Tennis Forum banner

Would you pop the pills?

Would you, as a pro player, take an unbanned PED?

6K views 96 replies 54 participants last post by  Nacre 
#1 · (Edited)
I'm going to regret this thread, and especially the trollish poll I'm going to attach to it. But let's find out exactly why.

If you reply to this thread, don't name names, and above all don't get yourself banned.

Suppose you, as a professional tennis player, have the chance to use a drug which meets criteria from Part 1 sections 4.3.1.1 and 4.3.1.3 of the WADA code .
I've edited/butchered the sections below to try to reduce them to the essence of what I'm getting at:
[...] the substance [...], alone or
in combination with other substances or
methods, has the potential to enhance
or enhances sport performance;
and
[...] the use of the substance [...] violates
the spirit of sport [...]
However, although it meets the criteria, through oversight or ignorance, the drug is not on the WADA banned list.

Would it be wrong acceptable to take the drug?
 
#5 ·
I like popping pills, so yes. :sobbing:
 
#51 ·
Maybe Maria is a medicament addict :p That could be the reason behind her hiding Meldonium and takingg all those drugs.
 
#10 ·
"violates the spirit of the sport" is too vague. What does that even mean?

I take Motrin (an anti-inflammatory) when I have several days in a row of hard training or sports. My knees swell up, and if I don't get the swelling down, the next day my performance is perceptibly worse. And degrades day after day. So, in tennis tournament where I played every day, this clearly enhances my performance.

But it's not banned, or illegal, so of course I take it.

If I found something legal that let me train longer and harder, would I take it. Absolutely. And I have.

In fact, a couple decades ago, I took amphetamines to help me diet and do long distance running. Again, this was all to become a better fighter. And I certainly didn't hide my drug use. But I was young and single, no spouse, no dependents, no mortagage, and I had a low risk supplier.

Would I risk my career and income NOW? Hell no. As soon as I had anything to lose, I got on the right side of the law and stayed here. Would I take meldonium if I could get it here? Sure. I'm a total amateur, and I don't compete in any organization that bans it's use.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bjurra
#19 ·
Peope need to understand the difference between performance-enhancing substances and substances like vitamins which are not performance-enhancing. Vitamins, aspirin, antibiotics, bananas and the like merely help you to maintain a "normal healthy state" or to recover a "normal healthy state" if you've been ill/sick. For that reason they are not PEDs. PEDs, however, give you 'abilities' that you cannot produce naturally, beyond your 'god-given' abilities at any given point in time.

I take Motrin (an anti-inflammatory) when I have several days in a row of hard training or sports. My knees swell up, and if I don't get the swelling down, the next day my performance is perceptibly worse. And degrades day after day. So, in tennis tournament where I played every day, this clearly enhances my performance.

But it's not banned, or illegal, so of course I take it.

In fact, a couple decades ago, I took amphetamines to help me diet and do long distance running. Again, this was all to become a better fighter. And I certainly didn't hide my drug use. But I was young and single, no spouse, no dependents, no mortagage, and I had a low risk supplier.
Ibuprofen (Advil/Motrin) is a performance enhancing drug... It reduces inflammation. ...
Your anti-inflammatories are not PEDs - they simply allow you to maintain a "normal, healthy state" and don't give you any unnatural benefits extra to that.

Amphetamines, however, are PEDs since they give you abilities beyond what you, as an individual at that point in time, should naturally be able to produce.
 
#12 ·
No. I don't like taking pills at all including supplements/vitamins. It would behoove me to take allergy drugs, but I don't. Sometimes I am forced to use a antiinflammatory (ibuprofen, usually), though. Thirty pills/supplements, yegads, no. I like to keep things simple. BUT...unless you are an professional athlete, it is hard to say what you would do, really.
 
#16 ·
Ibuprofen (Advil/Motrin) is a performance enhancing drug... It reduces inflammation. How many athletes do we think pop a few Advil after a rough match, or any other game in any sport, to reduce pain and swelling to play the next day... Hmmm?

We gonna start telling athletes not to take care of themselves any more because anything they do to their bodies is going to enhance their performance? C'mon now.

...And yes, I've popped a few Advil after sports and other labor intensive activities to reduce pain, and enhance my performance.
 
#20 ·
Ibuprofen (Advil/Motrin) is a performance enhancing drug... It reduces inflammation. How many athletes do we think pop a few Advil after a rough match, or any other game in any sport, to reduce pain and swelling to play the next day... Hmmm?
Not only that, but nutrition is itself a biochemical enhancement. Most players cannot afford a personal nutritionist while the top players are able to hire someone to optimize their body's chemistry and fuel.

Peope need to understand the difference between performance-enhancing substances and substances like vitamins which are not performance-enhancing. Vitamins, aspirin, antibiotics, bananas and the like merely help you to maintain a "normal healthy state" or to recover a "normal healthy state" if you've been ill/sick.
From a practical perspective, though, what is the difference between eating a plant that boosts your hormone levels and swallowing a pill that boosts your hormone levels? You can fail a drug test after eating poppy seeds, and many drugs are derived from plants.
 
