Lance Armstrong did it, Barry Bonds is guilty of it, and even golf’s own Tiger Woods had fingers pointed at him for it.
If you have not already guessed what these three famous athletes have in common, it is their ordeal concerning the abuse of steroids during their pro sporting careers.
While professional competitors are the target when it comes to this drug abuse, student-athletes can also find themselves feeling bombarded with accusations concerning steroid use.
There have been many cases where athletes have been suspended or stripped of titles after using anabolic/androgenic steroids. These are defined as medical steroids which are synthetic (artificial) derivatives of testosterone, a natural male hormone. The terms ‘‘Anabolic’’ means ‘’growing’’ or ‘’building’’ while the term ‘’Androgenic’’ means ‘’masculinizing’’.
The abuse of steroids might give athletes a temporary gain in athletic performance and competitiveness while also granting more lean muscle mass. However, the long-term health risks outweigh the momentary bonuses.
According to the Department of Health, the improper use of steroids can cause serious health problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease. They can also cause liver damage and cancers, stroke and blood clots. They even can make an individual more susceptible to HIV infection. Other side effects of steroids include nausea and vomiting, increased risk of ligament and tendon injuries, headaches, aching joints, muscle cramps, diarrhea, sleep problems and severe acne.
Since steroid use has seen an increase in the past years, schools and sports organizations across the country have implemented drug testing policy to discover those athletes who are cheating to get ahead.
Matt Whisenant, the University’s Deputy of Athletics and director for the school’s drug screenings, discussed the careful procedures taken with drug screenings.
“Here at UW, our drug tests are done completely at random. We set a schedule of the number of athletes we want to test in each sport and the people on the test site decide the rest. We do have a concept called ‘reasonable suspicion’ where if we feel that an athlete is abusing any kind of substance, we have reason to test that athlete,” said Whisenant.
At the University of Wyoming, when athletes are tested randomly, they generally check for street drugs which such marijuana or cocaine. There is not a specific test given for steroid abuse unless there is reason for one to be conducted simply because of budget and because of the rareness of it occurring on campus.
UW’s drug testing policy follows a three-strike system. According to the rules set in place, if the student athlete failed a drug test for the first time, he or she will miss 10 percent of his or her season. A second failed drug test will require the student athlete to miss 20 percent of his or her season. A third failed test results in the dismissal of a student athlete from his or her team.
“Our policy at the University is much stricter than that of those at other schools,” said Whisenant. “There are some athletes on other teams that have been in violation of substance abuse five or six times and are still able to compete. While our regulations are much more demanding, I don’t feel it’s a bad thing that we hold our athletes to higher standards.”
Luckily steroid abuse has not been a big issue at UW. Hopefully doping will never become a big issue for future student athletes.
