Since the blocking of the suspensions of two Minnesota Viking players who tested positive for a banned diuretic substance, Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner, plans to ask congress to create a law that could protect collective bargaining agreements from state law changes.

In his testimony for the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing yesterday in Washington, Goodell expressed his belief that a Labor Management Relations Act is amendment is important and necessary to shield the collectively bargained steroid policies from attack under state law.

NFL suspended Kevin and Pat Williams, 2 Minnesota Vikings players and 2 other Saints players for allegedly testing positive for bumetanide, a banned diuretic. Although the players did not test positive for steroids use, they were suspended because diuretics can mask the presence of steroids in the urine.

However, the players filed a counter case, saying the league violated Minnesota testing laws. Furthermore, the players union also filed a similar lawsuit, supporting the players.

In May, a federal judge dismissed the union’s and the Williamses’ cases, although claims on Minnesota workplace laws were sent back to state court. In September, federal court’s decision allowed the players to continue playing while the case is still in state court.

From Boston:

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell plans to ask Congress for legislation that would protect collective bargaining agreements from state law challenges, like the one that led to blocking the suspensions of two players who tested positive for banned substances.

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The International Olympic Committee officials are not happy with the Greek Olympic Committee’s decision to let Greek Olympic hurdler, Fani Halkia, carry the torch during the torch relay through Greece.

Halkia was banned two years ago due to a positive test for an anabolic steroid, metribolone, at the Beijing Olympics. Metribolone is also known as methyltrienolone or R1881. It is a derivative of trenbolone and is a potent anabolic steroid. Metribolone, however, has a high potential for hepatotoxicity.

Halkia however, won a gold medal in Athens, so Greek Olympic officials considered her as one of the torchbearers for the Olympic torch relay. She won a gold medal in the women’s 400m hurdles in Athens. She set an Olympic record of 52.77 seconds during the semifinals.

During the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing on August last year, Halkia was announced to have tested positive for metribolone. She denied using such substance and requested a B sample to be tested the next day. Her B sample also yielded the same results. On December 12, 2008, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) finally announced that she would be banned from participating in any competition for two years.

From Deadspin:

The Vancouver games are only starting the torch relay, and we’ve already got a doping controversy. Oh, Olympics, how we’ve missed you.

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Guo Linna, a Chinese rower from Henan province recently tested positive for anabolic steroids use. According to Xinhua news agency, she tested positive for 19-noandrostenedione, a precursor to steroids.

The rower was kicked out of the prestigious National Games after test showed her failed result.

This is the first reported case about steroids and doping in the said competition.

As a result, the Henan province rowing team pulled out of the competition. The team’s withdrawal in the competition is a display of determination in the entire squad’s fight against doping.

Han Wei, their team leader, said they do not need any medals with doping. It also reveals the team’s attitude towards doping.

The Henan rowing team was disqualified from joining the lightweight double and quadruple sculls competition.

China is on a strong campaign against steroids use. They are determined to avoid embarrassment at international competitions such as the Beijing Olympics last year. For the past years, the country has been involved with several major doping scandals, sabotage and on-court cheating.

National officials promised to implement stiff punishments to any athlete caught cheating in the 11^th National Games. However, provincial teams are often prone to such temptation as they are more eager for the promotion and cash that come with their athlete’s winning performance.

From USA Today:

BEIJING (AP) — Henan province pulled its rowing teams out of China’s National Games after one of its members tested positive for steroids, state media reported Monday.

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As part of a £7 million dollar campaign to prevent drug cheats in London Olympics, the United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) organized a Crimestoppers style hotline.

Coaches, athletes, and officials through the confidential phone line can make anonymous tip-offs regarding the abuse and supply of banned substances.

Even the public is welcomed to offer any information about illegal importation of anabolic steroids in Britain. Any information that could help customs and police to catch steroids rings are encouraged.

UKAD is a newly organized national agency, which will work hand in hand with security services such as the UK Border Agency and the Serious Organized Crime Agency. It will be starting its operations in December 2009.

Former chief constable of North Yorkshire Police, David Kenworthy, leads the agency. The public hopes that intelligence about drug trafficking routes supplying banned substances to athletes will also be shared by the agency aside from the focus, which is illegal Class A drugs.

