POUND, DICK ANGRY!

Author: Scott Taylor

February 15, 2010

Scott Taylor's E-Take is sponsored by Biotech Laser, who utilize a low intensity laser that stimulates the natural healing of tissue. 

In honor of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, here is another classic example of the stunning hypocrisy of the IOC.

Last week, the former chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Dick Pound of Montreal, called athletes who use performance- enhancing drugs “sociopathic cheats” at a panel discussion on ethics in sport in Vancouver.  However, when asked about the drugs that are still available to athletes (I see that Clara Hughes is selling Cold-FX on national TV, but of course, that’s a “natural” product) plus the frightening use of beverage alcohol and other recreational drugs among competitors in all sports, Pound had no position.

"From an ethical perspective, I believe that doping is the single greatest threat to the integrity and future of sport," Pound said.  "No one should have to become a chemical stockpile in order to be successful in sport simply because there are sociopaths who have no respect for the rules which they accepted, for the game or for their opponents."

Sadly, no one should be forced to be unsuccessful in sport because they were short changed by genetics, either, but that’s an argument Pound wants no part of.

Even sadder still is the promotion of beverage alcohol and prescription painkillers as part of a “healthy” sporting lifestyle.  Those drugs are A-OK for Pound and WADA, but they cause more clinically proven death and destruction than anabolic steroids ever have.

Of course, when it comes to hypocrites, Pound and his WADA pals are among the world’s best.  They hate steroids, but there are other drugs they don’t mind.  It’s against the rules to take drugs to get bigger, but if your genetics gave you asthma, it’s OK to take asthma medicine.  That’s not a level playing field at all.  Either you’re in or you’re out.  If you want to ban some drugs, you’d better ban all of them.

Of course, we live in a drug society.  All one has to do is watch TV to realize there is, indeed, a drug to make us larger and a drug to make us small.  Drug advertising is rampant on television and will be rampant on TV during the Olympics.  It’s just that for WADA, those drugs are just fine, thank you.  They pay the bills.

It never ceases to amaze me how Pound and his ilk love to promote post-competition alcohol use (or abuse, depending on the situation) and the use of certain painkillers to get athletes ready to compete, but when it comes to using a performance enhancer to help level the playing field – and if you think about it, performance enhancers level the field that genetics made completely un-level – they are totally against it.

“Those who use drugs simply feel the rules don't apply to them (depending on the drug, of course),” Pound said.  "When you analyze it from this perspective, they are nothing more than sociopathic cheats and they deserve to be dealt with accordingly.

“Their defenders try to paint them as rebels fighting a rule-bound establishment trying to limit their performance potential, that the penalties are too harsh and that positive test results shouldn't be publicized, but the rules are simply intended to ensure a level playing field for all competitors.”

Bullshit.

NBC reported on Saturday night that five Russian skiers who tested positive for banned substances prior to the Games would not be disciplined until after the Games (if they are ever disciplined at all).  Like everything else at the IOC, there are rules for some athletes and different rules for others.  And, evidently for a small group of Russian skiers, doping is not an issue.

“Pound makes me laugh,” said Tom Heffner, the president of the Manitoba Bodybuilding Association, a group that is maligned for its alleged rampant steroid use.  “He has no idea how the world is going on without him.  Athletes aren’t listening to him because they don’t have to.  The Olympics might have great testing policies and a big budget -- $13.6 million for the Vancouver Games, I understand – but most of the steroid users and blood dopers won’t be caught, because the medical community is way ahead of the testers.”

According to CP, the panel in Vancouver also included Dr. Jim Rupert of the University of British Columbia's School of Human Kinetics and former Olympian Beckie Scott, “who won Canada's first cross-country skiing gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games after the two top finishers tested positive for banned substances.”  All three panelists are firmly against performance enhancing drugs so it wasn’t much of a panel.  When there is no debate, a panel is merely a PR exercise.

That’s not to say we’re pro-performance enhancers here at www.hotdoghockey.com.  On the contrary, we believe ALL drugs should be removed from sport altogether, not just the ones WADA dislikes, but ALL drugs.  However, we also understand that just as it’s impossible to un-invent nuclear weapons, it is also impossible to un-invent performance enhancing drugs in sport.

In fact, the IOC announced last Thursday that, already, more than 30 athletes from around the world had been banned from the Vancouver Games for doping infractions.  The fact that only 30 were caught just goes to show that there are still some pretty dumb jocks out there.

Not surprising then, our Vancouver Olympic panel agreed that the drug lab at these 2010 Winter Games “will probably not catch many actual drug users.”  Guess that’s already been done (nice ass-covering job, folks).

Meanwhile, let’s not forget that today’s generation of designer steroids is now extremely sophisticated and that most elite athletes, especially in North America, have doctors who keep tabs on their cycles.  By the time the Games begin most of the competitors will already be long past the need for heavy weight and power training.

The days of Ben Johnson are long gone.  Performance enhancing drugs are now an integral part of big time professional sport (which now includes the Olympic Games).

All Dick Pound has left is the occasional panel that he can use to call people names.

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