For Older Athletes, Drug Question Emerges
The New York Times, August 18th, 2009
In his apartment outside Philadelphia, Frank Levine pulled a list of
prescription medications from his refrigerator, his hands shaking
slightly. There was metformin HCl and glipizide for his
diabetes; lisinopril for his
blood pressure; and
Viagra.
“I need it,” he said recently.
Mr. Levine, who is 95 and has
had operations on both knees, in June set the American record in the
400-meter dash for men ages 95 to 99, only to see it broken at the
U.S.A. Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships a few weeks
later. “Nothing counts unless you’re first,” he said.
Mr. Levine
belongs to a generation of track and field athletes who are breaking
records for speed, distance and endurance at ages once considered too
old for competition. In a sport tarnished by doping scandals, the older
athletes raise anew the question of what constitutes a natural body for
people who are at an age when drugs are a part of life.
“Who’s 75
years old and not taking medications?” asked Gary Snyder, national
chairman of U.S.A. Track & Field’s masters committee, which will
oversee more than 100 competitions this year for athletes over age 30.
Most drugs like Mr. Levine’s are not banned for competitors, but some common treatments for asthma, menopause and inflammation contain steroids that can disqualify athletes if they do not get written medical exemptions.
“I’m sure there are folks taking something like Manny,” Mr. Snyder said, referring to Manny Ramirez,
the baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers who this year was
suspended 50 games for violating the sport’s drug policy. “But most are
using drugs for medical reasons.”
Ray Feick, 77, said he
suspected “two or three” peers of using steroids to enhance their
performance, including one shot-putter who suddenly was able to beat
him. “My buddies and I talk about it,” he said. “It’s not fair to the
age bracket and not fair to their body. And one by one, they drop out.”
U.S.A.
Track & Field, the sport’s governing body, has a zero tolerance
policy for doping but does not test for drugs at masters events because
it is too expensive — about $500 per athlete and an additional $10,000
to take a testing organization to the meet, Mr. Snyder said.
But there is testing at the World Masters Championship,
which took place this year in Lahti, Finland, in late July and early
August. In 1999, the American sprinter Kathy Jager, 56, was stripped of
her medals and barred from competition for two years after she tested
positive for anabolic steroids, which she ascribed to her use of a
popular menopause treatment called Estratest HS.
“When we set records, the Europeans look at us like, ‘Oh sure, so-and-so is taking stuff,’ ” Mr. Snyder said.
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