Columnist Dean Juipe: Risky drugs infiltrating every sport

WANTED: AN athlete, any athlete, who can compete at the highest level of sports without having spent a lifetime ingesting performance-enhancing drugs.

It seems as if that person no longer exists. Be it steroids or creatine or some other pharmaceutical concoction too high tech to comprehend, there's reason to believe every professional and Olympic-caliber athlete in the world is on drugs.

Most of those drugs are legal and arguably 100 percent beneficial to the athlete.

But many are banned substances, and even some of the legal ones -- creatine, to name a current hot one -- have been insufficiently researched to know if there are negative, long-term consequences.

The days of a big ol' kid coming off the farm or out of the city to achieve the heroic status of a Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig or Jackie Robinson have long since passed. Whereas athletes of previous generations may have pumped a little iron to improve their strength and endurance, today's athletes are buffed on pills and injections.

For sure there's not a shot-and-a-beer man like Ruth among them.

The rush to cash in on the big money available in sports these days has led to the laboratory. Doping certainly isn't a new phenomena but it is now so widespread that it's easy to believe the "clean" athlete has no chance of keeping up.

It's as if only the feign strong survive.

Some get caught however, including dozens just in the last few days. Sunday they wrapped up the Tour de France with fewer than 100 cyclists crossing the finish line of the 189 who started the marathon July 11. And it wasn't cramps or injuries that caused the majority to drop out, but the threat of more intense drug testing by the race's authorities.

Seven complete teams pulled out during a Tour de France devoid of racing excitement but ripe with doping allegations. There were drug-related incidents almost every day.

Also going down over the weekend was renowned U.S. shot putter Randy Barnes, the 1996 Olympic champion who holds the world indoor and outdoor records. He's looking at a lifetime suspension.

Another Olympian, three-time gold medalist Michelle Smith of Ireland, is facing a similar fate as her failed drug tests are analyzed by swimming's governing body.

Like steroid-built sprinter Ben Johnson before them, these athletes knowingly cheated and willingly accepted the multiple risks. It could be argued their push for fame and fortune shortcircuited their powers of reasoning.

Yet in all probability they recognized the dangers from both a health and within-the-rules standpoint and elected to plunge into this sprawling abyss in spite of the potential repercussions. They must have felt their moments of glory were worth the chance of disgrace.

Apparently there's no turning back. Performance-enhancing drugs will continue to evolve and will continue augmenting the world's athletically inclined.

It's a picture that's neither bleak nor promising, merely a reflection of an era that has nothing in common with the image of Ruth striding to the plate and clubbing a home run just a few hours after all-night beers and hot dogs.

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