Let us not sneer at Euro's for PEDs now

Triathlon Forum
1

In biking, particularly, or in any endurance sports, including triathlons.

Although some of the US track stars have sporadically been caught using steriods the last 20 years, most of Americans attention span on this is seasonal, and an issue only to be thought about during summer olympics.

I think for many sports fans in the US, the stereotype is, that only these euro-biker freaks are juicing up, in these bike sports over there—a sport many Americans care nothing for.

About the only time “DRUGS” in sports comes up, in when our pride is at stake. Like for example, when its the Olympics. Then, for many Americans, they believe that the East Germans are all juiced up, the Chinese are cheating and on drugs, the Australians are probably cheating if they beat us in anything, anybody beating us, from some republic with a “stan” at the end of its name is on drugs and is cheating. Wait a minute. And everybody from Russia is cheating, even if they come in 6th place. Put somebody on a podium above us in an international race, and that person is the most cheating, drug taking bastard on the planet, and that’s the ONLY reason why that son of a bitch beat an american. If you shook him down, needles and blood packs might fall out, they’d think.

And, we are just so merry and glad, like Doris Freaking Day, that it ain’t over here all over the place in our sports, like it is in Europe.

Well, holy cow. Check this out for a second.

The US’s own national past time (professional baseball) refuses, and has refused through its own player’s union to block effective steriod or PED testing on its own players. I said “use” because the players union have yet to agree to allow for regular, effective testing, and, therefore, the assumption one can make here, is that, although maybe not every player uses or has used PEDs, the union knows many of them have, and just are protecting many multi-million dollar players, from exposure.

In point of fact, the European Cycling Federation are years and years ahead of the US. The United States has one of the largest, most powerful, most sanctioned enclaves of illegal doping in the athletic world!

And here’s the barn door kicker. Not very many people in the country really care.

2

I don’t know how anyone could argue that the Euros are any worse than Americans…

3

I just see the fact that there are people that cheat by taking PEDs all over the world in all types of sports and from all countries!

4

Agreed, let us sneer at them for all those other reasons…such as the size of their swimming suits and that they still smoke in elevators.

5

Sorry, I have no idea what you are talking about… I have been an American for 34 years, and I have never assumed that anyone that beat an American was on drugs, and I have never know anyone that has expressed this opinion.

6

Indeed, but don’t forget the good there too. Such as their cuisine, fashion, cultural history and Nutella :wink:

7

I think what boothrand is saying is that many Americans may still be caught up in the Rocky IV mentality… American athletes suceed through hard work 'cause America is the land of opportunity, and many foreigners who live in “lawless, war-torn, soviet-block” (that is not meant to be serious, just what many people misperceive) are juiced up. People love to believe in the Rocky vs. Drago type mentality anytime an American athlete is involved. Not true of all people. But I will agree with boothrand that is a not uncommon sentiment.

8

No offense Booth but what are you talking about?

PEDs have been a well established part of our proffesional sports for many many years. Estimates have been made that 50-75% or more of NFL players, our biggest sport, take or have taken steroids. Does anybody for a second think that Barry Bonds isn’t juiced. Look at him. He looks like he has Cushing’s Syndrome.

It’s nothing new or even remotely shocking. Just confirmation of what we already know.

And Tyler. Sure he’s small and unthreatening and seems like a nice guy but he’s a guilty cheater and he deserves what he gets.

9

Oh, I get it now. Americans are still living in the '80’s, still think there is an East Germany, USSR, etc. They also believed Rocky IV was a documentary…

Seems like a pretty tired stereotype to me.

ZZZZzzzzzzzzz…

10

I dunno. Not to get into a lavender room type discussion here, but many Americans are still extremely xenophobic and biased towards American mentality. The message of the current administration seems to have been somewhat isolationist. Instead of East Germans and Russians, many Americans now fear Arabs & Muslims. Instead of the “Cold War,” we have the “War on Terror.” Of course, the big difference is that it is not like all of a sudden that Middle Eastern nations are cleaning up at the Olympics, but I think the idea of America vs. the rest of the world has not gone away and has not become a tired stereotype, unfortunately.

11

The incentive for doping in the big sports is enormous. It could mean the difference between a $5 million and $100 million contract.

You can’t even compare the testing between cyclists and baseball players. In baseball, the players union have 99.9% of the power. The testing in baseball is a complete joke.

12

Bonds.

After his ROIDS gang got busted up 3 years ago, do you think he has done any PEDs the last 3 years, like for example, last year, because, if PEDs were the reason why he became so good, surely he hasn’t been taking them the last three years; yet, even right now, if they pitch to him, he hits a home run. This has been true the last 3 years, after all of that got exposed. To say everything Bonds has done with the bat was from PEDs, I think, is wrong. He admitted he did take them, but I don’t think he has the last 2 years, and he’s still insane with the bat.

14

It’s just an opinion. I never claimed it to be fact. It is merely the way that I perceive what I take in from what I read, see on TV, and from my own sampling of this country based on the people that I talk to.

I see a lot of evidence that bigotry and xenophobia remain a part of American culture. During the Athens Olympics, I perceived, rightly or wrongly, that when the weightlifters and other foreign athletes were convicted of doping, the overwhelming sentiment was that they were cheats and liars, etc. However, the same universal condemnation didn’t seem to apply to the US Track & Field athletes involved in our own doping scandal.

That is just my opinion. But I think there is evidence out there along these lines, and even if it isn’t the case for “most” or even “many” Americans, I don’t think it is a stereotype that has died out. Perhaps I should say that given that doping seems to be a universal problem, too many Americans seem to still think that foreign countries are dirtier than the US. And too many Americans fail to realize that it was an individual who chose to dope, not that the doping sponsored by the state.

In the same way, I do think some people now associate doping with the USA as a nation, rather than with individuals. It is not like Conrgress passed a law allowing US athletes to dope. The doping was not state sponsored, as it was in the former Soviet block countries.

At the end of the day, I think these athletes are more similar to each other than to their “countrymen,” and that doping is a problem with sports not with a given country.