Hi. I'm new here though I have followed for a while. I love cycling and just started a PhD on doping in sports and children. Maybe it is not the right topic for here and, if so, sorry. But does anyone have any information on this? Any suggested reading?
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Doping among young athletes
- Thread starter TheGaelicFox
- Start date
This is a fascinating topic, I envy you. But also an extremely broad topic.TheGaelicFox said:
Any specific sports, or specific era you're interested in?
What age group?
Will you carry out any kind of investigative research or just review the available literature and discuss landmark cases?
Out of curiosity, what was your course of studies viz. in what kind of institute are you enrolled? (sport science, or something else?)
The Clinic can certainly help you with your research.
You just have to learn to use the search function.
sniper said:
Sniper, thanks. I have a lot to learn on this topic after a degree in sports medicine. I guess I'm interested to see two things mostly: 1. Are children and teens or early 20's using doping for sports, and not necessarily at the highest levels in sports but also in like secondary school or high school? And not just steroids but maybe epo or blood doping or whatever? Any studies or evidence or just anecdotes? Studies are best of course. 2. Any evidence that doping in top sports influences kids to dope? I tried the search button but it seems most of the great stuff here is on professional athletes. So any help would be like so much appreciated. Thanks.
- Mar 15, 2011
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Academic studies on doping are difficult because of the secrecy involved. Analysis of statistics of doping are hard because so few juniors are tested.
Juniors also aren't necessarily part of federations that are signatories to the WADA code, and have their own regulations and protocols. I can only speak for the US, but I imagine High School and Collegiate leagues across the world are similar. In the US, individual states are in charge of their own high school sports, and the NCAA is in charge of monitoring itself.
And another angle, age-cheating skews whatever statistics you may be able to dig up.
I don't know how to help you, except to say that you need to choose where to focus. "Juniors' doping" is too big a topic to cover.
If you want to follow my curiosity, research age cheating in East African athletics. If you want a flashy topic for a resume later, research steroid use in High School football (US) and concussion rates. If you want to go where there is already a way paved, go for long term effects of steroids use/abuse. If you want to end up on the side of talent management rather than sciency-stuff, do some sort of cultural think on sport vs. academic cheating across different nations.
Juniors also aren't necessarily part of federations that are signatories to the WADA code, and have their own regulations and protocols. I can only speak for the US, but I imagine High School and Collegiate leagues across the world are similar. In the US, individual states are in charge of their own high school sports, and the NCAA is in charge of monitoring itself.
And another angle, age-cheating skews whatever statistics you may be able to dig up.
I don't know how to help you, except to say that you need to choose where to focus. "Juniors' doping" is too big a topic to cover.
If you want to follow my curiosity, research age cheating in East African athletics. If you want a flashy topic for a resume later, research steroid use in High School football (US) and concussion rates. If you want to go where there is already a way paved, go for long term effects of steroids use/abuse. If you want to end up on the side of talent management rather than sciency-stuff, do some sort of cultural think on sport vs. academic cheating across different nations.
- Aug 24, 2011
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http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/sport/2011/08/03/schoolboy-rugby-players-are-doping
Link for a news article on doping in schoolboy rugby.
Link for a news article on doping in schoolboy rugby.
- Mar 13, 2009
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Re:
cortico neck.
which, as i knew, but no doubt, people will continue to point out, corticosteroids, cortisone, corticos, are catabolic.
point stands, the idiom was coined because they intended to say Lance has a large neck like a linebacker, a steroid neck, or, no neck like the linesmen...
Benotti69 said:Irish schools rugby, same no doubt for all Rugby six nations schools teams.
Write to Lance Armstrong who was known as 'roid neck' or similar as a Junior tri athlete regularly beating seniors!
cortico neck.
which, as i knew, but no doubt, people will continue to point out, corticosteroids, cortisone, corticos, are catabolic.
point stands, the idiom was coined because they intended to say Lance has a large neck like a linebacker, a steroid neck, or, no neck like the linesmen...
Most countries are clean now only Russia still has a big problem:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/03/russian-child-athletes-doping-school-sports-minister
Try reading the Australian report that came out a couple of years ago. As I remember it covered all levels of sport.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-08/junior-athlete-doping-uncovered-by-research/5581930
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/03/russian-child-athletes-doping-school-sports-minister
Try reading the Australian report that came out a couple of years ago. As I remember it covered all levels of sport.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-08/junior-athlete-doping-uncovered-by-research/5581930
What I find most interesting about children doping is the reason why. We have seen cases in the past with different causes.
