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The 2000 Olympics
are here. What is the dope on the drug scene?
The risk of skin cancer still doesn't
scare tanners.
Even in modern workplaces, health risks
can be found.
Women of Ohio are some of the
unhealthiest in the U.S.
Childhood obesity is becoming a more
alarming concern in America.
The
International Olympic Committee vows that this years Olympics at Sydney will be the
cleanest Olympics yet. Despite what they say, there are many athletes participating
who have tested positive for substance abuse in the recent past. The IOC is letting
them participate because the athletes claimed they did not know the supplements they were
taken were tainted with contraband.
In spite of the IOC's reluctance to install tough drug-testing
policies, they will be instituting new policy such as out-of-competition tests and blood
tests. Even with the new policy it will be tough to police the drug use. There
will be different tests issued but there are hundreds of steroids and only fewer than 100
banned. Some coaches can train athletes, when to go on drugs and when to go off, to
get around the testing. Some steroids such as human growth hormone (hGH) and
insulinlike growth factor-1 (IGF-1), can't be detected at all by the IOC's current tests.
Consequently, those drugs won't be screened for. Various athletes called the
Atlanta Olympics the "human-growth-hormone Games."
On a positive note, some countries are trying to crackdown on the use
of drug doping. China, which in the past decade, had taken over East Germany's spot
as the country with the worst steroid reputation, has banned several top Chinese athletes
from competition for steroid use. Still many countries fight to protect their
athletes from drug tests. Dr. Wade Exum was at the U.S. Olympic Committee for nine
years. In documents this past summer, he alleges that "scores" of U.S.
athletes tested positive for steroids during his tenure, and the USOC turned the other
way. The USOC denies this.
Newsweek, September 11, 2000
On September 7, 2000 The Columbus Dispatch reported
an article saying 40 competitors and officials from the Chinese Olympic track team were
cut. Some, but not all, were dismissed because of drug-related reasons. At
least 6 runners and 7 rowers were dismissed after failed blood tests.
My take: Until there is a huge public outcry against
the use of drugs in athletes, there will never be any rectifying this situation.
People want bigger, faster, stronger heroes.
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