While Arnold may be too chickenshit to take a stand for decriminalizing AAS, here is a list of athletes who aren't afraid to stand up for AAS:
Bodybuilders with Balls
Bob Cicherillo
Nasser El Sonbaty
Frank Zane
Powerlifters with Balls
Scott Albon, 30 -- who bench-pressed a record 705 pounds last year
Fans with Balls
Melanie Mangan of Akron, Ohio;
Ray Tyler of Columbus;
Jon Grove of Kennesaw, Ga
Size, not steroids, is the big deal for bodybuilding enthusiasts
Arnold Classic: Competitors and fans largely unconcerned by illegal substances
[font=geneva,arial]- Edward Epstein and Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writers
[/font][font=geneva,arial][size=-2]Sunday, March 6, 2005
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Columbus, Ohio -- If there's a constituency that opposes a crackdown on steroids and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs in sports, it can be found here at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's huge bodybuilding exposition, where the mantra is: Big is not only better, it's the only way to go.
At the center of the three-day fitness sports festival that Schwarzenegger and a business partner stage annually, are the Arnold Classic pro bodybuilding competition, which features a $100,000 grand prize for the winning man, and a 600-booth exposition promoting all things muscle -- supplements, magazines, clothing and memorabilia commemorating Schwarzenegger, the seven-time Mr. Olympia turned movie star and politician.
Among the thousands clamoring to buy the latest fat-burning formulas, spray-on tans, temporary tattoos or body-revealing fitness clothing, it's tough to find anyone who thinks it's a problem that athletes in any sport use steroids, human growth hormone or other illegal substances.
"There will be no progress in any sport if people don't come up with new nutrition and new medication,'' said behemoth pro bodybuilder Nasser El Sonbaty, all 305 pounds of him. Nasser, as bodybuilding fans call him, won the Arnold Classic in 1999, and was autographing photos of himself from a booth sponsored by Flex magazine, a bodybuilding monthly that lists Schwarzenegger as its executive editor.
Sonbaty and others interviewed on the jammed expo floor this weekend said it's a losing battle for the government or organized sports to try to ban illegal substances. Rather, they suggested, the way forward is to allow the legal usage of such substances under a doctor's care.
Fighting to keep drugs out of sports, he said, is "like trying to put a speed limit on Formula One racing.'' It won't work.
Frank Zane, a former Mr. Olympia, could win bodybuilding's top prize weighing just 190 pounds in the 1970s. A competitor today couldn't even get on stage at less than 220 pounds, and many weigh more than 300 pounds.
Zane, now 62, says illegal chemicals play a role in the physical growth of today's competitors: "It's rampant in every sport, but we've ignored it for a long time. People will use any means to enhance their performance. The public expects it.''
Regulated use could be necessary, he allowed, "so people don't kill themselves.''
Baseball and BALCO
The enthusiasm for performance-enhancing substances comes despite a federal investigation into the alleged distribution of steroids to Olympic and other professional athletes by those affiliated with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. The BALCO case prompted Congress last year to toughen penalties for distributing steroids without a prescription and add more substances to the list of banned materials.
Major League Baseball officials and its players union also negotiated a new, more stringent steroids testing policy, which for the first time will publicize the names of those players caught using the banned drugs.
The move by baseball came in the wake of stories about the BALCO case published in The Chronicle, including a report that New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi told a federal grand jury investigating BALCO that he had used steroids. Congress continues to pursue the issue, and a House committee has asked baseball commissioner Bud Selig and a number of players and former stars, including former home-run champ Mark McGwire, to testify at a hearing later this month.
Schwarzenegger, who first gained fame more than 30 years ago as a bodybuilder, admits he used steroids to build muscle. Back then, it was legal, if done under a doctor's direction. And while the governor has said he doesn't regret using drugs during a competitive career that ended in 1980, he said athletes and young people today should stay away from now-illegal substances. At the same time, he admits that several of the men who compete in his annual show use steroids and other illegal substances to build their massive physiques.
In an interview Saturday, Schwarzenegger took a much harder line than the fans and competitors that swarmed him at the annual festival he has sponsored since 1989.
"The problem is we want to get rid of the drugs," he said, rejecting the idea of deregulating steroids.
Schwarzenegger also said he'd like to see more stringent drug testing of bodybuilding competitors.
