The history of athletes using drugs goes back to before World War II. The Nazis supposedly tested anabolic steroids on prisoners and even Adolf Hitler. In 1954, a Soviet doctor admitted that he gave the power-lifting team testosterone injections. In 1960, Sports Illustrated published Our Drug-Happy Athletes which detailed the use of amphetamines, tranquilizers, cocaine, and other drugs in sports. Nine years later, Sports Illustrated did a three-part investigation about performance-enhancing drugs in sports. Sources predicted that the use of drugs would explode into an epidemic. In what now is seen as eerily prophetic, Los Angeles Dodgers team doctor Robert Kerlan said then, "The excessive and secretive use of drugs is likely to become a major athletic scandal, one that will shake public confidence...." How true that would soon become.
In 1973 and 1976, the East German women's swimming teams dominated at the World Championships and at the Montreal Olympics. In 1975, the IOC added anabolic steroids to its banned substances list. At the 1988 Olympics, sprinter Ben Johnson's gold medal in the 100 meters is stripped and his record time is deleted from the books after a urine sample has the anabolic steroid Stanozol in it. Female sprinter Marion Jones won five medals at the 2000 Olympics but was later stripped of those medals when she admitted to taking PEDs. She served six months in prison after pleading guilty of lying to federal agents.
Baseball would soon fall victim when in 2002, Ken Caminitti admitted to taking steroids in 1996. Jose Canseco admitted in his book in 2005 that he took steroids and they were also used by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. The Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball was released in December 2007 where Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte drew the most attention. Clemens' personal trainer testified that he injected HGH and testosterone into Clemens on numerous occasions. The company BALCO and its founder Victor Conte are thrust into the spotlight when it is revealed that the company made and distributed an undetectable steroid. Several athletes including Jones and Barry Bonds are subpoenaed to testify. Bonds, despite being the current home run king, has denied using any steroids.
What has become painfully clear is that today's athletes want that extra edge to be better than everyone else. Feats like Lance Armstrong's and Barry Bonds' eventually fall victim to scrutiny as is any other remarkable feat or achievement. No sport is immune to the effects of steroids when even cyclists are doing it. Steps have been taken to curb its use and punish those who abuse the rules. The damage, however, has been done as the athletes that we have looked up to are just cheaters. How damming is that? Is anything sacred anymore?
Excerpts for this blog taken from sportsillustrated.cnn.com
