Are Swimsuits Performance Enhancers?

In 2008, 108 swimming records were broken. Many were looking for an explanation as to how all the records were falling. During the Beijing Olympics, much attention was given to the new swimsuits created by Speedo. Some swimmers were wearing multiple swimsuits to increase their buoyancy during competition as Italian freestyler Federica Pellegrini wore two on her way to a gold medal in Beijing. It has been reported that some competitors have went with as many as three swimsuits looking for that competitive edge.


In an earlier post as to why athletes dope, athletes are always looking for an edge, real or perceived, legal or illegal, right or wrong. Even the average Joe is looking for an edge. Take Joe the Plumber from the 2008 presidential campaign. He didn't pay his taxes; whether right or wrong, he wanted to keep more of his money because he was greedy similar to these athletes' greed in driving them to take a "whatever means necessary" approach to “make it.”

In the world of swimming, the international governing body, FINA, has had enough of these shenanigans. On March 14th, they released a charter providing clarity on new international rules where technology and the number of suits will not be a factor in determining one's accomplishments. According to the charter:

• Swimsuits may no longer cover the neck or extend past the ankles or the shoulders.

• Swimmers may wear only one suit and will follow the body shape to avoid recent compression methods.

• Buoyancy and thickness will be measured by an independent testing team in Lausanne, Switzerland, led by Professor Jan-Anders Manson.

• All swimsuits, even those previously approved by FINA, must be submitted to the independent testing team by March 31.

The executive director of FINA, Cornel Marculescu, summed it up best when he told The New York Times, “Definitely the focus got to be too much on the technology instead of on natural development. The most important thing is we keep our values, and our values are the values of athletes, which is their physical preparation and effort."

The values of all athletes and the common Joe are what we, as a society, have been getting away from as we pursue what we think is going to be greatness. When others see what decisions these athletes made to achieve that greatness, only then will people have to reexamine their own values and allow us to experience the great moral awakening.

USA Track to Pay for Performance

After USA Track & Field laid an egg at the Beijing Games this past summer winning only seven gold medals, Doug Logan, the organization's CEO, has a plan to bring glory back to the team: pay for performance.

Logan recommended paying a $15,000 bonus to those who achieved personal bests (PR) at the Games and a $5,000 bonus to those for a PR during the season. If those athletes win medals at the Games, those payments are assumed to be in addition to awards the United States Olympic Committee already hands out: $25,000 to gold-medal winners, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze.

Will this new financial incentive lead to more doping in track & field? Probably. This new financial incentive for optimal performance has increased the temptation to dope and collect a possible $40,000 payment. Athletes may be swayed to load up on PED's. Previous World Fastest Men have come under scrutiny and Marion Jones has admitted to being a fraud...in chasing the all mighty dollar.

When Did Jamaica Become the Sprint Capital of the World?

After having time to digest the Beijing Olympics, I'm left wondering the same thing: when did Jamaica, a nation of 2.8 million people, dominate both men and women sprinting?

When Jamaica swept the women's 100 meters the night after Jamaica's Usain Bolt become the World's Fastest Man (WFM), something didn't feel right. It didn't help that the Shelly-Ann Fraser, the winner of the 100m with a time of 10.78, didn't have a time under 11 seconds until this year. Another flag that came up: Fraser was sporting braces. High levels of HGH use include teeth gapping. Fraser is 21, comes from the inner city in Kingston and it's clear that she's going through braces later on in life. She is also a member of the Stephen Francis coached MVP Track Club based at the University of Technology.

The defending world champion in the 100m, Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown, did not even qualify for the Olympics, yet ran the fastest 4th place qualifying time in the 100m. Campbell-Brown is not coached by Francis nor is part of the MVP Track Club. Another development that makes Fraser's performance in Beijing so unbelievable, is that per The Jamaica Observer in August 2007, she was "really looking ahead to the 2012 games in London, England, where she is picturing herself winning the 100m gold medal." The '08 games were not even a possibility less than a year ago. What changed so quickly in that time period for Fraser?

Looking at the world champion Veronica Campbell-Brown's yearly progression in the 100m, the biggest yearly decline was .37 of a second when she was 17 going on to 18. Since achieving a yearly personal best under 11 seconds in 2004, it has wavered .14 a second between 10.99 and 10.85 seconds. Her progression appears normal while Fraser came out of nowhere and was targeting the Olympics four years from now.

