Steroid Controversy Among Athletes
Steve Fainaru
Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 17, 2004; 1:00 p.m ET
Officials are investigating Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), a nutritional supplement company, for conspiring to distribute an exotic array of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to dozens of athletes from Major League Baseball, the NFL and the world of track and field. Four men who are alleged to be operating the clearinghouse include personal trainer for San Francisco Giants baseball star Barry Bonds and a renowned track coach.
Post staff writer Steve Fainaru will be online Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss the controversy of steroid use among athletes.
Submit your questions and comments before or during the show.
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Steve Fainaru: Hello. This is coming to you from the San Francisco Bay Area, where federal authorities have conducted an 18-month investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a nutritional supplements lab. Last week, a 42-count indictment handed up from the grand jury investigating BALCO charged that four Bay Area men, including the personal weight trainer for San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds, illegally distributed anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs to unnamed elite athletes. I'm here to answer any and all questions related to the probe and steroid use in sports.
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Arlington, Va.:
To be devil's advocate, why should I care whether athletes are using steroids to bulk up? How is that qualitatively different from using weightlifting to bulk up? washingtonpost.com:
Going After Juice, Or Just More Eyewash? (Post, Feb. 13)
Steve Fainaru: I think this question gets to the core of the issue. Some, including the Bush Administration, have argued that steroids are 1) dangerous and 2) undermine the integrity of sports. That is, those who use are cheaters and have an unfair advantage over their competitors, who are thus faced with the decision of whether to put their health at risk to compete on a "level playing field." It is, in fact, illegal to distribute steroids without a prescription.
Others have argued that steroids are not much different than other advances that make athletes more competitive, that this is part of the evolutionary process in athletics. Athletes now have access to better technology, equipment, training methods, etc, and steroids and other drugs are part of that.
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Anchorage, Alaska:
Why haven't we heard what the potential criminal involvement of high-profile athlete-witnesses might be? Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Romanowski....are these guys going to be in trouble? washingtonpost.com:
Four Plead Not Guilty To Steroid Distribution (Post, Feb. 14)
Steve Fainaru: In announcing the indictments, attorney general John Ashcroft suggested, in answer to questions about why the athletes themselves have not been charged, that more might be coming. Many people are waiting for more shoes to drop. Some of the athletes who testified before the BALCO grand jury received limited immunity from prosecution, but it's not clear who received that immunity, or whether the government could seek indictments on other charges such as perjury. So, yes, some of these athletes could be in serious trouble.
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Baltimore, Md.:
Hi Steve. Is there any hope at all? It seems to me that once the whistle is blown on steroid use among top athletes (let's say baseball, for example), it's going to implicate a lot of people. Also, does testing to some degree just pave the way for an arms race in creating undetectable synthetic drugs?
Steve Fainaru: By hope, do you mean is there any possibility that these athletes who took steroids will skate? I'm not sure that's what everyone hopes. As for the arms race, one thing this case proves indisputably is that it is already underway. The depth of sophistication and strategizing to get a better, less detectable drug suggested in the affidavit that accompanied the BALCO indictments is staggering.
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Washington D.C.:
Didn't Barry Bonds take a drug test to prove he was steroid free?
If so why doesn't the medial report that? washingtonpost.com:
Four Plead Not Guilty To Steroid Distribution (Post, Feb. 14)
Steve Fainaru: Bonds, like all Major League players, was tested anonymously for steroids last season under MLB's new drug policy. Those tests carried no penalty, and the names were expected to remain secret. When MLB determined that 5-7 percent of those tests turned up positive, that triggered punitive testing next year. So right now there's no way of knowing whether Bonds tested positive or not last year. The grand jury has subpoenaed the results of the tests. Next year, if Bonds or any other player tests positive, he will receive counseling for the first offense.
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London, Ontario Canada:
Do you not believe that athletes (such as Bonds) will now claim ignorance of the ingredients of what they were using (ie. the 'cream'). Tough to be a sport fan and loyal supporter of the outstanding athlete of today. And, also, it must hurt the 'clean' athletes to have to perform in comparison to those cheating. washingtonpost.com:
Athletes Are at Heart of Steroid Case (AP, Feb. 17)
Steve Fainaru: Yes, the athletes, at least some of them, almost certainly claim ignorance. This is a constant excuse used by athletes who get caught using performance-enhancing drugs, and, in fact, some dietary supplements contain steroid-precursors that might not appear on the label. In most sports that's not an excuse, although Major League Baseball's drug agreement has provision that allows the athlete to be re-tested one week after a positive test to allow steroids related to dietary supplements to flush out of their system. If they test negative on the second test, it's treated as a negative.
