Bigger, Stronger, Faster
With the provocative tag line, “Is it really cheating if everyone’s doing it?” the Chris Bell documentary exploded onto the Sundance Scene and into the hearts and minds of athletic competitors everywhere. Bigger, Stronger, Faster is both personal and public, interviewing everyone from his mother and two steroid-using brothers to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ben Johnson, and Carl Lewis. Bell’s theme centers around the American obsession to be the superlative, whatever it may be: the biggest, the fastest, the strongest, the best. While we worshiped heroes like Barry Bonds or Marion Jones for their inhuman feats, we refuse to condone the actions they take to get there. He ponders the complex issue and ethical ramifications of using steroids to keep up with competitors. As the tag line and recent baseball scandals suggest, rampant steroid use is not so much a rumor as a reality. Though Bell presents the issues in a straight-forward, compelling narrative, the film might present more questions than answers – where do you stand on steroid use? If everyone is doing it, should you feel guilty? And as Bell describes his own childhood idolization of ‘greats’ like Arnold or Hulk, you wonder, what message are we sending to future generations?
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Is it cheating if everyone does it?
But what would happen if no one did it? Then we would see what they're really made of.
Its cheating, period.
Taking hormones for deficiencies is one thing. If you're otherwise a perfectly healthy being and you're taking them for an unfair advantage, thats another. Its cheating plain and simple.
But hey, if you want to take it, thats you're prerogative.
When you play a sport that supposedly tests for drug-use, and you're passing the tests (by cheating them) while you're actually using drugs, then thats cheating.
I say let them take drugs, winning at sports goes beyond physical abilities. It takes a lot of experience, and more than anything, mental abilities.
It still takes tremendous skill to hit a baseball being thrown at you traveling 90mph, you can still miss, and even if you do hit it, just because your juicing doesnt mean you're going to hit a home run.
Personally, i have no respect (and I dont see how you can, but thats just me) for anyone that takes these drugs that do not need them and are taking them for an unfair advantage.
In bodybuilding its an open playing field, they dont test for it, unless you're in the natural leagues.
level the playing field
If a professional athlete is a diabetic, he can certainly, without criticism, take insulin, a hormone. If an athlete has a thyroid deficiency as a result of surgery for a goiter, he, likewise, can take thyroid hormone without being criticized. If an athlete has cancer and as a result has to have an orchiectomy, shouldn't he be able to take testosterone? IF as a result of head trauma an athlete has an underactive pituitary gland, shouldn't he or she be able to take pituitary hormones? They are not only important for competing, they are essential for life. Shouldn't he be able to take these hormones and compete? Playing football can cause this disease (yes, it is a medical diagnosis). Ok, so one of those hormones is growth hormone. Does that change anything? So you have an athlete with naturally sky high growth hormone levels and as a result is over 7 feet tall, doesn't he have an unfair advantage over a 5 foot player with low growth hormone levels?
Let's level the playing field. Lets monitor all athletes for their hormone levels. As long as their levels are within an agreed upon , healthy (not super high ) level, they can compete. That's my solution.
Darren Clair, MD
Vibrance Health Services
My opinion
It's all well & good saying that people can do what they want, but these are the same people that WE have to compete against. As far as i'm concerned, things were made illegal in different federations for many reasons. These reasons exist for the longevity of the sports they represent. I say obey the rules!
As far as i'm concerned, the only people who should be using steroids are the people in the armed forces. But that's just my opinion...
You know where I stand...
let the playing field be even and each athlete work with their God-given talents. I touched upon this topic during my radio last night - Did you tune in?
Very controversial topic
Very controversial topic here I am sure there are lots of different views and opinions on this one. I agree with Jits though.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
IMO the issue isn't that complex. A world class athlete has to take, and maintain, world class efforts to stay at the top of his/hers game. Do I condone steroid use? Not at all, but luckily in my chosen sport steroid use will only bring athletes to peaks (thank the lord for weight limits). Yet what of those that have to be bigger, stronger, and faster than everyone else to make a living? There's only so much a person can do with sports supplements, training, and time. And with the public demanding more from athletes all the time, how else are they to give it to them? If a person wants to take risks with their endocrine/hormone system, I say let them. They're the ones who have the risk of paying for it later in life.