Jamaican women's sprinting history begins and ends with Merlene Ottey, the "Queen of Track." She has won medals at the Olympics for Jamaica in the 100m starting in 1984 through 2000. How is that longevity possible? No male had such a streak. During that period, there was some controversy involving PED's. In 1999 at an international meet in Switzerland, both "A" and "B" urine samples were positive for the steroid nandrolone. She claimed she was innocent of knowingly taking steroids. Eventually, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) cleared Ottey of all charges in the summer of 2000. In 1998, she already had moved to Slovenia and began training with Slovene coach Srdjan Djordjevic while still representing Jamaica, but started representing her new country in 2002.

As for the men and Usain Bolt, everything has been said that needs to be said: unbelievable. When comparisons are being made to Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton, we're getting way ahead of ourselves...easy Stephen Francis, coach of MVP Track Club. Everyone wants to believe they saw history on the track, much like in the summer of '98 when McGwire and Sosa were chasing "history." We're a society of suckers. The X-Files was right: We want to believe.

The problem occurs when Ben Johnson, Justin Gatlin and Marion Jones amazed us with their superhuman accomplishments, vowed that they were clean and then ended up serving doping suspensions. A reporter from the New York Times reported that the way to beat the urine test is to drop a grain of powdered laundry detergent since it will destroy EPO and HGH in the sample. With the positives not nearly matching the expectations, it looks like the cheaters are once again ahead of the testers.

Will the Jamaicans continue to dominate sprinting on the world stage or is this a temporary blip? When the women's world champion doesn't even qualify for the Olympics and then the country sweeps the 100m, I'd say they have the women's side locked up for the near future. With Bolt, everyone else is racing for second. Will other sprinters be tempted to dope to bridge the gap to catch up to Bolt? Wait and see.

Olympics: Another Arguement for Roided Athletes

It seems every 4 years at the Summer Olympics, someone will come out and support athletes having the freedom to roid out of their minds. If that ever does happen, bad news for the maker of the Whizzinator.

This year that argument comes from the New York Times' John Tierney. In his article, "Let the Games Be Doped", he describes the evolution of the Olympic athlete from the amateur to natural athletes, "untainted by technology". The amateur myth died and the natural myth "is becoming so far-fetched — and potentially dangerous — that some scientists and ethicists would like to abandon it, too". He also points out that anti doping authorities have created a culture of suspicion and claims that some tests, specifically for synthetic testosterone, are unreliable. He also warns that if athletes have moved from normal doping to gene doping, the authorities will have more problems catching these types of cheaters.

What would happen if athletes were allowed to do anything to excel? If athletes were allowed to shoot beef roids into their eyeballs, professional sport leagues and the Olympics would turn into pure entertainment. The athletes would look like professional wrestlers. Instead of being amazed by Michael Phelps's 12,000 caloric intake days, the media would be following his roid regime.

Would athletes even honestly discuss what they were taking and where they obtained their drugs? Doubtful, why level the playing field - that's one of the reasons athletes roid up, to get an advantage over the competition. Now the real race occurs off the field - who has the best roid connection. Imagine if Bob Costas chose to interview Dara Torres' chemist rather than her. The scientists and chemists would love to see this happen, because then they, not the athletes, would get all the attention. Rather than MLB's slogan back in the day, "Chicks Dig the Long Ball", the new slogan will be: "Chicks Dig the Chemists".

Olympic PED Preview

With the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics a day away, a PED preview is in order.

According to the Chinese Anti-doping Agency, China has conducted over 5,000 doping tests on its Olympic candidates in the past several months. At the same time, the State Food and Drug watchdog has increased their control over the production, use, distribution, import and export of prohibited substances according to officials last week. This is a step in the right direction for the host country, but will the outside world believe everything and/or anything from the government controlled press?

This Olympiad will mark the first where testing methods are in place to detect the use of human growth hormone (HGH). The benefits of HGH include boosting strength and speeding recovery. The new test will track HGH use beyond 48 hours.