There is enough scientific work about it that is well worth reading.
For example:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2219897/
There is enough scientific work about it that is well worth reading.
For example:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2219897/
- May 9, 2014
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TheGaelicFox said:
As someone who lives in the UK and has just recently finished school, I know people that use steroids to aid bodybuilding, and I would say at least 0.5% of 15-18yos in the UK use steroids for performance enhancing purposes. These guys are not at the highest level of their sport either.
However, when it comes to blood doping/EPO, I do not know of anyone who openly admits it, and I doubt that the figure is greater than 0.01% of 15-18yos amongst those not at the highest level of their respective sport/field.
But I don't have any actual evidence to back these claims up, and I suspect you probably knew this already
As for your 2nd point, yes, seeing professional athletes who clearly dope and get away with it certainly does encourage doping amongst young people. I have a couple of mates who admit they would dope if they had the means to do so and were at a high enough level for it to be worthwhile damaging your long term health, as these drugs do.
There is so much literature about steroids and juniors. It's universal, stretching over many decades, and it's fairly well-studied and described.
As More Strides than Rides said (good post, btw), you're really gonna need to delimit your topic.
As for blood boosting, it is documented for juniors and u23s who've become (or aimed to become) pro's or Olympic champions. Some proven cases, some rumors, and some strongly implied cases:
Danny Van Haute came in contact with blood doping as a junior on the US junior team in 1974:
viewtopic.php?p=1907797#p1907797
Fritz Hagerman, OTC physiologist in the late 70s, implied/hinted at the need for blood boosting experimentation on adolescents in an article on cardiorespiratory conditioning from 1976:
viewtopic.php?p=1917825#p1917825
OTC co-founder Irving Dardik publicly stated the need for blood doping and, although he didn't say it, we know he was focusing on juniors, as the whole OTC setup was focused on finding junior talents.
Eddie Borysewicz, co-organizer of the 84 blood doping scheme, worked mainly with juniors, both in Poland (73-75) and in the US (78-85) (before he became involved in pro-cycling of course). Unsurprisingly, some (if not most) of the LA 84 blood dopers were u23.
From what I've read and FWIW, I'm convinced talented juniors were being blood doped at quite a large scale in the 70s and 80s in countries such as Germany (East and West), US, Sweden, Canada, Poland and Russia.
Two 16 year olds who got popped then admitted to EPO are Michiel van Staden in 2005:
viewtopic.php?p=1853617#p1853617
and more recently (2015) that british junior time trial champion Gabriel Evans:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/junior-time-trial-champion-gabriel-evans-admits-epo-use-203450
On twitter recently, a credible twitterer (who's name is not important here) said he'd heard first hand that Sky's Dario Cioni was doping with EPO as a 16 year old mountain biker.
That,s all mainly cycling related, and USOTC.
There is probably much more to find about this if you look into other sports, marathon, skiing, and the history of bloc country doping, a.o.
As More Strides than Rides said (good post, btw), you're really gonna need to delimit your topic.
As for blood boosting, it is documented for juniors and u23s who've become (or aimed to become) pro's or Olympic champions. Some proven cases, some rumors, and some strongly implied cases:
Danny Van Haute came in contact with blood doping as a junior on the US junior team in 1974:
viewtopic.php?p=1907797#p1907797
Fritz Hagerman, OTC physiologist in the late 70s, implied/hinted at the need for blood boosting experimentation on adolescents in an article on cardiorespiratory conditioning from 1976:
viewtopic.php?p=1917825#p1917825
OTC co-founder Irving Dardik publicly stated the need for blood doping and, although he didn't say it, we know he was focusing on juniors, as the whole OTC setup was focused on finding junior talents.
Eddie Borysewicz, co-organizer of the 84 blood doping scheme, worked mainly with juniors, both in Poland (73-75) and in the US (78-85) (before he became involved in pro-cycling of course). Unsurprisingly, some (if not most) of the LA 84 blood dopers were u23.
