Its official. Drugs - the only way to reach the top

A few interesting stories, as this seems to be the drugs in sports forum these days:

1. Darren Campbell:
UK sprinter Darren Campbell revealed that the reason he retired from the sport at the age of 21, and played football with Plymouth Argyle and Newport County before returning to athletics in 1995, was because he had been told that taking drugs was the only way of reaching the top.

"I was 21 and it made me retire from the sport," said Campbell, who was a double European junior champion and world junior 100 metres and 200m silver medallist. "To me, if those were the lengths I would have to go to be the best I didn't want any part of it."
Campbell has reiterated his calls for Dwain Chambers to say who embroiled him in the doping regime which led to him serving a two-year ban.

2. Nicole Cooke:
OK she may not be the face WBT gets his rocks off to, but in another interview this week, she claimed even among young aspiring teenage female riders, they are provided with dubious supplements by their doctors, no questions asked.

One reason why she believes mens racing is so dirty is the presence of so many ex-pros as sporting directors

3. Binned syringes, vials found by police in Gothenborg during the European Athletics championships last week.

SWEDISH doping authorities yesterday hinted that the bags of syringes, bottles, phials and tubes discovered dumped in and around two Gothenburg hotels the day after the European Championships ended may not have been used in illegal activity.
Police investigating the case are due to release the results of a full analysis today, but Jan Engstrom, of Sweden's Anti-Doping Agency, said yesterday: "It looks like it is rather innocent - it's only vitamins. When the head of our Stockholm laboratory, Mats Garle, was shown pictures of the cartons, his spontaneous reaction was that this is innocent material."

Engstrom said that two or three "cartons" had been found in public bins near two of the hotels which hosted teams at the Championships. The first was the German team hotel while the second, the Scandic Opalen, housed competitors from Bosnia, Malta, Gibraltar, Montenegro, Poland and Russia.

Several other bags containing syringes and packets were found in bins inside rooms at the Scandic Opalen, Engstrom added. He confirmed that some of the writing on the packets was in Russian.

Interesting programme on UK TV the other night (The Man Whose Arms Exploded) claimed 20% of young men using gyms in the UK have tried steroids. That's not athletes, just gym users.

There was a former training buddy of Arnie on the programme who said it's no wonder people take steroids so easily because we (as a society) inculcate young people with the message that there's a pill to cure all your problems. Too fat? Try this pill. Headache? Try this pill. Worried about ageing? Try this pill.

He's got a point.