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VERY interesting boxing and Steroid article ESPN March 2007
Tuesday afternoon's raid on a Florida pharmacy in connection with the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs has once again shone the spotlight on the issue of steroids and sports. News outlets reported a number of professional athletes as being among the customers of the pharmacy and of an Alabama company that, in a related move, was indicted by a grand jury the same day on su****ion of selling illegal drugs over the Internet. An attorney for Applied Pharmacy Services told Mobile's WALA-TV that federal authorities raided the company last August.
So is steroid use more widespread in boxing than has previously been acknowledged?
"I tend to think that it's a much bigger problem than we recognize. I think boxing for the most part has ignored it," said Dr. Margaret Goodman, chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada Athletic Commission. "And I don't think it's related to the positive drug tests that have been turning up lately. I think the problem with boxing is that because there is no federal oversight, commissions don't have to test, and they don't all have to test for the same things when they do test, so there's no standardization. And so more often than not, fighters aren't tested, and don't think they don't know it. And I think if you talk to boxers, I think steroids are readily available in many gyms all over the world."
The scandal that erupted around the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) suggested a world where big-name athletes spent tens of thousands of dollars on finely tuned drug regimes beyond the reach of mere mortals. However, said Richard Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), that's only part of the story.
"I think the problem with boxing is that because there is no federal oversight, commissions don't have to test, and they don't all have to test for the same things when they do test, so there's no standardization. And so more often than not, fighters aren't tested, and don't think they don't know it."
Dr. Margaret Goodman, chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada Athletic Commission
"The BALCO stuff, you could see the treatments there were $35,000 a year, which clearly favored those who could afford to do it. But there's so much of this stuff available, in gymnasiums and on street corners, that might not be as scientifically administered but is certainly available and consumed," he said.
Certainly, Pound continued, the notion that steroids cause their users only to bulk up -- and thus would be of minimal interest to boxers, who rely on speed, endurance and lean muscle -- is erroneous.
"Anything that increases muscle mass and strength would be of assistance in boxing," he observed. "And also just the recovery from training."
"The reason most fighters use anabolic steroids is not for the bulk," Goodman added. "It's not the big heavyweights that are testing positive, it's the smaller weights. And there's always been this misperception that they're used to put on bulk, whereas in reality they're used by athletes so they can train more. They reduce the time they have to take off if they have a small injury. The problem is that it's a double-edged sword, because steroid use chronically will lead to tendon injuries as well as a breakdown of the bones, making them more brittle."
"Anything that increases muscle mass and strength would be of assistance in boxing. And also just the recovery from training."
Richard Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
Throughout the world of sports, said Pound, those who are attempting to catch users of steroid-enhancing drugs are almost inevitably constantly a half-step behind the users and distributors.
"I think you have to expect that there will always be some who don't care what the rules are, and are prepared to take these short cuts, and in a sense they'll always be ahead, in that they're the ones who decide when they're going to do it and what they're going to use," he noted.
Added Mark Fainaru-Wada of the San Francisco Chronicle, co-author of the book "Game of Shadows," which exposed the inner workings of the BALCO case: "I always think the cheaters are going to be ahead of the testers, primarily because there's more money. The testers are always looking for money. So that's a huge issue. I think the cheaters will always be ahead.
"If we learned anything from BALCO, it's that these guys were very smart about testing and they knew how to beat it. There were masking agents, designer steroids, taking things that couldn't be tested for, like human growth hormone. There's just a wide range of ways to get around the process."
That's the case, said Fainaru-Wada, even in those sports that subject their participants to random, unannounced testing, which is demonstrably not the case in boxing. Not all commissions test for drugs, and the few that do focus almost exclusively on championship bouts; none tests boxers except on fight night.
"You don't take anabolic steroids or human growth hormone all the time. You take them in a certain cycle in which you build muscle, build strength, build reflexes, and then you stop the cycle. So, with correct knowledge, someone shouldn't get caught."
Flip Homansky, former ringside physician and Nevada state athletic commissioner
As a result, asserted Flip Homansky, former ringside physician and Nevada state athletic commissioner, only the fighters who "make mistakes" are caught.
"You don't take anabolic steroids or human growth hormone all the time," he pointed out. "You take them in a certain cycle in which you build muscle, build strength, build reflexes, and then you stop the cycle. So, with correct knowledge, someone shouldn't get caught."
