golf, the old cycling/baseball?

[andy mac]

full article at:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/what-are-golfers-on/2005/08/15/1123958002006.html

(NB: they don't test as they say they don't have a problem.)

...in a recently published global report conducted by the International Olympic Committee across 33 different sports revealed that the greatest number of positive drug tests came from golf.

In 2003 samples were taken from competitors in the 28 Olympic sports and five others, including golf, that were hoping to make it on to the 2012 program and were analysed in IOC laboratories. When it came to calculating the percentage of doping violations, golf topped the lot. In the sport's defence the population size of the study was small and no mention was made of which drugs were taken. Even so, golf's holier-than-thou image becomes harder to accept. It should be remembered performance enhancement in sport does not simply create pumped-up beefcakes.

Perhaps the greatest benefits to be obtained from many banned substances are not building bulk but that they speed up recovery from training, increase fast-twitch muscle fibre and enable those who use them to achieve a greater physical output from the same amount of effort in training.

Surely these are effects that are potentially as helpful in golf as in other sports.Until now it had been the naive assumption of many in charge of the game that drugs would never be used by golfers as golfers had never been found to be using them.

If you close your eyes to something, you do not see it.

[Tom]

I used to golf a bit (this, this I hate admitting in public!) and usually with a 6:30am tee time the first beer was opened on the second hole.

I remember hearing about an Olympic caliber archer being busted for reefer. He admitted it helped him concentrate. I can just picture Tiger and Lefty out back of the clubhouse passing the diggity dank, can't you?

[Bill Bove]

I'll bet shooters test positive quite often too. They probably use something to slow down their heartrates. Do they test for "recreational drugs" too, or just performance enhancers. If pot is a performance enhancer I may have to rethink my ethics.

[keno]

http://www.colby.edu/echo/article.php?vol=CXXVII&issue=24&section=sports&id=7

keno

[JohnS]

I'll bet shooters test positive quite often too. They probably use something to slow down their heartrates. Do they test for "recreational drugs" too, or just performance enhancers. If pot is a performance enhancer I may have to rethink my ethics.
I know many national caliber (bad pun) shooters and don't know any that do more than have a beer after a match. Many are in the military. Besides, shooting is strictly amateur, with money not even covering expenses, so there's no compelling reason to use drugs to cheat. You don't so much as slow your heartrate down as insulate it from your gun. That's why everyone uses gloves and heavy shooting jackets, even in 90 degree heat.

[Bill Bove]

Thanks John, for setting me "straight" I'd hate to think of a bunch of stoned sharpshooters out there.

[RichMc]

The golf side would be to slow the players heartrate and get them to play with less anxiety. A slightly different arena. Players still get called out by other players if they are suspected of doing this though. Another fine line if one cares to toe the line. You don't want to be too numbed out. I must say thought that a few of us have shot pretty good rounds in our time when hungover.