Steroid Era... in track

David Oliver

When I ran track in college, it didn't take long for me to realize why many of the top athletes were so much faster than me. The first answer: God didn't give me that much speed.  The second: Most D1 sprinters were on performance enhancers.  I would hear coaches tell the team that Nationals were three weeks away and that they should all stop taking anything that might show up on a test.  Now, I was really naive. My thought was that there were perfectly honest athletes who had been taking legit medicine.  During the season a disgruntled Bahamian sprinter told me what I failed to pick up between the lines.  Almost all of the sprinters were on the juice.  As a walk-on at a D1 Christian university, I was a bit surprised.  How could these athletes justify cheating? Well apparently the coaches were the ones administering the drugs and convincing them that it was ok.  In fact, one athlete who was banned, was still running under a fake name to continue his training.
This all took place in the mid-90's, and as I understand, they only tested at Nationals in that time.  These days there is more testing going on.  So, why are records still being broken?  The cynic in me says that the drugs are more advanced than the testers, and that one day they will be found out like Marion Jones.  I mean explain how David Oliver can look like he does when he's a sprinter, not a tight end.  There is still that naive side of me though that says humans can do things that were thought impossible if we only put our mind to the task... well that is if God gives us the ability.  (No matter how hard I tried, I could not have run a 45 in the open 400m)
The other question is how many other track and field athletes were juiced and we'll never know whether their numbers are legit?  Try to explain Allen Johnson. He was the seasons fastest the 110m High Hurdles in 1995 when he was 24 just as he was 6 more seasons the last was in 2003 when he was 32.  Not only was he running really fast at the age of 32, but he was the fastest of anyone in an event that requires crazy speed and is hard on the hips, knees and shins.  I'm not indicting Allen Johnson, but this is one example of how Track and Field looks a whole lot like Baseball did in the Steroid Era.