At the Sydney Games in 2000, there were 12 positive doping violations out of 2,500 urine tests for a 0.48% positive instance per test. In 2004, at the Athens Games, the most doping violations in Olympic history occurred with 26. There were an estimated 3,375 tests conducted for a 0.77% positive instance per test. The positive instance occurrence per test jumped 60% from 2000 to 2004. If this trend continues, there will be a 1.23% positive instance per test or approximately 55 athletes testing positive at these Games.

In a poll on this blog, the highest number of athletes to be busted for PED's at the Games (8.8 - 24.08) were 21-25 (12% of respondents). The highest possible answer was greater than 25. International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge expects up to 40 athletes to be caught doping at these games. 40 athletes would represent a 54% increase in the number of athletes caught doping from the Athens Games. Rogge's prediction is based on the increased testing and improved quality of urinalysis.

Already doping has ended the Olympic dreams of 20 athletes from all over the world and from sports as diverse as race walking, swimming, middle distance running and weight lifting. Notable athletes banned from competition include:

• Yelena Soboleva, Russian world record holder and favorite in the 800 and 1,500 meters


• Jessica Hardy, American swimmer tested positive for clenbuterol


• Song Hongjuan, Chinese race walker


• The entire Bulgarian weight lifting team (11 members in total male and female)

The Olympic doping testing period began July 27th and runs until the Games end. Let the Games begin.

Jessica Hardy Fails Test for Substance that Ensnared Trainer

U.S. swimmer Jessica Hardy tested positive for the banned stimulant clenbuterol last week and is in the process of expedited arbitration proceedings to see whether she can swim at the Olympics next month. Clenbuterol is a bronchodilator belonging to a class of drugs known as beta-2 agonists. It is similar to albuterol which is one medication that Dara Torres currently uses legally by having a therapeutic use exemption (TUE). Unlike albuterol, no TUE's are permitted for clenbuterol because clenbuterol and zilpaterol are considered anabolic agents.

Clenbuterol has also been mentioned here when Big Brown trainer, Rick Dutrow's horse, Salute the Count, tested positive for two times the allowable amount back in May. The drug is an approved medication in horse racing used primarily as a bronchial dilator, which increases lung capacity.

I'll float two possible scenarios to explain Hardy's positive test:

One, Hardy has asthma, a TUE and accidentally grabbed the "wrong" inhaler which led to the positive test on July 4th while tests on July 1st and 6th were negative.

Two, as Gary Hall Jr. said earlier that the sport was adopting "entertainment morals" perhaps Hardy could speculate that a teammate sabotaged her asthma medication with the banned stimulant. If that type of reality tv shenanigans occurred, that would draw more interest to the pool and provide a whodunit element ensuring everyone on the team received their 15 minutes of fame...Now that would be entertaining.

Dara Torres is on PED's...Legally

NBC is pinning its ratings hopes for the Beijing Games on the momentum surrounding the unbelievable story of 41-year old swimmer Dara Torres. After her World Record performance at the Olympic Trials, it is now speculated that she will be the flag bearer at the Opening Ceremonies on 08.08.08.

Skeptics have questioned how it is possible that she swam faster this year than 20 years ago. Other recent athletes whose performance improved in their 40's were aided by PED's, most notably Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds.

This performance is made possible by the financial resources available to an ex-model and the daughter of the one-time owner of the Aladdin casino (along with Wayne Newton) combined with her Type A personality devotion to training, according to a piece in the New York Times. She reportedly spends over $100,000 a year on a bevy of coaches (head, sprint and strength) and receives additional support from two stretchers, two masseuses, a chiropractor and a nanny.

It turns out, this performance is possible in part (and what NBC and the rest of mainstream media fails to inform the public) by performance enhancing drugs. Torres' has a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for Symbicort (active ingredient formoterol) and Proventil (active ingredient albuterol) to treat asthma which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's 2008 Prohibited List under Beta - 2 Agonists. Unusual in Torres' case, her asthmatic condition was diagnosed only 18 months ago.