Aside from the hotline, ministers are also proposing to add a clause in the contract that athletes will agree to a mandated room search in order to gain entry in the 2012 Olympics. They have already requested the International Olympic Committee of the addition in the contract.

From Times Online:

Gerry Sutcliffe, the Sports Minister, said: “I don’t think it would be beyond the pale. Inspection would act as a deterrent. The integrity of sport must not be put at risk and fans need to be confident that the athletes they are watching are clean.”

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The US Anti-doping agency recently launched a new testing program for steroid and PEDs testing called longitudinal testing.

Under this new program, athletes could not only get a suspension or a ban for testing positive. They could also be penalized if found to be possibly doping.

According to USADA’s chief science officer, an athlete’s overall chemical makeup will be examined through a series of blood tests and urine tests. This series of tests would help determine if an athlete has doped once in his career.

Last week, Bower talked about the new program at the USADA’s international anti-doping symposium in Vancouver. According to him, any US athlete has the potential to be monitored for steroids and other drugs under this so called longitudinal program.

Unlike the pilot longitudinal program where a dozen or so athletes volunteered to be monitored just before the 2008 Olympics, the present program will monitor any athletes chosen randomly. Bower refused, however, to divulge the total number of athletes who will be monitored before the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February.

The International Cycling Union began longitudinal testing last year, although USADA is thought to be the first organization to implement this program and to test athletes in this manner.

From USA Today:

USADA spokeswoman Erin Hannan said the organization is confident that any positives that arise as a result of the new methods could sustain a court challenge and pointed to the case of sprinter Michelle Collins, who never tested positive but received an eight-year ban after retroactive testing showed she likely doped.

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Marion Jones, the former Olympic sprinter who pleaded guilty to using steroids during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, now gives inspirational talks to colleges and universities. Recently, she was a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business Initiative series on race in sports.

She finds it her mission to talk about steroids and other performance enhancing drugs to student athletes after she was released from imprisonment at the Federal Medical Center-Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas for 6 months.

She pleaded guilty in October 2007 to lying to federal investigators about taking performance-enhancing substances, resulting for her medals to be stripped from her. Her running records have also been wiped clean.

She also talked about making the right and wrong decisions. She explained how one poor judgment could take away all your dreams.

She has been forever grateful for the Title IX legislation, which gave all opportunity for female athletes to compete equally in sports.

She wanted the Title IX dream to continue especially for black female athletes. It could give them the opportunity to go to college and acquire a degree, which would otherwise be unavailable to them without a scholarship.

From Philly:

Steroids, like any drug, have the ability to change things. They can increase muscle mass, strength, and even speed.

But for Marion Jones, they changed her life.

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A team of researchers involved in ascertaining the impact of anabolic steroid use on power lifters years after the use is no longer prevalent has found that changes in the shoulder and quadriceps attained by steroid use tend to stay with steroid users years after discontinuation of steroids.

It is noteworthy to note here that anabolic steroids are synthetic hormones that are derived from testosterone, the male hormone and their use has much been in debate in professional sports where muscle strength is paramount.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Findings

The researchers found that several years after anabolic steroid withdrawal, and with no or low current strength-training, the muscle fiber area intensity, the number of nuclei per fiber in the quadriceps was still comparable to that of athletes that were currently performing high intensity strength-training. They also discovered that the shoulder-neck fiber areas were comparable to high-intensity trained athletes and the number of nuclei per fiber was even higher than found in the current steroid-using group.

Conclusions

According to the lead researcher, Dr. Eriksson, ”It is possible that the high number of nuclei we found in the muscle might be beneficial for an athlete who continues or resumes strength training because increased myonuclei opens up the possibility of increasing protein synthesis, which can lead to muscle mass.”  He added, “Based on the characteristics between doped and non-doped power lifters, we conclude that a period of anabolic steroid usage is an advantage for a power lifter in competition, even several years after they stop taking a doping drug.”

It is evident from this study that even a period of anabolic steroid usage is more than enough to be an advantage for a power lifter in competitive events, even after passage of several years after doping has been discontinued by the power lifter.

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Ban Johnson was born in Jamaica but migrated to Canada when he was 14 years old. Johnson met a Canadian sprint champion and coach Charlie Francis, who encouraged him to join the Scarborough Optimist Track and field club in York University.

In the early 80s, Johnson’s career was so flourishing. His first success came when he won two silver medals at the 1982 Commonwealth Games held in Brisbane, Australia.

