Remember when we made fun of the Eastern Bloc for steroids?

[Fountain79]

I remember growing up hearing about the East German women's swim team and how they had used steroids to have an unfair advantage over others. Places like the former Soviet Union seemed to be synonomus with rampant steroid use. When did it change? When did our sports culture push for the use of such things? When did we become the cheaters?

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/5803740?FSO1&ATT=HMA

[kellenburger]

1. funny you should mention that....

I remember making fun of the Russians for having a heavy handed
police state, their government spying on them, neighbors turning in
neighbors etc.

Friday on Paul Harveys "the rest of the story" it was about
Thomas Jefferson. Relating to the University of Virginia and how
Jefferson's idea of self run student government didn't work.

Harveys conclusion....yes "you can have too much freedom"

When did this happen ? What happened to the The USA ?

[newyawker99]

4. Hi kellenberger!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[sgxnk]

2. for pete's sake

elite athletes (and plenty of non-elite athletes) have ALWAYS attempted to get an edge they could, to include steroids.

heck, long before steroids, cyclists famously took red wine/cocaine to get an edge

even the ancient greek olympians looked for any edge they could

the simple fact is that tons of elite athletes are using performance enhancers, whether AAS or EPO or HGH or IGF-1 etc. etc.

and gene doping will take this to another level

frankly, i don't care myself.

the eastern bloc athletes were just particularly OBVIOUS. they were very inventive in administration techniques, especially cyclodextrin complexed nasal sprays, not to mention cheque drops, and several other extremely androgenic fast acting compounds like halotestin, etc.

i remember seeing some hyoooge adam's apples on some of their "female" athletes, which along with clitoremegalomy (sp?) is a very tell tale sign of steroid use in women.

i also saw some women in their late 20's and early 30's (and many men too) with very severe acne, which again is strongly indicative.

some of my friends competed against many of these eastern bloc athletes in various strength sports competitions, and it was hardly some secret that eastern bloc athletes were at the forefront of doping

their sports machine operates entirely different than the west. kids were tested for various genetic gifts at a very early age, and likely candidates were placed into various sports schools where their (almost sole) occupation from preteen years was to be an athlete. these machines were very effective at producing elite athletes (and spitting out the unfortunate losers who couldn't handle the workload)

we have always been cheating, and probably always will . as do most other countries imo

that's just the reality of elite sports competitions

a big part of the REAL competition is avoiding detection of cheating

the NAN (no advanced notice) program *has* been a decent deterrent in the US and in locales that subscribe to it, in deterring AAS use, but don't get an idea for a second that it was only the eastern bloc countries that used AAS etc. the use is rampant. has been and it will continue

[RagingInMiami]

3. Steroirds are extremely promininent in professional bicycling

No matter what country you're talking about

[Lefty48197]

5. Yes, I do remember that.

I remember how I was taught that America was pure as the driven snow and that the Eastern Bloc was a cold, dirty, gray place where everybody was sad.

I also remember when Mark McGwire was a sports hero.

[Fountain79]

6. So they were happy in the Eastern Bloc?

Why leave communism then?

[Lefty48197]

8. Do you think everybody was moping around in a depression for 70 years?

I don't think that's possible.

[Vidar]

7. Back when we criticized their repressive regimes. Times change.