Said Fainaru-Wada: "Knowledge is half the deal. If you know when you're going to be tested, that kind of defeats the purpose.
He added, "It does nothing to dissuade the notion of using. That was the joke about baseball for so long. Even when they announced, 'OK, we're going to start testing at spring training,' well, OK, everyone knew when they were going to be tested, so you just took until you knew it was going to be clear of your system, then you stopped, and then you started again. So the notion that it just has to be championship events and that that will somehow eliminate the use of these drugs, is naive. Even the kid who gets a handful of steroids under the table in Mexico should be fine, unless he's an idiot."
"Knowledge is half the deal. If you know when you're going to be tested, that kind of defeats the purpose."
Mark Fainaru-Wada, San Francisco Chronicle reporter and co-author of "Game of Shadows"
"The only way to catch people is not just to test them during competition, but to test them between competitions," said Homansky. "And if boxing wants to get serious, then when people apply for a license in a state, or when people sign for a fight -- let's say Oscar [De La Hoya] and Floyd [Mayweather Jr.]; they signed in December for a fight the next May -- the state where the fight is going to be could insist on part of the language in the contract stating that they can be tested at any time."
The experience of other sports suggests that even that kind of random, universal testing would not necessarily be enough to catch every user or stamp out steroid use.
"Look at the Olympic testing situation," said Fainaru-Wada. "They have year-round testing, unannounced, they have banned for life on your second positive, two-year ban on your first in track and field. That's a pretty substantial set of penalties." And yet, as repeated examples have shown, track athletes continue to test positive -- suggesting strongly that there are many more who are using performance-enhancing drugs who are still able to evade detection. During questioning by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in the wake of BALCO, said Fainaru-Wada, one track athlete told investigators that a field of eight elite female sprinters would include six who were juiced. A second sprinter disagreed. She said all eight would be users.
"You need to have the random testing as part of your arsenal," Pound said. "But the real future in the fight against drugs in sport is going to arise now that governments have adopted an international convention under UNESCO. And they're going to be able to use their investigative powers to go at the upstream side of things, the suppliers, and traffickers."
Nonetheless, before boxing can even begin to approach that stage, argue some, it at least needs to catch up to other sports in terms of testing.
ESPN.com's Mike Fish contributed to this report.
Kieran Mulvaney is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. He covers boxing for ESPN.com, Reuters and TigerBoxing.com.
So is steroid use more widespread in boxing than has previously been acknowledged?
"I tend to think that it's a much bigger problem than we recognize. I think boxing for the most part has ignored it," said Dr. Margaret Goodman, chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada Athletic Commission. "And I don't think it's related to the positive drug tests that have been turning up lately. I think the problem with boxing is that because there is no federal oversight, commissions don't have to test, and they don't all have to test for the same things when they do test, so there's no standardization. And so more often than not, fighters aren't tested, and don't think they don't know it. And I think if you talk to boxers, I think steroids are readily available in many gyms all over the world."
The scandal that erupted around the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) suggested a world where big-name athletes spent tens of thousands of dollars on finely tuned drug regimes beyond the reach of mere mortals. However, said Richard Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), that's only part of the story.
"I think the problem with boxing is that because there is no federal oversight, commissions don't have to test, and they don't all have to test for the same things when they do test, so there's no standardization. And so more often than not, fighters aren't tested, and don't think they don't know it."
Dr. Margaret Goodman, chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada Athletic Commission
"The BALCO stuff, you could see the treatments there were $35,000 a year, which clearly favored those who could afford to do it. But there's so much of this stuff available, in gymnasiums and on street corners, that might not be as scientifically administered but is certainly available and consumed," he said.
Certainly, Pound continued, the notion that steroids cause their users only to bulk up -- and thus would be of minimal interest to boxers, who rely on speed, endurance and lean muscle -- is erroneous.
"Anything that increases muscle mass and strength would be of assistance in boxing," he observed. "And also just the recovery from training."
"The reason most fighters use anabolic steroids is not for the bulk," Goodman added. "It's not the big heavyweights that are testing positive, it's the smaller weights. And there's always been this misperception that they're used to put on bulk, whereas in reality they're used by athletes so they can train more. They reduce the time they have to take off if they have a small injury. The problem is that it's a double-edged sword, because steroid use chronically will lead to tendon injuries as well as a breakdown of the bones, making them more brittle."