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Arlington, Va.:
All the stories on steroids and US sports leagues have focused on the NFL and MLB recently. What is the NBA's policy? I caught the 1981 NBA All-Star game on ESPN classics over the weekend and everyone, including the centers and power forwards, looked like stick figures out there in comparison with today's players -- and one can argue whether all this improved "conditioning" has improved the quality of play.
Does the NBA have a steroid problem? washingtonpost.com:
Steroid Charges Have Impact (Post, Feb. 13)
Steve Fainaru: The short answer I don't know. There has been a great deal of focus on the NFL and MLB, for obvious reasons, but there seems to be an implicit assumption that NBA players are less likely to use steroids simply because of the nature of the sport, but I'm not sure that's true.
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Hartford, Conn.:
Baseball players have been taking performance
enhancing drugs, including anabolic steroids,
since the early 1970's. While Major League
baseball still does not enforce drug testing, and
with designer steroids being distributed that are
undetectable by modern testing labs, isn't the
whole issue akin to radar detectors and speed
laws? While the gambling taboo is still alive after
80 years, many players still gamble. The Hall of
Fame has no less than 30 gamblers installed in
Cooperstown. Why won't the Federal government
enact strong laws about these issues for all
professional athletes, and let the players who
wish to break the law jeopardize their careers with
lenghtly jail time and million dollar fines? Why
leave it up to each sport? washingtonpost.com:
In Speech, Bush Calls for Steroid Ban (Post, Jan. 21)
Steve Fainaru: I think the issue of jurisdiction is going to be playing out over the coming days. The Bush Administration has significantly raised the profile of steroids, with President Bush admonishing athletes and users in the State of the Union and Attorney General Ashcroft announcing the BALCO indictments in Washington. In the meantime, Congress is considering legislation to stengthen the steroid laws, but it does get back to your question about radar detectors and speed laws. If some amateur chemist can develop a drug that eludes standard detection, what can anybody do?
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Bournemouth, England:
Hi, Do you think there is a case to be made for having two types of track and field athletics....drug free and 'drugs allowed'
Steve Fainaru: It would certainly open up a whole host of marketing possibilities. You could have the Juicer Olympics and the Juicer Super Bowl, proudly sponsored by the makers of tetrahydrogestinone.
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Arlington, Va.:
I remember before the Raiders-Bucs Superbowl the Post had a story on Bill Romanowski in which he explained that virtually all of his “meals” came in powder form. In other words, in his case the term “supplement” no longer applied.
To me, it matters little whether all the ingredients in his carefully packed baggies were legal or not; he had become a freak.
Steve Fainaru: I think this is where it gets very slippery. As the BALCO affair unraveled it became apparent that Romanowski was very connected to the company, and in fact his wife told investigators that he once received performance-enhancing drugs from BALCO and injected them into his knee. On the other hand, a lot of these supplements that he and others take are laced with steroids but are perfectly legal and available over the counter. So where is the line? And let's remember that the media praised and hyped as some kind of nutritional guru right up to the point where he became hopelessly snared in this scandal.
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Riverdale Park, Md.:
Hello Steve---Did steroids kill Walter Payton? washingtonpost.com:
Steroid Charges Have Impact (Post, Feb. 13)
Steve Fainaru: I have no idea.
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Arlington, Va.:
Sally Jenkins posed the rhetorical question last night of why we should get worked up about the use of steroids in sports, to which I offer a three-word reply: "Rudy! Rudy! RUDY!" In other words, no matter how jaded we get, we sports fans still hang on to the illusion that for all the sophisticated training and biological advances success in sports depends on who has the biggest heart, not who takes the best drugs. As for the argument that steroids make for better performances, thus a better product for the fan, I would respond that one of the fun parts of following sports is to follow the history of the game, to ask those barroom brawl questions of who was better, Roger Clemens or Walter Johnson, Emmitt Smith or Jim Brown, etc. There are already plenty of factors that account for generational differences, but as soon as we acquiesce to the use of steroids and similar medical supplements, then it seems to me we will be creating a rhetorical barrier of the sort that we will never be able to compare an athlete who competed before that date with one whose feats came after. washingtonpost.com:
Going After Juice, Or Just More Eyewash? (Post, Feb. 13)
Steve Fainaru: This is an enormous problem for baseball. Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris' home run record using Andro, a supplement banned by most sports and which may soon be illegal. Barry Bonds, who hit 73 homers in 2001, is now closely connected to two individuals who have been charged with distributing an array of steroids. If it turns out that records were broken on steroids, what does baseball do? At the time that Bonds broke the home run record, it was not even a violation of baseball rules to use steroids. I suppose some would argue that, on the other hand, it's difficult to compare baseball records pre-1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color line. But it's certainly and issue that MLB would have to deal with; I'm sure they're looking at it now.
