California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger voiced strong opposition to the use of anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs in sports during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union with John King”. Schwarzenegger told John King that he thinks athletes, and presumably pro bodybuilders, should come clean and publicly admit their own steroid use as a mistake for the sake of children who view them as role models (”Schwarzenegger: Steroid Use Sends Bad Message,” February 22, 2009) :
“I think it’s important to get the message out that we should not use drugs. I think we have a certain obligation as athletes to inspire young people. When someone wins an Olympic championship or a boxing championship, whatever it may be, you’re not only a champion, but you’re also an inspirational vehicle for young kids and for people in general to stay fit, to lose weight and all of this.
“I think that the message of not using drugs, not using alcohol, all of those things, always out there and inspire young kids. So I think there are some athletes go in that direction because there’s so much competition. I think they need to come out, be clean, and say look, I used that, I made a mistake, or whatever it is and the sports ought to be without drugs. That’s the important thing.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger, as promoter of the Arnold Classic, has previously urged bodybuilding officials to crackdown on steroid use in the IFBB and called a steroid summit with leaders in the industry to institute steroid testing in the sport. This is widely considered as nothing more than a publicity stunt.
Schwarzenegger has publicly admitted his own use of anabolic steroids as a professional bodybuilder as early as 1974. He has never denied his use of steroids and has consistently acknowledged using them during precontest preparation. However, Schwarzenegger’s statements regarding anabolic steroids have not always entirely consistent and have become increasingly more “anti-steroid” particularly since he became governor of California.
Schwarzenegger’s steroid statements have gone from being entirely unapologetic about his responsible and safe use of steroids to characterization’s of his steroid use as stupid experimentation due to ignorance about the dangerous side effects of steroids. Here are some of Arnold’s steroid statements over the years…
IFBB professional bodybuilder Victor Martinez is expected to win the 2009 Arnold Classic bodybuilding contest on March 7, 2009 according to pro bodybuilding analysts. In addition to the rigorous precontest demands of preparing for one of the most prestigious pro bodybuilding contests on the calendar, Victor Martinez also had to contend with false reports published in the New York Daily News.
During the course of the Alex Rodriguez steroid investigation,the New York Daily News sent sports writer Christian Red down to the Dominican Republic presumably to find out how easy it was to obtain the same anabolic steroids purported to have been used by Alex Rodriguez i.e. testosterone and Primobolan. Alex Rodriguez admitted using anabolic steroids which he alleged were purchased in the Dominican Republic by his cousin.
When Christian Red learned that A-Rod’s preferred steroid Primobolan was NOT legally available in Dominican Republic pharmacies, he searched for other sources of steroids in the Caribbean nation that included gyms and supplement stores. The quest to purchase steroids led Red to the Santo Domingo supplement store identified as “Gurabo” that allegedly sells anabolic steroids. The New York Daily News FALSELY reported that Victor Martinez owned the supplement store Read more
Bodybuilding legend Robby Robinson wants federal government intervention into the sport of professional bodybuilding to combat the (mis)use of anabolic steroids in the sport (”Robby Robinson Still Waging War at 62,” July 14).
“There’s a lot of drugs in the sport,” he said. “To be 300 pounds and come down to 260 or 250. I think the government ought to do something.” Read more
Shortly after IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Victor Martinez won the 2007 Arnold Classic, Albany County District Attorney David Soare’s office publicly named Victor Martinez as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Signature Pharmacy and longevity clinic anabolic steroid scandal. Clearly, the intent and timing of the announcement represented a calculated grandstanding opportunity for David Soares to tarnish Governor Arnold Schwazenegger’s association with professional bodybuilding.
But over a year later, the Office of the Albany County District Attorney continues to prominently display Victor Martinez’ name and picture on its website in a diagram of Operation Which Doctor. He is listed with 23 other individuals directly involved in the Signature Pharmacy and longevity clinic steroid scandals. However, I believe Victor is the only individual listed who has not been indicted. But no where is he identified as an “unindicted co-conspirator” allowing visitors to make their own uninformed assumptions.
It has been reported that IFBB Pro Bodybuilders who competed in the 2008 Arnold Classic were required for the first time to sign a contract subjecting them to random drug testing. Jim Lorimer, the promoter and co-founder of the Arnold Sports Festival, told male bodybuilding competitors in an athlete’s meeting that the IFBB implemented a new drug testing policy in January 2008.