"Anything that increases muscle mass and strength would be of assistance in boxing. And also just the recovery from training."
Richard Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
Throughout the world of sports, said Pound, those who are attempting to catch users of steroid-enhancing drugs are almost inevitably constantly a half-step behind the users and distributors.
"I think you have to expect that there will always be some who don't care what the rules are, and are prepared to take these short cuts, and in a sense they'll always be ahead, in that they're the ones who decide when they're going to do it and what they're going to use," he noted.
Added Mark Fainaru-Wada of the San Francisco Chronicle, co-author of the book "Game of Shadows," which exposed the inner workings of the BALCO case: "I always think the cheaters are going to be ahead of the testers, primarily because there's more money. The testers are always looking for money. So that's a huge issue. I think the cheaters will always be ahead.
"If we learned anything from BALCO, it's that these guys were very smart about testing and they knew how to beat it. There were masking agents, designer steroids, taking things that couldn't be tested for, like human growth hormone. There's just a wide range of ways to get around the process."
That's the case, said Fainaru-Wada, even in those sports that subject their participants to random, unannounced testing, which is demonstrably not the case in boxing. Not all commissions test for drugs, and the few that do focus almost exclusively on championship bouts; none tests boxers except on fight night.
"You don't take anabolic steroids or human growth hormone all the time. You take them in a certain cycle in which you build muscle, build strength, build reflexes, and then you stop the cycle. So, with correct knowledge, someone shouldn't get caught."
Flip Homansky, former ringside physician and Nevada state athletic commissioner
As a result, asserted Flip Homansky, former ringside physician and Nevada state athletic commissioner, only the fighters who "make mistakes" are caught.
"You don't take anabolic steroids or human growth hormone all the time," he pointed out. "You take them in a certain cycle in which you build muscle, build strength, build reflexes, and then you stop the cycle. So, with correct knowledge, someone shouldn't get caught."
Said Fainaru-Wada: "Knowledge is half the deal. If you know when you're going to be tested, that kind of defeats the purpose.
He added, "It does nothing to dissuade the notion of using. That was the joke about baseball for so long. Even when they announced, 'OK, we're going to start testing at spring training,' well, OK, everyone knew when they were going to be tested, so you just took until you knew it was going to be clear of your system, then you stopped, and then you started again. So the notion that it just has to be championship events and that that will somehow eliminate the use of these drugs, is naive. Even the kid who gets a handful of steroids under the table in Mexico should be fine, unless he's an idiot."
"Knowledge is half the deal. If you know when you're going to be tested, that kind of defeats the purpose."
Mark Fainaru-Wada, San Francisco Chronicle reporter and co-author of "Game of Shadows"
"The only way to catch people is not just to test them during competition, but to test them between competitions," said Homansky. "And if boxing wants to get serious, then when people apply for a license in a state, or when people sign for a fight -- let's say Oscar [De La Hoya] and Floyd [Mayweather Jr.]; they signed in December for a fight the next May -- the state where the fight is going to be could insist on part of the language in the contract stating that they can be tested at any time."
The experience of other sports suggests that even that kind of random, universal testing would not necessarily be enough to catch every user or stamp out steroid use.
"Look at the Olympic testing situation," said Fainaru-Wada. "They have year-round testing, unannounced, they have banned for life on your second positive, two-year ban on your first in track and field. That's a pretty substantial set of penalties." And yet, as repeated examples have shown, track athletes continue to test positive -- suggesting strongly that there are many more who are using performance-enhancing drugs who are still able to evade detection. During questioning by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in the wake of BALCO, said Fainaru-Wada, one track athlete told investigators that a field of eight elite female sprinters would include six who were juiced. A second sprinter disagreed. She said all eight would be users.
"You need to have the random testing as part of your arsenal," Pound said. "But the real future in the fight against drugs in sport is going to arise now that governments have adopted an international convention under UNESCO. And they're going to be able to use their investigative powers to go at the upstream side of things, the suppliers, and traffickers."
Nonetheless, before boxing can even begin to approach that stage, argue some, it at least needs to catch up to other sports in terms of testing.
ESPN.com's Mike Fish contributed to this report.
Kieran Mulvaney is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. He covers boxing for ESPN.com, Reuters and TigerBoxing.com.
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