I’ve been following the issue of steroids in sports in general and this BALCO case in particular. If you’re not up to date on it, BALCO is the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, and there is an investigation about their role in supplying performance-enhancing drugs to top athletes, like sprinter Marion Jones in the story I linked to above. Part of the controversy is the evolution of this new steroidal drug, THG, which was previously undetectable by the anti-doping tests administered by the Olympics, the NFL, etc.

I’m beginning to wonder if it is futile to try to keep our athletes drug-free. There is so much money and competition in sport that someone is bound to take any drug that will give them an edge. The more we test them, the more labs like BALCO will engineer undetectable drugs.

What’s the point? From my understanding, the idea is that we want to have a “level playing field.” We don’t want someone to have to choose between playing clean and losing or ruining their liver, getting roid-rage, and setting a bad example for kids and winning. We want our competitions to be between athletes who have natural talent and great training, not the best chemical cocktail in their bloodstream.

But what if we put our research into making steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs that are safer for one’s health? We already accept many chemicals and training regimens to enhance performance that would be completely foreign to athletics fifty years ago. We allow science to make better training equipment, more nutritious foods and vitamin supplements, and recovery drinks like Gatorade. Why not allow science to make better “vitamins?”

Personally, I’d love to see the All-Drug Olympics. Let’s see just how far science can push the human body. I want to see that sub-9 second 100-meter dash. How about a ten-foot high jump? Imagine the weightlifting and boxing competitions!