Monday, August 23, 2004
Sheep Testicles - Steroids for Ancient Greeks
One more athlete disqualified because of doping. Serves them right. Get them all out.
And a nice trivia note on ancient "steroids" from link above.
I can understand the extreme pressure these athletes are under to win, both for personal gains as well as all the sports federations, corporate and nationalistic interests behind them. Given the direction the world is going, the pressure should only get worse in the future. That´s why we need some strong "no dope allowed - period" enforcement in all games.
p.s. hard to tell from the 50 posts in 3 days that I´ve been hooked on the Olympics...
And a nice trivia note on ancient "steroids" from link above.
There are several references in the history books to competitors consuming sheep's testicles, whose performance-enhancing qualities were thought to include boosting testosterone and providing a competitor with more strength.
Mixing the poison-cum-stimulant strychnine with wine was another favourite potion, although getting the proportions wrong could be fatal.
The pitfalls of taking such a drug has lead many pundits with a passing knowledge of ancient Greece to draw parallels with the drug programmes of former Soviet Bloc countries during the 1970s, which have already lead to several premature deaths.
I can understand the extreme pressure these athletes are under to win, both for personal gains as well as all the sports federations, corporate and nationalistic interests behind them. Given the direction the world is going, the pressure should only get worse in the future. That´s why we need some strong "no dope allowed - period" enforcement in all games.
p.s. hard to tell from the 50 posts in 3 days that I´ve been hooked on the Olympics...
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