By Hayden Rollison

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva recently failed a drug test for the use of trimetazidine, a medication that increases blood flow to the heart, during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. This is not the first time that Russian athletes have taken performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). In fact, due to Russia’s history with PEDs, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned the Russian flag and national anthem from the Olympics in 2017. Also, in the Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan in 2020, Russian athletes competed under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee and had strict restrictions on how many people could compete per event. Trimetazidine is just one example of  PEDs used by athletes, as they come in many different forms that include anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, erythropoietin, beta-blockers, stimulants, and more. 

Valieva’s sample was first collected by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency on Dec. 25, 2021, but the World Anti-Doping Agency did not report its results until Feb. 8, midway through the Beijing Olympics. Although fellow Russian athletes were found guilty of using PEDs and disqualified from competing, Valieva was able to compete, since she is considered a minor and had “inadvertently ingested trimetazidine.” 

Weightlifter medalists in the 1980 Olympics. Photo credit: Dmitryi Donskoy via Wikimedia Commons.

Anabolic steroids, a mutation of testosterone, were first created in Germany to help treat depression in 1935.  After Germany created them, Russian weightlifters were the first sports professionals to take advantage of them. Although PEDs were not prohibited during this era, Russian weightlifters had an advantage over other countries, which the IOC began to monitor. Thoughts and debates about the usage of anabolic steroids arose not only for the Olympics but for other professional sports as well. Different kinds of PEDs get banned regularly, with anabolic steroids being the first PED banned from the IOC in 1967. 

Many people take anabolic steroids with the intention to help with their appearance or having an athletic advantage, but they can do more harm than good. While they may help with one’s appearance, helping them gain weight, muscle, and facial hair, they also increase the risk of hormone imbalances, coronary heart disease, strokes, peliosis hepatitis, and psychological effects.  A doctor may prescribe anabolic steroids to help with blood clots and cancer, but they are illegal to be purchased otherwise. Some over-the-counter products, like creatine, which is not as harmful or effective as an anabolic steroid, are banned from agencies like the National Football League and Major League Baseball. The United States Congress even took a stand against the use of PEDs, banning the trafficking of and influence of trainers and advisers in 1990, and strengthening fines for the buying and selling of anabolic steroids in 2004.   

After the IOC banned the use of PEDs in 1967, the National Football League (NFL) was the first US professional sports organization to follow. There were three main reasons that the NFL banned PEDs: the threat to fairness and integrity of athletic competition, the health effects, and sending the wrong message to young people of the sport. As of 2017, the first violation of taking PEDs in the NFL will result in a suspension between two and six games without pay, a second violation results in a ten-game suspension without pay, and a third violation results in a two-year suspension without pay. During the season, 10 random players from each team are tested weekly for the entire 17-week season and during the playoffs. There is also annual testing of each player when they report to the preseason in the summer. Before a player has signed a contract, there are urine tests for each free agent and at each scouting combine. Since 2001, 258 players have been suspended. 

As the use of steroids arose in Major League Baseball (MLB) with players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, the MLB banned steroids in 1991. Although banned in 1991, testing was not done regularly until 2003. The MLB conducts a total of 3200 urine tests, 400 random blood collections, and a Carbon Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry test from every player during the 183-day season. A player who tests positive on the first test will have to pursue follow-up testing, and if testing positive again, they will face consequences. Although the MLB was a little late to banning these substances, their consequences are harsher than the NFL. With the first violation of testing positive, a player will receive an 80-game unpaid suspension, the second violation will result in a suspension of the entire season, and the third offense will result in permanent suspension from Major League Baseball. Consequences for testing positive for a PED usually go into effect immediately, but players do have the opportunity to argue their case. After a player tests positive, they will be given tests more frequently than other players in the league. 

At the NCAA level, student-athletes are subject to drug-testing after signing the NCAA drug-testing consent form. Failure to do so results in student-athletes being ineligible to participate in NCAA athletics. Student-athletes are subject to drug tests by the NCAA but also by their individual schools. During the early 2000s, many student-athletes admitted to teammates’ usage of steroids, as testing was infrequent, and there was easy accessibility to PEDs. It seems that there were many ways to get around steroid testing in college, as athletes were warned of tests, and colleges purposefully spent more money on cheaper tests like marijuana, since steroid tests are about four times more expensive. Until 2013, colleges also had the freedom of testing and were less likely to test for steroids on their student-athletes, especially football, since the programs brought in millions of dollars. 

Lance Armstrong. Photo credit: Oddne Rasmussen.

Although plenty of athletes have likely used steroids since Russia’s experiences in the 1950s, there have only been a select few that have been caught. Many athletes believe in staying clean and improving physically through weightlifting, running, and training, yet some athletes have been successful in covering it up. Male and female athletes have been caught using PEDs in all professional sports, but a few notorious cases of American athletes have changed the protocols of PEDs.

