With steroids reaching every part of the world, South Africa was not an exception. This beautiful country is slowly showing signs of being grappled with steroids as there are more and more reported cases of steroid use.

It is a well-known fact that steroids have been in the worlds of professional sports and bodybuilding for long and if one thinks that South Africa was left out, he was probably wrong.

From SteroidTimes.Com:

So let me start by dispelling a popular myth or rumour that i often get asked about:  STEROIDS ARE NOT LEGAL IN SOUTH AFRICA! That said, steroid are not a highly policed area in the drug market, any ‘busts’ or the like generally come from bodybuilders or dealers that are involved in manufacturing or importing other illicit drugs such as cocaine, exstacy, khat or crystal meth. The reality is that there are just not enough resources in South Africa to control such a small segment of the drug trade, they have bigger fish to fry.

We have a range of anabolic products from black market to legitimate available to the athlete or bodybuilder. Many pharmacies are quite happy to sell drugs such a steroids, growth hormone, thyroid hormones and insulin ‘under the counter’ as long as cash is paid, the better you know the pharmacist, the better price you get. Those products that are not available from a pharmacy can be obtained relatively easily from your entrepreneurial gym dealer who will generally have at his disposal a range of imported or local underground brands.

The growing success and popularity of steroids have clearly suggested that all measures to curb the use of steroids have been waste as the number of steroid users has increased, and not decreased during the last few years.

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To the 2008 Beijing Olympics athletes, to be stripped of medals is a bad, bad way to start 2009. Our advice to them? Take in all in stride. Look at the four riders in this year’s Tour de France who tested for CERA long after the cameras flashed and the medals awarded. Their collective sigh was: C’est la vie!

The International Olympic Committee announced on Tuesday about 500 samples will undergo retroactive testing in January. Of that number are about 400 blood tests to be retested for third-generation drug CERA, while 100 are urine samples which will be tested for insulin. A WADA lab in Cologne, Germany will handle the retesting of the urine samples. According to AP report, the lab has come up with a reliable test for insulin which, like anabolic steroids, is considered a performance-enhancing drug.

IOC’s statement said the tests “will primarily target endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and athletics.” The test results are expected to be in by the end of March.

It was in October when IOC has announced its plan to carry out retroactive testing subsequent to AFLD’s (French anti-doping agency) statement that it will retest samples from the 2008 Tour de France riders. AFLD has developed a more effective method to test blood samples for new generation performance boosters like CERA. The new testing method caught four riders.

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One Times Online article labeled International Olympic president Jacques Rogge as a “deluded individual” when Rogge expressed his displeasure of Usain Bolt’s celebration of his victory at Beijing. Usain earned Rogge’s rebuke when the Jamaican sprinter failed to shake hands with his co-competitors after his impressive win at the 100 meters.

However, Rogge’s recent interview with the BBC’s Inside Sport, as related by AFP, portrayed a very pragmatic man. The IOC president said those who aspire for a 100 percent drug-free Olympics were out of touch with reality. He added cheating will always be part of human nature.

“I think one has to be realistic,” Rogge said.

“Drug-free sport in general is Utopia. It will be naive to believe that no-one will take drugs.

“There are about 400 million people practicing sport on this globe, there are not 400 million saints on earth.

“Cheating is embedded in human nature and doping is to sport what criminality is to society.

“You will always need cops and judges and prisons and jails and rules and regulations.”

IOC is planning to catch more users of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancers as it’s currently implementing re-testing of the samples taken at the Beijing Olympics. The IOC head “expects further positive doping cases to emerge from these” up to 2016 Games.

Rogge said all the samples they obtained from Beijing – more than 5,000 screenings, including nearly 1,000 blood samples – will be available for retroactive testing. The blood samples will be screened for new generation performance-enhancing drugs CERA and insulin. And if new testing techniques will emerge between now and 2016, the same samples will go through re-testing.

“We are keeping the samples for eight years and we are going to re-test them,” said Rogge.

“And ultimately the judgment on the Beijing Games will be given in eight years’ time, because each time a new scientific test is coming up we are going to re-test.”

Rogge assumed the IOC position on July 2001, replacing Juan Antonio Samaranch. Rogge has his share of criticisms and the most recent of these were his disapproval of Bolt’s behavior (mentioned above) and his statement regarding Greek athletes. He allegedly stated that “Greece won the gold medal in doping” because of a spate of failed dope tests of Greek athletes.

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Official independent drug testing observers are dismayed to discover that up to 300 test results taken from athletes who participated at the 2008 Beijing Olympics are missing. Hiding behind a silk curtain, perhaps?

The team, which is made up of 10 independent observers tasked with evaluating the Games’ drug testing procedures, filed their findings (or the lack thereof) to the World Anti-Doping Agency. Their reports reads: “Once the (Beijing) laboratory had apparently delivered all reports to the independent observer team it transpired that around 300 [steroid] test results were missing in comparison to the doping control forms” The team checked the status of the laboratory results with the International Olympic Committee medical chairman and the observers reported that the IOC too “may be missing some reports”.

Another significant lapse (or was it an intentional lapse?) discovered by the team is that said Beijing lab has been ill-equipped to test for insulin, one of WADA’s prohibited substances.

And there is another deviation from anti-doping protocol. The observers noted that almost half of the national Olympic committees failed to provide necessary whereabouts information of their athletes. This aspect is prerequisite so that pre-Games and out-of-competition drug testing for anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs can be effectively carried out.

It was reported that out 204 national teams which participated at the Summer Games 102 nations did not fulfill this requirement.

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Those who repent will see the light. In Dwain Chamber’s case, it seems like he’s very particular with the kind of light he wants to see – the Olympic torch’s light. The repentant British sprinter also has plans to resort to legal action to challenge his lifetime Olympic ban so that he can be eligible to run again at the Beijing Olympics.

Chambers was awarded a two-year ban due to his use of performance-enhancing drugs. He was tested positive for the designer drug tetrahydrogestrinone, known also as THG or ‘The Clear’. However, in a letter written by Victor Conte, it was apparent that Chambers was not only using The Clear, but several other substances. (Chambers decided to buy steroids from BALCO at some point)
According to the letter, the sprinter was also using human growth hormone, the blood-boosting drug EPO, a testosterone/epitestosterone cream, modafinil (a drug that combats tiredness), insulin, and liothryonine, a synthetic thyroid hormone. Conte was the founder and owner of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative or BALCO. BALCO is a California-based firm, which was reportedly the source of anabolic steroids used by numerous professional athletes. In 2003, this illegal activity was exposed resulting to what media referred as the BALCO Affair.

Conte’s letter was handed over to UK Sport’s anti-doping chief John Scott on Friday in a repentant move that Chambers hopes will help demonstrate that he’s letting everything out in the open. Further, he wants the sporting world to see that he is serious in cleaning up his act. The details of Chambers meeting with Scott have not been divulged.

Regarding the sprinter’s move to challenge the ban, his lawyer said in a statement: “We can confirm that Dwain Chambers will be taking proceedings to secure his eligibility/participation in the Olympic and National trials in Birmingham from 11-13 July.”

Chambers is just one of the several popular professional athletes who have been implicated with steroids use. Several personalities involved in said case have been in legal quagmire including sprinter Marion James and cyclist Tammy Thomas. BALCO’s now infamous organic chemist, Patrick Arnold, has already served his three-month sentence in West Virginia. Conte has also spent four months in jail for selling steroids.

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