I seem to remeber a female swimmer appearing on tv with a Balco hat on. If I remember correctly, she was talking about how she began training for the 200 Olmypics and was using products from this company. She was helping them develop products for swimmers. I'm not real sure but I was really surprised at the time becasue I had heard about Balco from a friend who lives in San Fransisco and is a body builder. I, at the time, was still recovering from lots of surgeries and he told me about all of their "wonderful" products.
Originally posted by hooked-on-swimming
I vigorously believe that swimming is one of the cleanest sports, because it is more technical that physical
I wouldn't be so sure. No, swimming doesn't require the kind of muscular strength some other sports do, but imagine if you could take a drug that allowed you to recover faster, hence enabled you to train at higher levels more consistently?
And about technique. It reminds me of what some people say about steroids in baseball: "steroids can't teach you to hit a baseball." Well, that logic is as dumb in baseball as it is in swimming. We're talking about the truly elite here. They already have the technique part pretty much down. When looking for that extra edge, unfortunately, some turn to illegal performance enhancing drugs.
I think (hope) swimming is cleaner than many other sports, but I think you're wrong if you think swimming is squeaky clean.
bodybuilders love them and they say are great products, but through hard work and determination anything can be acheived naturally.
P.S. granted you are not going to look like a bodybuilder in a muscle and fitness magazine by being natural, but keep roids out of sports!!!
That is a very interesting topic for discussion and I actually had an argument with my dad on the steroid use.He was claiming that for one to be good(olympic level) you have to use something or you won't be in the elite.He said that these days it is 80% competition between doctors of athletes- whoever will come up with the way to use them and not get caught wins.I disagree!!!I do agree though that theere are a lot of steroids in sports but I think it applies to some sports more that the pthers and I have to say I vigorously believe that swimming is one of the cleanest sports, because it is more technical that physical(I mean you do not have to bench press 300 lb to be a good swimmer).Also and I think that is a very strong point - we see a lot of very young very talented and fast elite swimmers, ex. Amanda Beard who was 14 some when she made her first Olympics, Phelps made his first Olympic appearance at 15, Athens 200m breaststroke silver medallist Daniel Gyurta is only 15 and so on.I mean obviously paents are involved in their training life when they are kids and I highly doubt that they would appreciate steroid us for their teens.Besides can you imagine what crime it is to feed an underage steroids?
Yes I agree that sports are not clean(take weightlifting - everyone takes steroids there it is a fact) but I am proud to be a swimmer because I am POSITIVE that we are the cleanest!!!
Originally posted by knelson
I think (hope) swimming is cleaner than many other sports, but I think you're wrong if you think swimming is squeaky clean.
Yeah, I agree that drugs are present in swimming - no doubt about that, but I just think it's cleaner than a lot of other sports.But then - can you imagine feeding those drugs to kids, because if some get to the elite level by 15, how long have they been using drugs of any kind?
Makes me sick ...
True story:
When I started swimming "hard core" for high school, my freshman year, it was discovered that I have exercise-induced asthma aggravated by high chlorine levels (there are some interesting studies on this topic, PM me if you want the specifics). After I stopped being able to finish workouts without having an attack and having to use my rescue inhaler, my doctor suggested I try using it BEFORE my workouts, to prevent symptoms from happening, and then if they still occured, I could always use it again. It actually helped me alot. If my symptoms appeared, they were usually less severe, and I was able to continue my workout with little problem.
That story leads to this story: At a regional high school meet my sophomore year, an official saw me take my inhaler prior to a race and informed my coach I was disqualified, and an investigation would take place as to my use of Albuterol, because it could technically be considered a performance enhancer. (This official was looney.)
The basis was, Albuterol forces the bronchials to relax, allowing for the induction of greater quantities of oxygen, and it speeds up the heart, increasing blood flow and adrenaline production. It could somehow give me an advantage to use it before a race, so I was more "amped" up at the beginning of the race and thus had more energy to use throughout the race.
The outcome was pretty simple: I had to provide documentation of my EIB treatments, and my doctor had to submit a written statement saying pre-race albuterol was part of my medication practice.
I have since had no problems using my inhaler during meets, but that incident has made me very aware of the things I use, medication-wise, and of the things officials consider performance enhancers.
The whole Michael Phelps thing is a great avenue for coaches & parents to talk with their kids about the effects of alcohol, steroids & pot.
Why would you connect pot and steroids to Michael Phelps?You are innocent until proven guilty and legally(officially) he is clean.
I haven't followed the whole Balco fiasco as it has opened up a huge can of worms. But I thought I heard that a disgruntled coach who worked with some athletes who used their products provided a syringe of some of their juice to the authorities. If not for that coach we still might not know the Balco story.
Based on my limited understanding it seems like a game of cat and mouse. The doctors will come up with a new strain of steriod that evades current testing methods. Eventually the authorities will figure out how to test for that strain and then we go back to square one.
As long as there is an incentive to dope/drug (money, fame, success) there will probably be some athletes willing to use any means necessary to become the best.
The challenge in my mind is to not assume any record setting athlete is dirty and to do everything you can to keep up with the scientific advances in performance enhancing substances. Based on the Balco case, it might also be a good idea to create some sort of reward system for whistle-blowers.
We should not be so pious or naive to think that our sport is the cleanest one out there. The only thing that makes us clean is the fact we spend so much time in the water. What do you think make us so special? We are just a microcosm of society and as a result we suffer from the same problem as all the other sports we are bashing.
