EPO among college athletes

First of all, you are full of it and just trying to stir up controversy. The idea itself is plenty stupid. And your line "But the NCAA doesn't test for it, so it's hard to think of a downside to using it. Unless you have a heart attack from turning your blood to clam chowder." is one of the dumbest I've yet read. In fact, it is a bit too dumb.

this thread is a joke, but i always wonder that everyone is talking about EPO and not about HGH.

fairly easy to get in Mexico or in europe. a large number of american collegiate XC skiers are from europe, or are european based in the off season.

in addition if you have the $$ it can be ez to come by near any large university with a D1 sports program.

why be surprised? why care?

just run!

I just exactly why is the statement, "But the NCAA doesn't test for it, so it's hard to think of a downside to using it. Unless you have a heart attack from turning your blood to clam chowder," dumb? It's the truth. There is a good number of college runners that are on EPO. People present facts and still nobody cares. EPO is extremely easy to get across the Mexican border. And if you live close to the border it is really easy to get. If professional athletes are getting busted with it, what makes you think college kids arn't taking it. Even Charlie Frances, the drug cheat himself, said, "Even sprinters take EPO." It is a lot more common than you think. If you are dumb enough to accept things at face value and you believe that everyone at NCAA Nationals is there cause of hardwork than you are sorely mistaken. Granted, most of the athletes at nationals are there because they did work extremely hard. But there are people there who cheated their way onto the medal stand. I work with numberous NCAA athletes and I know from experence that EPO use a problem that needs to be publically (and officially) addressed by the NCAA before the problems gets out of control like it has on the porfessional level.

This thread is absolutely serious, though apparently my sarcasm about there not being a downside escaped the usual nimrods.

The other interesting comment from my expert was that international-class athletes wouldn't use the stuff you buy over the Internet (HGH is relatively easy to come by that way); they would only get pharmaceutical grade EPO or HGH or IGF-1 or whatever from a crooked doctor. I didn't think that college kids would have access to that kind of expertise, but my pal said that was a dangerous assumption. Top-flight kids will always have access to people with the right knowledge.

So let's say you're, oh, a 4:02 miler at a decent school in the Midwest (i.e., road-tripping to Mexico would be a pain in the butt). And let's say you have no moral qualms about taking something that would allow you to train hard enough to turn into a 3:52 miler. How would you go about doing that.

Now, let's say you're Frank Shorter. How do you go about constructing a college system that can offer a reasonable guarantee that a 4:02 miler is a clean 4:02 miler?

AZTrackie wrote:

fairly easy to get in Mexico or in europe. a large number of american collegiate XC skiers are from europe, or are european based in the off season.

in addition if you have the $$ it can be ez to come by near any large university with a D1 sports program.

why be surprised? why care?

just run!

Please...like DI programs are spending any money at all on track or XC in the first place much less buying performance enhancing drugs with what little money they have.

If a DI program were doing it, it would not be a secret for long...too many people would be involved and someone would blow the whistle.

It might be easy to get in Mexico, but what are you getting? If the rhEPO comes in a pill, I guarantee you it is not rhEPO.

I doubt many college athletes are using rhEPO since it is expensive and few have the money just sitting around.

Two words. Wesley Keating.

from what I was told it's fairly complicated to dose and to monitor and you need to have blood taken regularly and tested... it clearly sounds from your post that you are looking for a source and thats not what this board is for

I love how everybody makes asinine assumptions on this board. This may or may not be a problem, but if everybody refuses to talk about it, it WILL be a problem.

FWIW, I'm long since out of college, way too slow to think about taking anything, and am curious about this because I've been doing research on the athletes who've died after taking ephedrine.

So, it would be interesting to see whether people think EPO use is a problem. It would NOT be interesting to speculate about me.

never said it was being provided by the college. most big uni's are surrounded by medical 'help' for their 'semi-pro' athletes (football, hoops)

Who knows? But if the NCAA is not testing for EPO, then the risks would be low and the incentive pretty high.

An American born NCAA champion in the distances stands a good chance of netting a decent contract after graduating from college. I've heard from a top distance runner that the companies want to sign people right out of college, not a few years after college. For example, think about someone who is a 4:08 miler/14:20 5000 m runner in college. They could work real hard for 4-5 years and get down to 3:57/13:40, or faster, and never land a decent contract. Take something like EPO and they have a shot at those kinds of times or faster in college and a better shot at sponsorship.

This is not impossible, nor is this thread ludicrous. It wouldn't take university or coaches approval. Just a person who wants to take some short cuts and smart enough to find the right connections.

an expert wrote:

Now, let's say you're Frank Shorter. How do you go about constructing a college system that can offer a reasonable guarantee that a 4:02 miler is a clean 4:02 miler?

I think the same question is valid for the pros as well.

However lacking it might be, there is at least a test for EPO. There is NO test available for HGH, which is taken by the entire spectrum of athletes in track and field (and maybe even football...). So sure, let's discuss HGH, but EPO is more relevant as it could actually currently be tested for.

When Webb broke Ryuns record, was he tested? He didn't place. Now he is trapped, he must pass USADA testing.

do you realize how much it costs for cancer patients to use something like Procrit?

maybe a college basketball player at UGA or somewhere could afford to use this stuff, but it's not really the type of thing that a med student can just grab a pack of samples of like a NSAID or something.

I always here people say he's a cheater---Where does keating go to school?

BDG wrote:

However lacking it might be, there is at least a test for EPO. There is NO test available for HGH, which is taken by the entire spectrum of athletes in track and field (and maybe even football...). So sure, let's discuss HGH, but EPO is more relevant as it could actually currently be tested for.

There is a hGH test in the works but the researchers are waiting for a grant from WADA to make the next step.

Nadfan wrote:

When Webb broke Ryuns record, was he tested? He didn't place. Now he is trapped, he must pass USADA testing.

I have no idea. It is interesting that USATF lists all negative tests and suspensions on its website (under Elite athletes) but only for the most recent quarter. Not sure when USATF started doing this. I just saw it a few weeks ago.

However, just because someone did not place does not mean he/she will not be tested. Typically, people placing first thru (pick a spot) will be tested and then a random or two (depends on a lot of factors). So he might have gotten tested if there was testing at that meet.

Keating goes to UT-Pan Am. In case you have never heard of the school and don't know where it is at, it is on the Texas-Mexico Border. In Edinburg to be exact. I've heard it is a real good school if you want to Major in Chemistry (which Keating is).

Did anyone ever say what the cause of Cardinals Pitchers, Darrell Kyles, death? When I first heard about it and the circumstances, I wondered if it was EPO. As a major league pitcher he could benefit from the endurance benefits that are associated with the drug. And being that he died in his sleep (like Tour de France cyclist) and had no previous family history of heart trouble, it seems very likely.