ShysterBall quotes Victor Conte on the current state of drug use, but I think Craig misses the point. Conte said:
“I don’t believe competitive athletes are using designer steroids now. They’re too easily detected – they have too many red flags. As soon as you use them you send a signal to your body to stop producing its own testosterone and they can flag that. Now, they just use low-dose testosterone. The safest thing is to stay below the testing ratio.”
Which elicited this response from Craig (emphasis added):
If there’s any truth to this — and say what you want about Conte, but he’s not an idiot about these things — it suggests that, contrary to the assumptions of many, athletes aren’t moving on to more and more exotic PEDs in their oft-repeated effort to “stay one step ahead of the anti-doping authorities.” They’ve stepped back, and as a result, the PED influence in sports is diminishing.
I don’t agree. I always thought that one of the advantages of making steroids legal under a doctor’s care would be a reduction in the dose taken by athletes. The birth control pill is a great example of a drug that started off with a very high dose, but as researchers learned more, they were able to reduce the dose and still get the same effect. My guess is a low dose of testosterone is still pretty good at making an athlete recover faster from a workout, meaning they can work more and build more muscle. Maybe they won’t be supermen, but players will be stronger and more durable than they would be naturally.
Posted by David Pinto at 4:30 pm | Cheating | Permalink | No Comments
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