In previous years, IFBB pro bodybuilders have agreed to IFBB Professional League Rules that assert the “Pro League has power and authority to conduct drug testing at designated events.”
However, Jim Lorimer confirmed last week that the IFBB will act upon that authority this year by implementing random drug testing.
Jim Lorimer told the athletes that every one of the over 30 sports federations competing in the Arnold Sports Festival has a testing protocol including the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB). Lorimer discusses the existing “amateur” protocol in the IFBB but also announced that in January 2008 the IFBB has implemented a testing protocol in the IFBB Professional League to “protect integrity and future of the sport.” The testing was implemented in response to other professional sports being “killed by the publicity” surrounding doping. Details of the IFBB’s new testing protocol were not revealed only that “there will be some testing throughout the coming year.”
The IFBB is a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) Code. The president of the IFBB, Rafael Santonja, has been active in WADA meetings and oversees IFBB Anti-Doping Rules administered at the IFBB Amateur level. These doping controls are said to conform to provisions of the WADA code. These same doping controls have not been administered in the Professional League.
It is highly unlikely that any attempt at testing, even periodic random testing, would target anabolic steroids and the exhaustive list of performance enhancing drugs listed in the WADA Prohibited Substance List.
Further details will be posted as they become available.
Could you imagine a pharmaceutical company (whose top-selling drugs are anabolic steroids) becoming the title sponsor of a professional bodybuilding contest? What is Unimed, whose top selling drug products are Anadrol-50 (oxymetholone) and AndroGel (testosterone), sponsored the Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding contest resulting in the “Unimed Pharmaceuticals IFBB Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Championships”?!! Or how about Savient, whose top-selling drug product is Oxandrin (oxandrolone), sponsoring the Arnold Classic resulting in the Savient Pharmaceuticals IFBB Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic Bodybuilding Championships?!! Observers would comment on the irony given that professional bodybuilding is practically synonymous with the use of anabolic steroids.
Interestingly, in the sport of professional cycling, such an unlikely sponsorship has been taking place since 2006 when the biotechnology company Amgen became the title sponsor of professional cycling’s Amgen Tour of California. One prominent cycling commentator called it the “death of irony.” You see, Amgen’s most successful product to date is Epogen (recombinant erythropoietin); it’s second best-selling drug is a long-acting version of Epogen called Aranesp (darbepoietin). Epogen is the most notorious performance-enhancing drug in cycling; Epogen is to professional cycling what anabolic steroids are to professional bodybuilding!
If the controversial title sponsorship was not enough, Tour of California organizers accidentally forgot to drug test riders for Epogen during the inaugural 2006 Amgen Tour of California. They tested for all other banned drugs but simply forgot to test for Epogen!
And why is Amgen spending $35 million sponsorship over a 5-year commitment on professional cycling? Is it because professional cyclist represent proof of the miraculous performance-enhancing effects of their products? Not exactly. Amgen’s scientific director Dr. Steven Elliott explains:
Our opportunity is to educate cyclists that there is an appropriate way to use a drug, and doping in sport is not it… Our medicines were made because we want to treat grievous illnesses. They’re not for enhancing performance in sport.
I think the sport of professional bodybuilding could use a $35 million infusion by a giant pharmaceutical company who manufacturers anabolic steroids and/or human growth hormone who could use the sponsorship as an opportunity to promote the therapeutic benefits of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.
But then again, along with the Amgen sponsorship of the Tour of California came pressure to expand anti-doping testing and improve anti-doping procedures.
The upcoming 2008 Amgen Tour of California cycling road race will adopt the most comprehensive anti-doping protocol in cycling history it was announced by Andrew Messick, president, AEG Sports, presenter of the race, at a press conference today.
This is something that professional bodybuilding probably does not want.
IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Hidetada Yamagishi was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) after arriving from Narita Airport (Tokyo) on December 8, 2007. Hide recently spent five weeks in his home country of Japan. He is currently being held at the North County Correctional Facility in Saugus, California on $180,000 bond. He will have a court date on January 8, 2008 at Los Angeles Municipal Court.
Contrary to what has been reported elsewhere, he is unlikely to post bail. Since U.S. authorities have placed an immigration hold on Hidetada Yamagishi, if he does post bail, he will immediately be taken into federal custody until the conclusion of his legal proceeding. Hide will then be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and placed in deportation proceedings.
This most certainly means he will not compete at the 2008 Ironman Pro Invitational or the 2008 Arnold Classic. Hidetada’s name has already been removed from the official Arnold Classic competitor’s list.