#21 ·
I can't even follow through and finish my antibiotic regimen when prescribed, so no. This is, however, my personality and has nothing to do with cheating or not just lack of self discipline. Still if I knew that it is PED and/or I was worried about health risk I would not put anything like that in my body.

I still believe that Maria took it believing she can kick the s#!t out of herself training or playing with less risk to her health (e.g. heart attack), not necessarily expecting performance enhancement per se. I did lose a friend of mine, an exceptional athlete, to heart failure; so if you train hard the risk is real. At this same time when I read Skalny's notes I could not help myself to not cringe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Perun
#24 ·
...
I still believe that Maria took it believing she can kick the s#!t out of herself training or playing with less risk to her health (e.g. heart attack), not necessarily expecting performance enhancement per se. ...
Substances that allow you to train harder (at unnatural levels) or recover quicker from training (at unnatural speeds) are deemed to be PEDs.

Having the 'abilities' to train harder & recover quicker allowing more hard training again sooner, an athlete would expect to improve her performance by a larger amount than otherwise (if she doesn't first get burned out.)
 
#23 ·
If it's for enhancing performance and my health is not at risk, maybe.
But I'd try not to make abuse of it anytime.
And I'll surely do the just simple job of checking my mails to see if that substance is still unbanned or not.
 
#26 ·
The key here is, 'violates the spirit of the sport'

I've given that phrase some thought.

It's why I find Nadal and Henin being coached from the stands so offensive. It violates the spirit of the sport. Tennis is supposed to be THE sport where one person is out there against one other person, with no help. That's what elevates it above all other sports.

Would I take a drug that let me communicate telepathically with my coach? No. It's dishonorable.

I do NOT find Sharapova's meldonium use dishonorable. (The way she's handled exposure of her meldonium use, OTOH, reeks of dishonor.)

Which drug is banned and which is not is arbitrary. Anything that isn't naturally occorring food or drink is a PED. So are considered acceptable, like ibuprophen, some not,like HGH.

Trying to improve your performance isn't dishonorable.
Cheating, ie, breaking the rules deliberately to improve your performance, IS dishonorable.

If you have no concept of honor, you need a different dividing line.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Perun and netplayer
#28 ·
I voted "Yes, no brainer" BEFORE reading the full question. If the "substance" violated "the spirit of the sport" I would NOT use it. I am a stickler for rules and fair play.

That said, the concept of "performance enhancer" is nebulous and arbitrary. There are a HOST of LEGAL "performance enhancers" which no one questions; being rich, for example, allows for performance enhancers like having the best coaches, a physio (for recovery/injury prevention), personal trainer, nutritionist/chef, private jets. Sports psychology allows for enhancement by helping the player to better deal with stress under pressure, and focus while in competition. Again, ALL of that is acceptable yet not available to ALL players, and so allows advantages for some players over other players.
 
#29 ·
The thing that is missing from this poll is whether use is open or covert. For me that is the key aspect of whether a non-banned substance is okay or not.

If it concerns a substance which you are comfortable about admitting using, both publicly and on your medical declaration forms, I would say it could be okay to use it as long as you are sure you are not doing any long-term damage to your body. If you feel you need to keep your use secret, then you would be deliberately doping if you used the stuff. That's a no-no in my books
 
#33 ·
Firstly, this poll is screwed as the 2nd option contains two totally separate sections. There is also no option for not taking it because it would be unfair to the sport and other competitors who weren't prepared to play Russian roulette with their health and reputation with an under-the-radar drug!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So would have to vote for option 1.

Secondly, it is still cheating if it is simply not banned because it is a secret under-the-radar drug!! I would NEVER cheat in such a way, nor would I support any cheat that does this. Cheating the system, legal or not, is still cheating. If you aren't prepared to make it public that you are using a 'legal' PED, then that is deceitful and cheating. If you do go public, it would surely get exposed that way, and get banned pretty quickly so it won't be 'legal' to take it any more. Also, if you go public, it is not cheating, because your opponents will know you are taking it and can make a decision to appeal for it to be banned since they aren't prepared to take it due to health risks, etc.
 
#66 ·
Great Post! Unfortunately the reality is very different. The big strength of sport medicine is to be constantly ahead of official anti-doping programs. And of course sport medicine is often used and abused by some professional athletes and federations. The BBC and other reliable sources have recently published a study that was conducted by the International Olympic Committee.
This year in May the Committee retested 265 negative samples from the London 2012 Olympics with today's methodology. 23 athletes have tested positive in the 2016 reanalysis. That means those 23 athletes were taking PEDs that were not detected by the 2012 system.
23 out of 265 means that 8.6% Olympians take "legal" PEDS. It's a huge percentage.

Here is the entire article: http://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/36391896
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top