Amy Van Dyken, a former gold medalist swimmer, suffers from asthma. In a 1999 CNN online chat, Van Dyken admitted to using a "Ventilin (active ingredient albuterol) inhaler every day as needed. I'm on a Flovent (active ingredient fluticasone) inhaler twice a day; I'm on Serevent (active ingredient salmeterol) inhaler twice a day and a bunch of other stuff." She went on to win two Gold Medals in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Two of the medications mentioned are beta 2 agonists, but these drugs were not banned until September 2001. Van Dyken was also forced to testify to the BALCO grand jury in 2003. Gary Hall Jr., a former teammate of Van Dyken, recently questioned the validity of her accomplishments by comparing her to Marion Jones. Hall also doubts that the sport is clean. He is aware that the dopers will always be in front of the testers. Hall said, "This sport has become entertainment and it has taken on the morals of the entertainment industry where you can cut corners - and cheaters do prosper." Van Dyken has never tested positive for any PED.

Asthma and sports is a topic that no one wants to address. Why do more Olympic athletes suffer from asthma than the general population? Among athletes surveyed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 10% took asthma medications yet only 1% of the general population suffers from asthma. The number of Australian Olympians calling themselves asthmatic jumped from 10% to 21% in 12 years. In the Winter Olympics the number of people using asthmatic drugs is much greater. According to the late International Olympic Committee (IOC) medical chief Alexander de Merode, 70 to 80 percent of the athletes are using asthmatic drugs. The question is why this abnormality when it comes to Olympic athletes and the logical answer is that the substances used to treat asthma improves performance.

Changes to the asthma assessment regarding the use of beta - 2 agonists were made in 2001 by the IOC after some disturbing trends were discovered at the 2000 Sydney Games. There was a large increase in the number of athletes notifying the panel of the need to inhale a beta-2-agonist at the 2000 Sydney Games and ironically enough the notifications were predominantly requested in endurance sports. It was at this time that TUE's would be granted for beta - 2 agonists.

Per the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) website, the criteria for granting a TUE include an athlete experiencing significant health problems without taking the prohibited substance and the use of the substance would not produce significant enhancement of performance. In Torres case, was she really experiencing "significant health problems without taking the prohibited substance" 18 months ago? What about two, five, ten and twenty years ago? Given her unlimited financial resources, one would think that a proper diagnosis of asthma would have been detected years ago. It would appear that the use of the substance did factor into her Olympic Trials performance. Now it is up to WADA to determine if the substance was a "significant enhancement of performance."

I raised both these issues with an official at WADA, but never received a response. In addition, I inquired whether WADA periodically reviews TUE's and has the ability to revoke a TUE during the year.

Everyone wants to believe in the unbelievable - that's entertainment. However, we are discussing international athletic competition, not entertainment. The public is under the impression that what it witnesses is pure and genuine. Lately, the public's trust in the pure and genuine of sport has crumbled with the fall from grace of Marion Jones, Barry Bonds and Floyd Landis. Before we get sucked into NBC and mainstream media's hype machine, let's analyze the facts: Torres admits to using banned substances, but has in essence a "doctor's note" by having a TUE saying that she needs the medication. In order to qualify for a TUE, one needs to demonstrate that significant health problems would occur without it and that her use of it is not performance enhancing. This condition developed 18 months ago despite having the financial resources to see the best doctors and receive the best treatment throughout her life.

If that's all she's using then legally she's clean, but morally is another story.

Olympics Loses a Team to Doping

The competition for Olympic men's and women's weight lifting just got a little more interesting when an entire country was banned from competing in the sport.

The entire Bulgarian weight lifting team - 8 men and 3 women - was banned from the Olympics after testing positive for the banned steroid, methandienonea, in early June according to a statement from the Bulgarian weight lifting federation. This is not the first time Bulgarian weight lifters have been ensnared in a doping scandal. Three Bulgarian weight lifters were barred from the Athens Games. At the 1988 and 2000 Olympics, several Bulgarian weight lifters returned their medals when they failed doping tests after their events.

What's unique about this instance is that officials did not even wait for due process. All the positive results were from the "A" samples. If "A" is positive, the "B" sample is tested to validate the test. This was not done in this case.

Doping and weight lifting does not just go down in Bulgaria. Greece also had 11 weight lifters banned for two years for testing positive for a steroid in March. Luckily for Greece, not everyone on the team was doping (or at least not caught) since they are sending a team of four weight lifters over to compete in the Games.

Don't expect much from the Greek weight lifting team this year, but at least they will make it to the Games which is more than can be said about the Bulgarian team.