Crazy claims Olympians & athletes make about nutrition and supplements
In July, nine former Olympic athletes who may or may not have competed during the Summer Olympics, were suspended for doping. Hailing from Morocco, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, and Bulgaria, some were found to have synthetic growth hormone and synthetic testosterone in their system. The International Association of Athletics Federations has been conducting a “biological passport” to detect doping in the build up to the Olympics and said it would conduct 200 more tests during the games, reported CNN. Whether from a spiked supplement or other means, doping is alive and well in sports. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) reported that 107 athletes had been banned in the six months prior to the Olympics.
This infographic by NSF International offers some support for athletes who claim that they didn’t know their supplement was contaminated. In 2012 so far, 84 illegal products (think energy and muscle gain) were found to contain steroids, stimulants, and hormones. Anymore, this ignorance is not an excuse—neither for retailers (e.g. Bodybuilding.com) nor the athletes who unknowingly dope by supplementation. See the full infographic
Many of London’s Olympians aren’t using supplements for fear of accidental doping, writes U.S. Olympic Committee Nutritionist, Jennifer Gibson, Msc, RD, IOC DIP, in an interview on Huffington Post. “With real food, they [the athletes] know what it is and what the quality of the nutrition will be,” she said. “Of course, athletes will use bars, powders and gels, especially for convenience while traveling, but it isn’t the main resource.”
In an article titled "Athletes, Stop Taking Supplements" published Aug. 2 in Slate, writer Christie Aschwanden says “They’re expensive, they don’t improve performance, and they might make you test positive for dope.” This is a sweeping generalization that doesn’t ring true. Medicine has plenty of studies showing how supplements improve performance. And supplements can be inexpensive when purchased in bulk. But, most important, not all are adulterated. Sure, there are manufacturing rogues in our industry that don’t follow GMPs and are just looking to make a quick buck. The FDA is quick to crack down on them. But there are also the NSF Certified for Sport supplements that follow rigorous quality standards. To tell athletes to stop taking all supplements just because some are illegitimate is like telling them to stop eating meat because, if not cooked properly, they could get food poisoning. This could be equally debilitating to an athlete on game day, but we guarantee they probably won’t stop pounding those chicken breasts in between races.
In the next few slides, we’ll feature athletes who tried to dupe investigators by blaming it on food and supplements. First up: baseball. The first time former baseball great Rafael Palmeiro was accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs, he famously wagged his finger at members of Congress and said: "I have never used steroids. Period. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never." After testing positive for the synthetic anabolic steroid Stanozolol, less than five months later, Palmeiro's consequential public statement was "I have never intentionally used steroids. Never. Ever. Period." Palmeiro later claimed he tested positive due to a tainted vitamin-B12 injection, given to him by former teammate Miguel Tejada. He's right, you can’t be too careful. Steroid-laced vitamin-B12 shots are everywhere these days. Contributed by Kyle Corbin Photo by Googie Man
In 1998, Czech tennis hero Petr Korda tested positive for nandrolone—an anabolic steroid which can increase muscle size and red blood cell mass. Passionately denying that he took the steroid, Korda attributed the positive drug test to his insatiable appetite for veal. True, some calves are fattened on the steroid, so it’s feasible he may have unwittingly absorbed the drug during dinner, right? Wrong. Experts later pointed out that Korda would have had to eat 40 heifers a day to reach the levels of steroids found in his body, according to The Telegraph. And that’s a caloric feat even Olympian Michael Phelps couldn’t muster. Photo by imageshack.us
Last, but not least, we just had to include this story. When American cyclist Tyler Hamilton was accused of blood doping, characterized by the presence of another person’s blood in his body, he gave one of the more peculiar excuses: he was a chimera. Not the lion-goat-snake hybrid of Greek mythology, but “a twin who died in utero, but before dying, contributed some blood cells to him during fetal life,” reported the New York Times in 2005. Astonishingly, according to the article a researcher at the Mayo Clinic who “uses sensitive DNA tests to look for chimerism, finds that about 50 to 70 percent of healthy people are chimeras.” But after admitting he doped on 60 Minutes last year, Hamilton recently requested to have his name removed from the official record of Olympic champions. The International Olympic Committee stripped the cyclist of the gold medal he won in the Athens 2004 Olympics. Regardless that his gold was won in Greece, you can tick one more chimera off as mythological. Photo by Richard Masoner
Curious about the crazy diets of Olympians and athletes? Well, turns out they may not be so crazy after all.Click here to read more about Olympians and nutrition
Curious about the crazy diets of Olympians and athletes? Well, turns out they may not be so crazy after all.Click here to read more about Olympians and nutrition
As the 2012 London Olympics come to a close, we highlight decorated dopers in sports. Athletes often claim ignorance by blaming adulterated supplements—but how much is fact vs. fiction?
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