Gatlin faces lifetime ban...is testosterone illegal now?
 

I have special interest in it because Gatlin when to Tennessee, but when did testosterone become illegal?

Me thinks there's a feminist joke somewhere to be found.

Testosterone isn't. Illegal ratios of testosterone and epitestosterone is.

(basically, if it's produced naturally, there should be a certain ratio of the two.. if due to doping, there is extra testosterone, and no extra epitestosterone

Having extremely high levels of testosterone is considered a sign of cheating. Testosterone I think has similar effects to HGH and can also be a marker for other performance enhancers. They test the level against something that starts with an E, I can't remember it now. In most people the ratio is 1:1, the level used to be 6:1 testosterone to the other one, now I think it is 3:1, which is still 3 or 4 standard deviations above the norm. It is the same thing Floyd Landis is running into. Some people have very high natural occuring testosterone levels, so they will check the B sample for, I think, genetic indicators.

This guy's coach says someone "sabatoged" him. Meanwhile his coach is connected to Marion Jones and Montgomery. These athletes are getting out of control. They took the drugs. You can't tell me these guys aren't monitoring things going into their bodies...either themselves or the coaches/trainers. Either way, it's the athlete's responsibility.

I just find it odd you can go to GNC or any other vitamin store and buy a testosterone product over the counter...and these guys (didn't know that this was the case with Landis as well) are getting hit for it.

It doesn't matter if its legal or illegal, if it is against the rules, it is against the rules.

I suppose that's true.

I'm sure the athlete's know that high levels of T can get them busted.

I guess what I'm getting at is that it sucks that stuff you can buy through normal means can get you busted.

Landis' excuse is that he got drunk the night before, which naturally raises the testosterone to epitestosterone level.

As certain as I am that many of these athletes are doping, the tests and thresholds used to suspend them are not nearly as cut and dry as doping agencies make them out to be. It's not like the old days where you could discover precisely which horse tranquilizer Ben Johnson was using on a given day.

Also, FWIW, if Gatlin is proven guilty he is facing a lifetime ban. He was suspended before for taking ADD medication.

I was drunk during the watermelon seed spitting contest, and they busted me. Don't worry about me, boys....I spit some seeds in the testers general direction--I think they got the point.

Stickum is prefectly legal to buy but it's illegal to use in the NFL. I don't really see much difference.

Thats why I buy O'Henderson's Brand Stickum: All the Stickum goodness, but 100% undectable by the NFL stickum tests

Next you're going to tell me someone can't take a urine test for me.

Are Whizzinator jokes still timely?

I wouldn't compare it to stickum because there is an easily definable amd enforceable line there. With supplements these days it's all such a gray area that if the "acceptable" testosterone-epitesterone level is 4 to 1, then any athlete who isn't at at least 3 to 1 is hurting himself with regard to the competition. In the NFL, it's easy to make the distinction between applying stickum and not applying stickum, in Track & Field cheating is the difference between using 7.5mL of some substance or 10mL.

And that's why you need a doctor and you need to be careful as to what you put into your body. This is your sporting life on the line here. It's your career. Guys like Landis and Gatlin have highly paid medical experts who make those calls. I have very little sympathy.

Looks like Gatlin may want to reconsider that move to football that he turned down.

I think that was Xavier Carter......

I'm pretty sure the story was that the option was out there for him, but his agent Renaldo "Skeets" Nehemiah told him to pass it up. As he can/could get a lot of money in appearance fees in track and field.

Yes, things were much simpler back when non-Americans were getting caught.

Seriously, what's the difference?

This is what I got as being the general complaint of the thread as well :D

Before, you could test for specific substances that were not naturally produced by the human body. Now that "exercise science"/doping has gotten so much more advanced, it's all based on probabilities. There's really no alternative, but it increases the potential for false positives.

Agreed that these guys are idiots if the B samples confirm and they are suspended.