BleacherCoaches.com

I think its getting a touch out of hand here. everyones pointing fingers at anyone who might have taken advil during a track meet. Its crazy, its hes doping this, or she took this drug and it made her faster. No one knows whos telling the truth anymore. Will it ever end, is there a way stop it?

Plus its taking up good space in ESPN the mag. that could be used to write a good article about some unknow kids team that did something special. Remember the one about the team from Minn. or somwhere cold like that, where it won the huge hockey tourney up there after not winning a game before then. A great article. good thing Balco didnt get ahold of that one.

Track and Field always looks bad when it comes to drug scandals and the reason is very simple.... they take the most proactive approach to catching the cheaters. Athletes must undergo year round random tests in addition to testing after meets during the season. Despite harsh penalties (an athlete can recieve a 2 year ban for a first offense...compare that with baseball) and a lifetime ban for a 2nd offense.

However, using steroids can make the difference between being a world record holder and being a top national athlete. A world record holder can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year while a national caliber athlete has virtually no name recognition whatsoever. So to many, the risk is worth taking.

Ever since the East Germans and Russians made the Olympics their mission to sell communist propoganda, steroids have been a major issue in T&F. The sad truth is the chemists for the cheaters have always stayed one step ahead of those trying to catch them.

One issue that could help, but not completely solve the problem is blood tests instead of urine tests. A drug called EPO was for many years only detected through blood tests, not urine tests. EPO by the way is not for the athletes trying to build bulk, it's for endurance athletes such as long distance runners and bike riders. It was intended for cancer patients so they could quickly rebuild the red blood cells they lost during treatment. However, athletes found it gave them a great boost of endurance while competing. It's probably no coincidence that distance records in T&F went nuts shortly after athletes found out what it could do for them. And it made it all the better that it could not be detected by urine samples.

All sports must establish strict penalties for those caught. I will say that at least T&F is trying harder than any other sport to catch those cheating.