Charles Yesalis, one of the leading experts on anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs, recently admitted to the New York Times that he enjoyed the 2012 London Olympics in spite of the likely use of steroids by many of the athletes. Yesalis knows the truth about steroids in sports and he knows that steroid use is still widespread regardless of what you may hearing from anti-doping administrators.
“If you’re asking me if I feel guilty watching it, the answer is no,” said Yesalis. “I just take it with several blocks of salt, not a grain of salt. I know what’s behind the curtain when Toto pulls it back, and I know what the wizard looks like.”
Yesalis is a professor emeritus of health policy and exercise science at Penn State. He has co-edited two comprehensive steroid referene books with the publication of “Anabolic Steroids in Sport and Exercise” and “Performance Enhancing Substances in Sport and Exercise.” Yesalis has also been cited extensively in the scientific literature with over 60 journal articles published under his name.
How does Yesalis justify his enjoyment of the steroid-tainted Olympics? He doesn’t pretend that sports are clean; he recognizes that PED use is widespread. But he also believes that there is a level playing field for the most part.
“People have asked me for years, ‘How clean is Lance Armstrong?’ I said I think he is as clean as the other 50 guys in the peloton,” said Yesalis. “I just assumed that Phelps and all the rest of them are pretty much equally clean — or not clean. It’s a relatively level playing field.”
While few people know more about steroids and its ubiquity in elite sports than Yesalis, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) are not likely to be big fans of Yesalis.
Yesalis thinks that WADA and USADA are a failure. In over 50 years of steroid testing, he doesn’t feel that any meaningful progress has been made towards eliminating steroids and PEDs from sports. Consequently, Yesalis believes that WADA and USADA should be banned.
Source:
Rhoden, W. (August 5, 2012). Enjoying the Games, Despite What May Be Behind the Curtain. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/sports/olympics/savoring-olympic-games-despite-their-history-of-doping.html
