does not appear “jacked” as this guy does.