Lance Armstrong, a professional cyclist for the United States from 1992 until 2005 and again from 2009 to 2011, admitted to his use of steroids during an interview with Oprah Winfrey. After denying allegations about taking steroids during his career, Armstrong admitted to Winfrey of taking steroids during his seven straight Tour de France victories from 1999 to 2005.  Armstrong admitted to the use of EPO injections, blood-doping, human growth hormones, testosterone, and cortisone during his entire cycling career.  Fellow cyclists like Tyler Hamilton, and friends like Betsy Andreu, wife of teammate Frankie Andreu, confronted Armstrong about his use of PEDs by informing the media, which Armstrong continued to deny. During Armstrong’s short career, he also sued many people that spread the truth about his use of PEDs. Without the use of PEDs, Armstrong believes it was “not humanly possible to win the Tour de France,” and blames it on his “ruthless desire to win.” In October 2012, more than 1,000 pages of evidence against Armstrong and his teammates were released by the US Anti-Doping Agency. Also in January of 2013, the International Olympic Committee stripped Armstrong of his bronze medal from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. 

Barry Bonds. Photo credit: user Onetwo1 via Wikimedia Commons.

In the MLB Hall of Fame voting rounds, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens have all fallen short of the 75% voting needed to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. After being on the ballot for 10 years, 2022 was the last year for their induction into the Hall of Fame. Many experts believe that their experience with PEDs during their careers is what kept them short of the votes. During the “Steroid Era” of Major League Baseball, which ranged from the late 1990s until the early 2000s, 89 players were accused of using illegal PEDs, and Bonds was one of the most prominent. Bonds is the league’s all-time home run leader, with 762 career home runs, but he is still not included in baseball’s greatest honor at the Hall of Fame. Bonds began his use of PEDs with “injections in his buttocks of Winstrol” in 1998, which began his battle with illegal and his connection with his PED dealer, Greg Anderson. Along with injections of Winstrol, Bonds has been accused of using steroids, HGH, trenbolone, testosterone decanoate, and Deca-Durabolin. Anderson was also Bonds’s personal trainer within the San Francisco Giants organization. With the allegations against Bonds, he was forced to go to federal court for his illegal use of steroids after the federal investigation of Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), a company that provided professional athletes with these drugs. When looking for pain relief, Anderson gave Bonds a cream that helped with his run-down body, which he was asked about in court. During the federal case, Bonds claimed he was unaware of what exactly Anderson was giving him. Thus, Bonds was put on two-year probation from Major League Baseball. Along with Bonds, Clemens was kept short of Cooperstown, although he won seven Cy Young awards and one MVP during his 24-year career. Sosa, the ninth on the home run list in Major League Baseball and leading home run hitter for the Chicago Cubs, was also left short of the Hall of Fame with Bonds and Clemens.

In the NFL, there have been 258 suspensions since 2001 and 82 suspensions within the last five years. Although not as publicized as baseball’s cases, the NFL has a vast amount of suspensions as well. In a sport about size, speed, and strength, many players fall into anabolic steroids hoping to improve their physical ability. The NFL actually made steroids illegal in 1983, significantly earlier than the MLB in 1991. After banning steroids from the league, players started getting suspended as soon as the 1989 season. A few notable players that have been suspended from the NFL include Von Miller, Will Fuller, and Julian Edelman. 

At the NCAA level, there seem to be very few cases of players failing a PED test. Although many players seem to bulk up after getting into a collegiate weight room and intensifying their diets, there are few suspensions of players who gain 20-30 pounds in a year. Many schools spend more money on tests for other illegal substances like marijuana than tests on PEDs, due to the expensive price of a single test. For NCAA football, many schools resist PED testing due to the substantial amount of income football brings in compared to other sports. During the 2019 College Football Playoff, three players from the Clemson football team were suspended from participating against Notre Dame and Alabama due to positive drug tests. Although defeating Alabama 44-16, defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, offensive lineman Zach Giella, and tight-end Braden Galloway tested positive for a PED, ostarine. After failing one test, following the NCAA rules of testing, the three players took a second PED test and failed as well. Thus, all three players were ineligible for playing in the playoffs. Going into the following season, the suspension carried over for Giella and Galloway, as they were unable to play for the entire 2019-2020 season. Lawrence left college to pursue his NFL career, where he now plays for the New York Giants.

It is rare for high school athletes to take PEDs, but studies have shown that it is on the increase for the younger generation. In 2013, the Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) found that 11% of teens reported that they have used synthetic human growth hormones at least once. Rather it is to gain weight or improve physical appearance, taking PEDs increases health effects even more for athletes at the high school level. Another study conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that the use of anabolic steroids had increased from 5% in 2012 to about 7% in 2016. Along with anabolic steroids and HGH, high schoolers have been reported using dietary steroids and creatine. Creatine is an over-the-counter medication that acts just like an anabolic steroid without proven health effects. Creatine boosts the energy level in muscles, allowing muscles to receive more oxygen for heavier lifts, longer workouts, and overall stronger muscles. With only a few studies done on creatine and teens, researchers aren’t quite sure about the long-term effects of taking creatine. Although high school athletes are more capable of acquiring creatine, creatine is illegal in the NFL, MLB, and other professional sports organizations. 

Athletes in every sport, from high school sports to the Olympics, turn to PEDs attempting to get ahead of other competitors helping them gain weight, get stronger, etc. PEDs come in many different forms, ranging from surface creams to injections. Although many people believe PEDs like anabolic steroids can help them get more athletic, there are many negative health effects that come from taking different PEDs. Not only illegal in many professional, collegiate, and high school sports organizations, some PEDs like anabolic steroids are illegal in the United States. The use of PEDs has evolved in sports, and although fewer people are taking them, it is increasing among teenagers. In order to become more athletic or stronger, it is better for someone to eat healthily and work out consistently to help someone gain an edge over their competitor. 

Featured image credit: user randomduck via flickr.