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Steve Williams
3rd December 2000, 23:18
Want to know how they did the drug testing in the Olympics, and what drugs are prevalent in what sports, then http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/flash/0,5860,366056,00.html or http://www.olympic.org/ioc/e/news/wada/wada_intro_e.html

Does it have any discernable effect, or are people always going to find better (less detectable) drugs and performence enhancers??

MarkF
4th December 2000, 09:58
Some people never quit. They are eternally searching for the short cut that, while may help in the short run, it can kill in the end.

Not too long ago, I ran into what I thought was a new problem with competitive judo. I saw a post on the message board at the IJF site, seeminly asking for help. It was a young college student in Germany, but what I found was pretty shocking, as I had never run in to this problem. The weight categories have a lot to do with it. Eating disorders, while they do have physical pathology, are beginning to take hold in international judo. Binging and purging, anorexia, are terrible diseases, made worse for utterly the wrong reasons. And it is spreading, as it has in wrestling (freestyle, GR).

This problem seems especially chronic in women's judo, but, like wrestling, it shouldn't surprise, I suppose.

I do like what bodybuilding has done though. When there is a large tournament, they have a "natural" and a PE (performanced enhanced) division. Those who will always find a way, can kill themselves and still compete. Those who don't, have no reason to enhance now.

Have you looked at the banned substances list put out by the IAAF? It is scary, believe me, and not everything is listed. Home urine and/or blood testing (unannounced) is common. I have friends who are Olympic Track and Field athletes, and neither even goes to a medical doctor, for fear of treatment or prescriptions which are banned, and don't know it. Instead, they use TCM and Chiropractic tratements, but nothing which will end up in the blood or urine. Some over the counter vitamins, things one would take for overall good health, are banned!

BTW: This is done all year, every year until one retires. A gold medal winning gymnast had one of her medals taken because the doctor at the games in Sydney gave her a cold remedy before the test, but after the event was over. Simple nasal sprays contain amphetamine-like decongestants (amphetamines are also decongestants for the nose and lungs), so even the innocent get caught up in it without trying. Makes the games even more unappealing.

As to the problems in the judo community, IE, eating disorders, one way of dealing with it, is not to hold events as the IJF proscribes to. There is no rule anywhere which forces tournament competitions to be held the way they are in international events. Here, in New Mexico, none are run that way, but those which are geared toward possible international events. They are held the old way; no point scoring, osaekomi is still thirty seconds for ippon, and waza ari and ippon, plus submission are the only way one may win. Judoka are lined up in two groups from the shortest to the tallest, and by rank.

In other words, no one is holding the proverbial gun to your head. I like it that way. I suppose we can hold off the "win-at-all-cost" attitude for a while, anyway.

Mark