Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Drug use in sports on rise

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

Wednesday, June 30, 1999

Drug use in sports on rise
Conference examines trend among pro, amateur athletes
By Thomas O'Toole
Scripps Howard News Service

ARLINGTON, Va. - Use of performance-enhancing drugs is on the increase at all levels of athletics, particularly high school, and the public's thirst for entertainment is in part fueling that growth, a conference of sports officials and administrators was told this week.
   "I deal with the dark side of sports," said Dr. Charles Yesaus, a professor and researcher at Penn State University. "There is a continued expansion of drug use in elite sport. It has exploded and is in more sports.
   "I don't think the fans care. They want to be entertained."
   Yesaus appeared on a panel at a two-day conference on "The Sports Culture in the New Millennium" sponsored by the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance. The meeting ends Tuesday with an awards luncheon that will honor such athletes as Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs, Avery Johnson of the San Antonio Spurs, Frank Sanders of the Arizona Cardinals and Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee for their sportsmanship and public service.
   The Citizenship Through Sports Alliance includes such groups as the NCAA, the U.S. Olympic Committee, the National Federation of State High School Associations and the major U.S. pro baseball, football, basketball and hockey leagues.
   Yesaus supported his case with recent examples such as the number of Chinese women swimmers caught using performance-enhancing drugs, the Canadian snowboarder who tested positive for marijuana at the 1998 Olympics, the problems on the professional cycling circuit, the recent suspension of Irish Olympian Michelle Smith for drugs and the expanded use of androstendione - a supplement favored by St. Louis slugger Mark McGwire among others.
   "Andro is only a supplement by a legal loophole," said Yesaus. "It's an anabolic steroid."
   Yesaus said he "can accept" the public's apathy about drugs on the professional level "if that's the way our society wants to be entertained." But he added, "What I can't accept is use by our children."
   About 375,000 high school male athletes and 175,000 female athletes have experimented with steroids, Yesaus said. Since 1990, steroid use by high school girls has doubled.
   "I continually see denial," said Yesaus. "It's always somebody else's high school."
   Yesaus also said the United States has an international reputation as being "dirty." Dick Schultz, executive director of the USOC who also appeared on the panel, said that reputation was basically a flawed perception. Because the USOC gets no government funding, he said, it conducts its own drug tests through independent labs. Most other countries have their drug programs administered by the government.
   "The rest of the world seems to feel like the foxes are in the hen house," Schultz said. "We use IOC-sanctioned labs at UCLA and Indiana University, and if there is a positive test, it is reported immediately. ... You have to remember there are a lot of countries who just look to take a slap at the U.S."
   A bigger problem, Schultz said, is improving technology so the drug testers can catch up with the drug takers.
   "The cheaters have been ahead of the good guys for years," he said. "Right now, there are a number of drugs we can't test for. It's a big guessing game.
   "And if you test only at events, you'll only catch the dumb ones."
   Schultz disagreed with Yesaus when it comes to public interest - at least in the Olympics. He believes fans do care that the sport is clean.
   "If the public feels every Olympic athlete is using some kind of drugs," he said, "then the Olympic movement will die overnight."
   (Thomas O'Toole is sports editor of Scripps Howard News Service.)

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |