Amateur Athletes and Performance Enhancers

brian on 2006.10.30
at 10:25 pm

Fascinating story about an amateur athlete who decided to conduct an experiment: try out all the popular performance enhancing drugs that the athletes use… and see how a normal person reacts.

Drug Test – A Cautionary Tale

Everybody knows that many athletes cheat by using performance-enhancing drugs like steroids, testosterone, and EPO. But what is it like to take these banned substances? Do they really help you win? To find out, Outside Magazine sent an amateur cyclist into the back rooms of sports medicine, where he just said yes to the most controversial chemicals in sports.

“OK,” the doctor said when we settled into his examination room. “What do you want to be?”

I looked confused, so he explained.

“You want to be bigger? Leaner? Faster longer or faster shorter? More overall endurance? You want to see better?”

“See better?”

“Human growth hormone does that for some people. It improves the muscles in the eyes.” He tried again: “So, what do you want?”

(via Kottke )

Posted in: Sports