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Herndon, Va.:
Does anyone have a feel for which sports have the most steroid-using athletes? Football? Baseball? Track & field? Basketball? Soccer?
Steve Fainaru: It's impossible to know, in large part because the testing programs in these sports are so dramatically different. The difference between the NFL's steroid policy and MLB's, for example, is like night and day. Last season, four members of the Oakland Raiders were suspended for four games -- one quarter of the season -- after testing positive for the newly discovered THG. We don't know if any baseball players tested positive, because the testing was anonymous, and there were no penalties.
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Herndon, Va.:
Mr. Fainaru: Going back to "Ball Four" and before, we've known of players taking "greenies" and who knows what else. Is using steroids just a matter of degree, or something really new? washingtonpost.com:
Four Plead Not Guilty To Steroid Distribution (Post, Feb. 14)
Steve Fainaru: I think what's different is the level of sophistication: the fact that you can cook up stronger drugs which are designed to evade tests, you have to wonder where it ends. That seems significantly different to me than players popping greenies to help them stay alert over a 162-game schedule. And the money is different, too. We're talking about huge amounts of money -- at stake for the players in terms of salaries, and available to those who can provide the drugs that make them better.
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Washington, D.C.:
I do agree that "supplements" and technology are blurring the percieved line between drug use (cheating) and using knowlege to gain a competitive edge, but could we please acknowlege that steroids do far more than "bulk up" athletes. Distance runners and cyclists that use steroids to recover from long training sessions can train more than those that don't, but it's still a health risk. A baseball player using drugs can take bp for hundreds of pitches a day and still compete on a daily basis. This would drive a drug-free athlete into the ground and his batting average into the toilet. It's a clear advantage.
The problem with letting drug use go unchecked it that many of the athletes brave enough to use the most amount of drugs will get paid the most, and then everyone else - kids included - will see steroid use as a means to financial sucess.
A lot of people will get hurt and it's not athletic competition, it's an episode of MTV's Jackass with everyone upping the ante and doing more drugs.
Steve Fainaru: I think this is a huge concern to anyone involved in this issue. I did a story in the Dominican Republic last year where kids were using cheap animal drugs purchased in pet stores to make themselves more marketable to major-league teams. Two had died. According to the govt., the number of kids using steroids has doubled in the past five years or so. Everyone has to ask, `Why?'
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Arlington, Va.:
What's at stake for the outcome of the trial? Will the FDA now put new regulations on protein powders and health supplements?
Steve Fainaru: Whether or not there's a trial I think we're already seeing change. Congress has gotten involved, and now the federal government is pursuing steriods aggressively. Ultimately, what may be at stake is how sports deals with this issue, and whether or not some of the biggest names are outed as abusers. And, if that happens, what it means, if anything.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
What is the latest on the seizing and possible release of which baseball players tested positive last year? I personally think baseball players are the biggest steroid users. It doesnt take a genuis to look at their increasing hat sizes and see that they are so full of human growth hormones they are on the verge of being medical defined as having elephantitus of the head.....
Steve Fainaru: All the tests last year were supposed to be anonymous, but the grand jury in the BALCO case has subpoeanaed the results. No information has been handed over, and baseball, in particularly the players union, is fighting it. If the government gets its hands on the results, that information could be used in a public trial.
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Herndon, Va.:
Has there been any talk of looking into the death of Florence Griffith Joyner and any possible link to the use of performance enhancing drugs?
I have always found it amazing that she got a free pass. No one is even getting close to her records and the change her body went through between 1984 and 1988 was stunning.
Steve Fainaru: I really don't know. I suspect that as this moves forward many athletes are going to have their performances re-examined.
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Virginia:
What are other countries doing?
Steve Fainaru: The BALCO scandal has led to a flurry of retroactive drug testing all over the world. After THG, which US anti-doping officials said came from BALCO, was decoded last year, everyone from the Australian football league to the tennis federations re-tested to look for this stuff. At this point, nine athletes -- five in track and field, four in the NFL -- are known to have tested positive.
Many thanks to everyone for your questions. Stay tuned.....
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