Olympic Weightlifting
The use of anabolic steroids and their diuretic masking agents such as Furosemide has been endemic to elite level Olympic Weightlifting since at least the 1950's. PED use was totally out of control in the sport during the 1980's, a period during which Olympic and World records were set that have yet to be surpassed.
Following the introduction of more reliable in-competition testing in the 1990's, the Sport's authorities got around the 'problem' of having world records that could no longer be approached, never mind beat, by making small changes to all the bodyweight classes, to effectively annul all the old 'records' from the books. The 1980's 'records' do however, continue to provide a useful benchmark as to the limits of human performance since they were set by elite level athletes on very high dosages of steroids.
How good were those 1980 peak steroid use era performances? As with Marita Koch's totally ridiculous 400m track world record, the passage of time has thrown up some astonishing performance comparisons with athletes of today.
Naim Suleymanoglu, the Bulgarian 'pocket hercules' who won the Olympic Weightlifting Gold Medal at the 1988 Olympics in the 60Kg/ 9st 4lb/ bodyweight class, lifted more than the silver medalist in the super-heavyweight class at the 2015 USA weightlifting championships who weighed nearly 23 stone!
The reason why no Brit or American has ever come close to winning an olympic weightlifting medal since the 1980's is mainly due to the introduction of out of competition testing. Russia, and its ex central Asian and Eastern European satellite states and China either don't do any out of competition testing or 'manage' the results of their elite athletes.
It would be a fairly safe bet that if every Olympic weightlifting Gold medalist from the London Olympics were to have received an unannounced visit from an independent testing body requesting a urine sample 6 months beforehand, that every single one of them would have tested positive for PED's. The two Russians who were the red hot favourites for the 105Kg Class mysteriously cried off less than fortnight beforehand citing 'injury' - many in the sport believe a more accurate interpretation is that both came 'off' the juice too late and were prevented by the Russian testers from travelling to London.
The recent news that all 11 Bulgarian weightlifters at a recent training camp for the 2015 European championships tested positive following an unannounced visit from independent testers sent by the sports governing body, as a result of the Bulgarian National squad being involved in a number of previous positive test scandals, surprised few within the sport. This latest scandal was the same deal as is in 2008, when 11 Bulgarians tested positive for methandienone (Dianabol).
How powerful are steroids? Check out 10st 12lb Bulgarian Galabin Boevski, the Olympic & World Champion and World Record holder finishing off a heavy training session with some 250kg squats. Galabin was subsequently banned for life after a second positive test, although not before winning Gold at the Sydney Olympics, where he also set a new World C&J record - as one commentator remarked at the time " never has setting a new WR been made to look so easy".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xozRc6I8pBU