PennState, and others:
All right, all right. Will the class please chill? First of all, most of the "coverups" were of asthma and cold remedies. Track and Field had the most, followed by cycling. Most of the kids had waivers for their asthma medications. For out-of-competition testing, ephedrine or pseudoephephrine, found in common cold remedies, won't and shouldn't get an athlete punished by most federations. That's a lot of it. A few athletes were found with evidence of steroids, a big no-no, but the number is relatively small.
The truth is that we have no effective test for Human Growth Hormone (HGH0, and poor testing for Erythropoitin (EPO). An athlete can stop taking EPO a week before his competition and it will not be detected, though the effect will still be very real. (EPO raises the number of red blood cells that can carry oxygen. Altitude training gives the same effect, but legally.)
Also, all the athletes have the right to appeal any positive drug test, so results are often delayed under current privacy procedures.
The real problem is that the federations, like U.S.A. Track and Field, protect the appearance money of their athletes by delaying the announcement of positive tests. Guys like CJ Hunter can go to Oslo, despite testing positive, while their appeals are pending, and pick up $15,000 (in this case). He also gets to go as his wife's coach, which makes Marion Jones very happy. If their star is happy, USTF is happy. In my view, all athletes should sign a confidentiality waiver saying in essence that any drug test result will be made public immediately. Otherwise, the whole system is compromised.
Also, USATF has a contract with a laboratory to do its drug testing. They do not encourage the laboratory to produce results quickly. Many suspect the laboratory is encouraged to take the longest possible time so the athletes can enjoy their careers longer. Obviously, this protects the athlete, but not the integrity of sports.
Misty Hyman was a world class swimmer as a young girl and developed a dolphin kick on your side technique for starts and turns that made her the best in the world at about age 15. She has always been very fast going out the first half of a race, but usually died. At the Olympics she held on just a little longer than usual and managed to squeeze out a victory. Was it EPO? Was it altitude training? Was it her training, still young age (20), and natural ability? I choose the latter because we have no evidence she cheated. Until we do, we must give the athletes the benefit of the doubt.
Strong allegations of drug use have been made about "Inky" deBruijn, Dara Torres, and Amy Van Dyken. We have no evidence they took drugs.
All of the drug allegations have been driven by jingoism and jealousy. None of them have a foundation in test results.
All of the world's various governing bodies have done a truly abysmal job policing drugs in the various sports. Until all drug testing is turned over to an independent international body, and the quality of drug testing improves, we won't know for sure who is clean and who is dirty.
This whole affair makes me very sad, but it has been brewing for 40 years and the chickens have finally come home to roost. My prayer is that amateur sports can be rescued, but I am as cynical as the rest of you about the likelihood of that happening.
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