Performance enhancing drugs

[Andy]

Watching Untold: Hall of Shame at the moment which is about the PED scandals around the turn of the century, focusing largely on athletics and baseball. What’s your opinion on how they should be treated?

In an ideal world there wouldn’t be any but we also know how few people seem to get caught (Icarus is a wonderful documentary on it too) and when they do they say that everyone is doing it.

Should it be punished as heavily as it is? How can it be regulated better? Is Barry Bonds an hall of famer?

 

[shortkut]

The funny thing is, Bonds would be a hall of famer even if you remove his juiced numbers.

I think they should be in the hall, with a disclaimer about what they did. It is a part of baseball history

 

[Andy]

Right. It took him from being an outstanding player to one of the best of all time but if he’d retired before the steroid seasons he’d probably be in.

 

[Jawneh]

I've played a thought exercise with PEDs and comparing them to things like teams/individuals with more money in equipment sports. Unless you got a once in a life time genius athlete, even an average person can be raised up to being a formidable competitor in a matter of a couple of seasons. Even something as simple as cross country skiing. A team with a new proprietary Teflon-like coating on their skis and a secret blend of Astroglide will do better than the next one that still rubs candle stick to theirs. Can the latter still win? Sure, if they can physically bridge the equipment gap.

So are PEDs just something that could be considered "equipment" in sports that aren't fully equipment sports? The main argument against PEDs, or doping in general, has been safety. If we do not consider ODing, you'd think that better equipment can make things safer. And if doping was changed from being banned to being controlled, wouldn't that level the playing field as different PEDs affect different people in varying degrees, as in bringing out each individuals potential. Just as a note, caffeine is only a controlled PED with a limit to how much you can have present in your urine.

 

[Jon]

The funny thing is, Bonds would be a hall of famer even if you remove his juiced numbers.

I think they should be in the hall, with a disclaimer about what they did. It is a part of baseball history

Good thing baseball does plaques not busts like Canton. I'd say he can be in but only if they do two busts, before and after.

 

[Mark]

I've played a thought exercise with PEDs and comparing them to things like teams/individuals with more money in equipment sports. Unless you got a once in a life time genius athlete, even an average person can be raised up to being a formidable competitor in a matter of a couple of seasons. Even something as simple as cross country skiing. A team with a new proprietary Teflon-like coating on their skis and a secret blend of Astroglide will do better than the next one that still rubs candle stick to theirs. Can the latter still win? Sure, if they can physically bridge the equipment gap.

So are PEDs just something that could be considered "equipment" in sports that aren't fully equipment sports? The main argument against PEDs, or doping in general, has been safety. If we do not consider ODing, you'd think that better equipment can make things safer. And if doping was changed from being banned to being controlled, wouldn't that level the playing field as different PEDs affect different people in varying degrees, as in bringing out each individuals potential. Just as a note, caffeine is only a controlled PED with a limit to how much you can have present in your urine.

I don’t know enough about the science and chemistry regarding it to really have a valid opinion… but treating it as equipment would be a lot more of a sound argument if it wasn’t for the psychological and physical issues that come with the use of stuff like anabolic steroids for example… I had a friend who was self-conscious about being on the shorter and skinnier side. He tried different protein-heavy diets, exercise regimens, etc. His metabolism just wouldn’t hold onto the weight, and he was in his mid-20’s still saying that he was “built like a pre-pubescent boy” for lack of a better phrasing myself. He went through the whole gauntlet we’ve heard about… from the “roid rage” to him facing the reality that his testicles have shrunken. Dude STILL isn’t back to “normal” yet, and he’s been off of them for years. He’s on all kinds of antidepressants now, along with hormone supplements. That alone makes it hard for me to consider it like equipment… or sticky hands… or anything down those lines.