However, his biggest and widely famous feat was the 1988 Seoul Olympics 100 meter-dash. He won the gold medal against long-time rival, US sprinter Carl Lewis, in September 24.

Three days after, what Canada imagined, as their biggest achievement in the world of track and field, suddenly became a disgrace.

Johnson was found to test positive for the anabolic steroid Stanozolol. Because of this, he was stripped of his medal. His medal was given to his rival Carl Lewis, who later on admitted to using steroids as well, but was not stripped of his medals.

This incident made such a lasting impact on many people that many became skeptical every time an athlete makes a winning record. They said Ben Johnson’s case made fans hesitant to embrace any accomplishment for fear of a future scandal.

From TSN Canada:

Ben Johnson wasn’t the first athlete to cheat and he certainly won’t be the last. But part of his legacy is that Johnson helped to create the deep, brooding skepticism that now lives within most sports fans. What used to be a knee-jerk reflex to cheer when a new feat of excellence was achieved, has since turned into a collective sense of cynical indifference. Things that were once a cause for celebration are now frowned upon and doubted.

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Caster Semenya, the 18-year-old South African runner who won the gold in the 800 meters at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, was found to have three times the normal testosterone level.

According to BBC, reports regarding Semenya’s results leaked due to a fax letter sent to a wrong person.

Although high hormone levels does not always translate to a positive doping test, the results added to International Association of Athletics Federation’s insistent request for a gender verification.

Her preliminary medical test was performed in South Africa just days before leaving for Berlin for the World Championships.

Britain’s Telegraph reported that South African team head coach was Dr. Ekkart Arbeit, the same person who was accused by former East German athlete, Heidi Krieger now known as Andreas Krieger, of forcing her to use steroids. Damage was so severe that she had to undergo a sex change, where she now lives as a man.

It was not clear though, how closely Dr. Arbeit worked with Semenya.

IAAF representatives asked the South African team to withdraw Semenya from competition after the release of the findings.

Leonard Cheune, president of the South African athletics body and official representative of South Africa in the IAAF board, resigned his post in the IAAF. This is in protest to the association’s treatment of Semenya. According to him, it would be a conflict of interest if he will attack the board while still remaining as a member of its council.

From Brisbane Times:

Preliminary medical tests on the South African athlete at the centre of a gender row reportedly showed triple the normal female level of testosterone in her body.

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The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) reiterated its statements on dehydration and Hyponatremia for athletes during endurance competitions with a predefined and clear aim to provide solutions to peculiar issues that are related to hydration of athletes.

Hyponatremia is a life-endangering condition that can happen to an athlete when too much of water or sports drinks are consumed that often lead to disruption or dilution of sodium levels in the body.

Larry Kenney, Ph.D., FACSM, referring to the Boston Marathon (18th April), was of the view that most participants of this marathon appeared properly hydrated to him and they probably had received the message of proper hydration for attaining best results.

From News-Medical.Net:

Appropriate fluid intake before, during and after exercise is important to help regulate body temperature and replace body fluids lost through sweating. “Runners should follow a hydration plan based on their sweat losses during training, and slow runners in particular should take care not to drink beyond that level during exercise,” said Kenney. He also advised runners to consume salty snacks before and after the race to replace any sodium lost during exercise. ACSM’s current hydration guidelines state that those exercising for more than one hour may benefit from sports drinks, which replace carbohydrates for energy.

Generally, says Kenney, persons participating in typical athletic or work environments should continue to heed current hydration guidelines. “There are dangers associated with both extremes of behavior—severe under-drinking and severe over-drinking. Not drinking at all is not a safe option for preventing hyponatremia.” The key, he said, is “drinking intelligently, not drinking maximally.”

Dehydration resulting from the failure to replace fluids during exercise can limit the body’s ability to regulate body temperature by sweating and/or skin blood flow, and may contribute to heat exhaustion, heat injury, and exertional heat stroke. To minimize the potential for thermal injury, ACSM experts recommend that athletes attempt to replace fluid losses by consuming fluids at a rate equal to the sweat rate. This can be accomplished by athletes weighing themselves before and after the exercise bout. Recommendations are based on scientific data and observation of athletes suffering from heat injury.

It was revealed by ACSM experts that all active individuals and not just endurance athletes need to be mindful of hydration while undertaking any activity in heat or humidity.

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