From what I've read and FWIW, I'm convinced talented juniors were being blood doped at quite a large scale in the 70s and 80s in countries such as Germany (East and West), US, Sweden, Canada, Poland and Russia.
Two 16 year olds who got popped then admitted to EPO are Michiel van Staden in 2005:
viewtopic.php?p=1853617#p1853617
and more recently (2015) that british junior time trial champion Gabriel Evans:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/junior-time-trial-champion-gabriel-evans-admits-epo-use-203450
On twitter recently, a credible twitterer (who's name is not important here) said he'd heard first hand that Sky's Dario Cioni was doping with EPO as a 16 year old mountain biker.
That,s all mainly cycling related, and USOTC.
There is probably much more to find about this if you look into other sports, marathon, skiing, and the history of bloc country doping, a.o.
Geneviève Jeanson also from the age of 16.
http://veloptimum.net/GenevieveJeanson.html
There are manny examples of young swimmers with super human performances:
Ian Thorpe world champion 400m freestyle at 15 while working with known doping doctors.
Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Sarah Sjöström both European champion at 14.
Michael Phelps first world record at 15.
Individual Olympic gold at age 15 for Ruta Meilutyte and at age 14 for Kyoko Iwasaki.
But the most superhuman performance has to be Ye Shiwen (16) who won two gold at the London olympics and in her 400m medley race had a faster last 50m split than Ryan Lochte who won the men's event. A couple of weeks before her 16 year old team mate Zhesi Li got caught for EPO.
http://veloptimum.net/GenevieveJeanson.html
There are manny examples of young swimmers with super human performances:
Ian Thorpe world champion 400m freestyle at 15 while working with known doping doctors.
Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Sarah Sjöström both European champion at 14.
Michael Phelps first world record at 15.
Individual Olympic gold at age 15 for Ruta Meilutyte and at age 14 for Kyoko Iwasaki.
But the most superhuman performance has to be Ye Shiwen (16) who won two gold at the London olympics and in her 400m medley race had a faster last 50m split than Ryan Lochte who won the men's event. A couple of weeks before her 16 year old team mate Zhesi Li got caught for EPO.
Re:
swimming, of course.
Alois Mader, a german blood doping doctor, was welcomed as some kind of mastermind by the USA swimming federation in the late 70s. I,ll post up a link later.
good info.Tienus said:
swimming, of course.
Alois Mader, a german blood doping doctor, was welcomed as some kind of mastermind by the USA swimming federation in the late 70s. I,ll post up a link later.
What's your adviser's area of study? What do they have you working on right now? I'd start with a long, thorough chat with that person before starting any research since that's really the whole point of having them as a mentor. That said, get one of your profs to give you access to PubMed and have at 'er. Even without a subscription, you can search through the abstracts. I'd be very surprised if someone hasn't done a statistical analysis of drug use within any given population - in your case, juveniles.
John Swanson
John Swanson
- Jan 31, 2016
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Sniper, thanks. I have a lot to learn on this topic after a degree in sports medicine. I guess I'm interested to see two things mostly: 1. Are children and teens or early 20's using doping for sports, and not necessarily at the highest levels in sports but also in like secondary school or high school? And not just steroids but maybe epo or blood doping or whatever? Any studies or evidence or just anecdotes? Studies are best of course. 2. Any evidence that doping in top sports influences kids to dope? I tried the search button but it seems most of the great stuff here is on professional athletes. So any help would be like so much appreciated. Thanks.[/quote]
I wrote this for Cyclingnews over a decade ago in response to a similar question-
US cycling is not immune to the lure of Euro-style influences. It is, like in Europe, not confined to the pro ranks. Having ridden among many of the Americans, Canadians and European transplants who've raced in our region; it is clear that they "improve their genetic potential" when they hit the Continent. I must add that, not having had the opportunity to race on the biggest stage; we should not judge those that assume the level of pain and dedication it takes to race at that level. Every rider makes choices daily that begin to shade their own view of necessity for performance. When you have an extra caffeinated beverage, take questionable vitamin supplements, etc., you as a rider are crossing that line in small increments. Who knows what choice you'd make if you were a big fish in your region and found yourself constantly off the back in the bigger venues. What would you do if your family's financial stability relied on your continued employment?
