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Sports

Athletes may take Achilles as example

People go to great lengths to be remembered, make drastic choices

Off the Wall

Tom Carpenter

According to Greek mythology, the gods gave Achilles a choice: he could enjoy a long, peaceful, uneventful life and no one would remember his name, or he could live a short, furious life filled with glory, and his fame would reverberate through the corridor of time for thousands of years.

An article by Tom Zucco in the St. Petersburg Times reported that osteopathic physician Dr. Robert Goldman, author of Death in the Locker Room, interviewed 198 American Olympic athletes in 1992 about whether they would take a banned substance if they knew they would win a gold medal and not get caught; only three said no.

Goldman asked the athletes if they would take a drug one time that would enable them to win every competition for five years, but would kill them at the end of that period. More than half made the same choice as Achilles. Since steroid use usually begins in high school, I wondered how difficult it is for a young athlete to purchase banned drugs over the Internet. 

Tracking down the gods wasn't hard. The first choice Google offered, www.advanced-health-consult.com, takes the interested viewer to a Web site that offers customers "steroids legally from U.S. licensed physicians." 

In the United States, steroids must be prescribed by a physician; four clicks and $89 later, a visitor has "a 99 percent chance of receiving a legal prescription ... for products that help restore weakened muscle tissue, promote muscle growth and influence development of the male reproductive system."

That tendril led to the page that listed side affects. As I perused the disclaimers and rationales diminishing the side effects of steroid abuse, I realized the gods were still alive and enjoying a good laugh at my expense. 

For instance, the "sport" of bodybuilding enjoys the highest murder rate among competitors of any professional sport, and bodybuilders are among the worst offenders of steroid abuse, yet the warning about steroid abuse and aggression stated, "The bottom line is that if you lack the maturity and self-control to keep your anger in check, you should not be using steroids."

That's sure to dissuade high school students who are famous for their emotional control and restraint from shooting up human growth hormone to get that edge they need to crush the competition.

The list of 21 side effects is impressive, from acne to virilization, but the ease with which the steroids can be procured is even more impressive.

According to the American College of Sports Information Web site, " ... information gathered during the past few years, indicates an upward trend in steroid use among amateur athletes at the college and even high school levels."

The ease with which these performance-enhancing drugs can be obtained guarantees that high school, college and professional athletes will continue to shoot the elixir of the gods into their veins with designer drugs that can't be detected. 

After all, the average salary for a professional player last season was about $2.5 million.

Needles and syringes can be ordered by the gross at www.steroidshop.net/?google. 
 

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