The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has published what they call a “groundbreaking research report” about the perception of sports in the United States. Discovery Education conducted the survey which was paid for by the USADA.
USADA, whose activities are funded in large part by taxpayers via federal government grants, no doubt hopes that their research helps justify the need to allocate taxpayer dollars to fight doping in sports. [Read more…]
The Road Warriors revolutionized the business of professional wrestling by introducing massive, bodybuilding-type muscularity to pro wrestling. Hawk (Mike Hegstrand) and Animal (Joe Laurinaitis) were two bodybuilders-powerlifters who succeeded in becoming one of the most successful tag teams in the history of pro wrestling. Laurinaitis collaborated with Andrew William Wright to recount his memoirs in “The Road Warriors: Danger, Death and the Rush of Wrestling”.
Joe “Animal” Laurinaitis acknowledged the use of anabolic steroids by the Road Warriors but downplays the importance of steroids as a contributor to the success of the tag team. Laurinaitis also downplays the side effects of steroids explaining the steroids are unfairly demonized. [Read more…]
Congressman Jack Kingston (R-Ga) questioned the importance of the government witch-hunt that has targeted celebrity athletes accused of steroids after a budget hearing for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Kingston is the Subcommittee Chairman in the House Appropriations Committee who is responsible for directing government spending for the FDA.
FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg appeared before the subcommittee to ask for more money to carry out the tasks of the FDA but Kingston questioned how effectively the FDA was prioritizing their current spending. Kingston talked to Nate Vinton of the New York Daily News about the FDA’s misguided focus on pursuing Lance Armstrong suggesting that the FDA does not have its priorities straight. [Read more…]
Government prosecutors want to use a series of eleven voice messages left by baseball home run champion Barry Bonds for his mistress as supporting evidence of steroid use. Former Playboy model Kimberley Bell collected the eleven voice mails over the course of a decade between 1994 and 2003. Bonds does not admit to using steroids nor are steroids ever discussed. Instead, Bonds allegedly sounds irritated in the voice mails that he could not reach Bell. Since Bonds was irritated, he must have used steroids, right? The government wants to introduce the voice messages to bolster their argument that Bonds knowingly used steroids and lied about it under oath. [Read more…]
Athletes in all sports are constantly seeking methods to enhance performance. Their search often takes them beyond performance-enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids and human growth hormone. Most recently, mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters have been turning to plastic surgery for a competitive advantage. Performance enhancement via plastic surgery is informed by a detailed knowledge of the nature of cuts.
The nature of MMA leads fighters to suffer multiple facial lacerations over the course of their career. Once a fighter experiences cuts, they become increasingly more susceptible to future cuts compared to younger fighters who have never or rarely been cut before. The increased likelihood of being cut occurs for several reasons including the development of scar tissue and also improperly sutured wounds. If doctors only suture the superficial layer of the skin, then the underlying tissue does not always heal properly. [Read more…]
The United States government has called upon the shoe experts at Nike to prove to a jury that baseball superstar Barry Bonds used anabolic steroids. Has Nike created a new anti-doping shoe that detects steroid use when a doped athlete wears them? Well, not exactly. The federal government has subpoenaed a Nike employee to talk about Bonds’ feet. The employee has inside knowledge about the shoes that Bonds wore and is expected to testify that Bonds went from a smaller to a larger shoe size.
Why are Barry Bonds’ feet relevant? Is the government trying to win over a jury by hoping they have certain fetishes? Foot size? Testicle size? Head size? What else? Why not speculate about Bonds’ nipples too? Certainly, they could throw in that body part justifying it with the link between steroids and gynecomastia! Seriously, this type of testimony is about the best the government has to offer in the Barry Bonds steroids-perjury trial. [Read more…]
Rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who was accused of using steroids by the Albany Union-Times newspaper, recently accused boxer Manny Pacquiao of using anabolic steroids in a series of messages posted on Twitter. Jackson was hanging out with his good friend boxer Floyd Mayweather while in Miami to promote the premier of Jackson’s new film, “Things Fall Apart”, at the Miami Film Festival. A much anticipated “super fight” between Mayweather and Pacquiao was originally delayed last year after Mayweather insisted on “Olympic-style” steroid testing. [Read more…]
Slate Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of a subcutaneous pellet delivery system for the anabolic steroid testosterone, announced that it is sponsoring professional golfer Doug Barron. Barron is the only professional golfer to have been banned by the PGA Tour for violating its anti-doping policy. [Read more…]
Operation Curse has resulted in the arrest of a former pro cyclist who allegedly sold various performance-enhancing drugs to both bodybuilders and cyclists in the Catalunia province of Spain. Jordi Riera, who rode in the 2003 Giro d’Italia, was one of seven who were detained and charged with the trafficking of doping products.
Police raided five residences and seized various performance-enhancing drugs such as clenbuterol, nandrolone, trenbolone, human growth hormone (HGH) and erythropoeitin (EPO). [Read more…]
David Howman, the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), seems to think that clenbuterol is an anabolic steroid. He also thinks that the illegal status of heroin makes it less profitable than anabolic steroids that are often legally available for therapeutic purposes. Howman is shocked that steroids are used to enhance growth in livestock apparently oblivious to the widespread use of hormones for this purpose over the past few decades [Read more…]
