Word: epo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...easily beat the system that is in place to catch drug abusers. Unscrupulous sports federations can tailor testing schedules and tip off their constituents. Steroid creams can be flushed from the system in 24 to 48 hours. And for some of the most commonly used enhancers, such as erythropoietin (EPO), there are still no institutionalized tests. It is said that EPO, which increases stamina by boosting an athlete's red blood cell count, can improve an athlete's performance in a 20-min. run by 30 sec., but it is otherwise a nightmare of a drug. Overdose on EPO...
...athletes will take EPO in Sydney because they can. And some of them will take too much of it. In 1995 Olympic-caliber U.S. athletes were asked in a poll, "Would you take a drug that made you a champion, knowing that it would kill you in five years?" More than half said yes. So even if we forget about fair play and credibility and Olympic ideals, we are left with this: the athletes must be protected from themselves and the pressure...
...easily beat the system that is in place to catch drug abusers. Unscrupulous sports federations can tailor testing schedules and tip off their constituents. Steroid creams can be flushed from the system in 24 to 48 hours. And for some of the most commonly used enhancers, such as erythropoietin (EPO), there are still no institutionalized tests. It is said that EPO, which increases stamina by boosting an athlete's red blood cell count, can improve an athlete's performance in a 20-min. run by 30 sec., but it is otherwise a nightmare of a drug. Overdose on EPO...
...athletes will take EPO in Sydney because they can. And some of them will take too much of it. In 1995 Olympic-caliber U.S. athletes were asked in a poll, "Would you take a drug that made you a champion, knowing that it would kill you in five years?" More than half said yes. So even if we forget about fair play and credibility and Olympic ideals, we are left with this: the athletes must be protected from themselves and the pressure...
...that imperfect test for EPO--use it anyway. As gold medal marathoner Frank Shorter, now chairman of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, says, knowing a test is looming will knock cheaters off stride. Shorter says that if there is no EPO test at Sydney, then every endurance or strength performance is suspect. He's right. And when sport becomes suspect--when no one believes in it--it's no longer worth watching...