Having said all of that, the influence of drugs starts at the junior ranks with coaches that recommend steroid inhalers to the younger riders on the basis of "exercise induced asthma". The actual scene witnessed at a major junior race: 6 riders on wind trainers, warming up and sucking on their inhalers prior to the race; their coach proudly looking on at the 14 to 16 year old drug cheats. The influence extends to national level coaches who advise their team members they can "regrettably" only offer some caffeine to them while their Euro counterparts travel with a full time physician. The final scene: pros with a laundry list of allergies and injuries requiring supplementation. Remember: the UCI monitors "levels" of drugs in the systems. It is within the rules to top off your levels and not be considered in violation of the rules. Therein lies the defence of the USPS team. What we really could use is honest disclosure. What are the actual haematocrit levels of the competitors? How does a rider with a early season blood level of 44 attain a level of 48 to 49.9 after two weeks of racing the Tour?
I don't care about the paid professionals making these choices. It also used to be the unspoken regimen that younger pros would not be doped until they reached their potential and amateurs relying on drugs to ride at a top level probably would not get a contract as they'd already reached their performance peak. The danger is now that young riders with no real pro opportunities are destroying their health for the rest of their life. That is what will kill our sport.
[/i]
I wrote this for Cyclingnews over a decade ago in response to a similar question-
US cycling is not immune to the lure of Euro-style influences. It is, like in Europe, not confined to the pro ranks. Having ridden among many of the Americans, Canadians and European transplants who've raced in our region; it is clear that they "improve their genetic potential" when they hit the Continent. I must add that, not having had the opportunity to race on the biggest stage; we should not judge those that assume the level of pain and dedication it takes to race at that level. Every rider makes choices daily that begin to shade their own view of necessity for performance. When you have an extra caffeinated beverage, take questionable vitamin supplements, etc., you as a rider are crossing that line in small increments. Who knows what choice you'd make if you were a big fish in your region and found yourself constantly off the back in the bigger venues. What would you do if your family's financial stability relied on your continued employment?
Having said all of that, the influence of drugs starts at the junior ranks with coaches that recommend steroid inhalers to the younger riders on the basis of "exercise induced asthma". The actual scene witnessed at a major junior race: 6 riders on wind trainers, warming up and sucking on their inhalers prior to the race; their coach proudly looking on at the 14 to 16 year old drug cheats. The influence extends to national level coaches who advise their team members they can "regrettably" only offer some caffeine to them while their Euro counterparts travel with a full time physician. The final scene: pros with a laundry list of allergies and injuries requiring supplementation. Remember: the UCI monitors "levels" of drugs in the systems. It is within the rules to top off your levels and not be considered in violation of the rules. Therein lies the defence of the USPS team. What we really could use is honest disclosure. What are the actual haematocrit levels of the competitors? How does a rider with a early season blood level of 44 attain a level of 48 to 49.9 after two weeks of racing the Tour?
I don't care about the paid professionals making these choices. It also used to be the unspoken regimen that younger pros would not be doped until they reached their potential and amateurs relying on drugs to ride at a top level probably would not get a contract as they'd already reached their performance peak. The danger is now that young riders with no real pro opportunities are destroying their health for the rest of their life. That is what will kill our sport.
[/i]
- Mar 15, 2011
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Oldermanish said:
That's a really good point.
I don't know how to frame it into a question, but looking at junior asthma rates among athletes and general population, when they were diagnosed, whether they're actually asthmatic or not... that topic could use more data and insight.
Cheating by any/all means in youth sports (and academics) is rampant. The USA is pharma addicted, most family members have at least one prescription so its not even a stretch to add a little HGH to junior's diet. The psychology of cheating has shifted in youth sports (and academics). Maybe you could look at it from that point of view?
- Jul 7, 2015
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- Aug 24, 2011
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There was a VERY brief segment on the CBS affiliate morning news here in Atlanta this morning.
Talked about drug use, especially HGH in student athletes, concluded with the remark that the local organization condemns and prohibits the use of PEDs, but actually do no (as in ZERO) testing of student athletes.
May not have been much but at least it was something in the mainstream media.
Talked about drug use, especially HGH in student athletes, concluded with the remark that the local organization condemns and prohibits the use of PEDs, but actually do no (as in ZERO) testing of student athletes.
May not have been much but at least it was something in the mainstream media.
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