Giant muscles popular
Still, the governor's youthful buffed-up likeness was sold this weekend on everything from T-shirts to elaborate leather jackets and expensive portrait art. The Arnold physique, however, was dwarfed by the superhero-size "ripped" muscles of one of this generation's stars, Jay Cutler, the three-time Arnold Classic winner with the 22 1/2-inch biceps.
"I've followed him for years, since 1989 -- and watching him grow is unbelievable,'' said fan Melanie Mangan of Akron, Ohio, after waiting to pay $10 for an autograph and eagerly posing with Cutler for a photo.
Mangan said Cutler's rapid growth wasn't disturbing at all. "It's very, very motivating,'' she said.
Ray Tyler of Columbus, at the expo with his kids, also said he'd watched Cutler's physique rapidly swell over the last three years. Asked if that could possibly be natural, Tyler shrugged: "Whatever he's doing, he's doing it right."
Indeed, many of those drawn to the world of bodybuilding and pro fitness say -- whether the government wants to regulate the sport or hopes to discourage such mega-bodies -- the fans adore them, and that's what counts.
"They don't want to see their neighbor on stage,'' said Jon Grove of Kennesaw, Ga., who came to the show with a legion of beefy power lifters from North Georgia Bar Bell, a gym that draws competitors from across the South.
"This is a strength and muscle event, and they want to see guys lift unreal weights. They want a 1,200-pound squat, not a 900-pound squat,'' Grove said. "They want big bodies.''
Strongman competitors in the group, such as middleweight power lifter Scott Albon, 30 -- who bench-pressed a record 705 pounds last year -- said he and others in his sport were not tested for steroid use at the Arnold event. "They did it one year, and the fans were the first to complain,'' he said. "It's a losing battle.''
Albon and others said that government -- and especially the governor of California -- should take a hands-off attitude, and let the competitors decide what they're willing to do to make it to the top.
"Nobody wants to hear their idol speaking negative about their sport,'' Grove said of Schwarzenegger.
As he signed autographs and hit poses for fans this week at the Bodybuilding.com booth, Bob Cicherillo also argued that regulation wasn't the answer. The bodybuilder, who will compete next weekend at the San Francisco pro show, said the use of steroids and other drugs for sports isn't like the illegal use of crack or heroin.
"I don't see people robbing banks because they're on steroids," he said. "The government can't control it, so they try to ban it.''
But there were some who insisted that -- despite a marketplace that pressures for bigger, stronger, faster -- some are getting wise to the dangers of steroids.
Doing it the hard way
Women's pro heavyweight bodybuilding competitor Lisa Aukland of Bel Air, Md., a perky blonde with stunning musculature who holds a doctorate in pharmacology, said she's among those who refuse to take part in the "win-at-all-costs" drug mantra. As she joined a parade of toned females backstage applying gleaming body oils in the "pump room'' before taking the stage for the women's competition, Aukland insisted that those with a passion for the sport must get their hard bodies the hard way -- by careful diet and grueling exercise.
The drugs "can change your look'' and come at a high price, said Aukland, shaking her head sadly. "That makes me smart enough to stay away from all of it.'' Page A - 1
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/06/CLASSIC.TMP.
Bodybuilders with Balls
Bob Cicherillo
Nasser El Sonbaty
Frank Zane
Powerlifters with Balls
Scott Albon, 30 -- who bench-pressed a record 705 pounds last year
Fans with Balls
Melanie Mangan of Akron, Ohio;
Ray Tyler of Columbus;
Jon Grove of Kennesaw, Ga
Size, not steroids, is the big deal for bodybuilding enthusiasts
Arnold Classic: Competitors and fans largely unconcerned by illegal substances
[font=geneva,arial]- Edward Epstein and Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writers
[/font][font=geneva,arial][size=-2]Sunday, March 6, 2005
[/size][/font]
Invalid Embedded Image RemovedInvalid Embedded Image RemovedInvalid Embedded Image Removed
Columbus, Ohio -- If there's a constituency that opposes a crackdown on steroids and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs in sports, it can be found here at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's huge bodybuilding exposition, where the mantra is: Big is not only better, it's the only way to go.
At the center of the three-day fitness sports festival that Schwarzenegger and a business partner stage annually, are the Arnold Classic pro bodybuilding competition, which features a $100,000 grand prize for the winning man, and a 600-booth exposition promoting all things muscle -- supplements, magazines, clothing and memorabilia commemorating Schwarzenegger, the seven-time Mr. Olympia turned movie star and politician.
Among the thousands clamoring to buy the latest fat-burning formulas, spray-on tans, temporary tattoos or body-revealing fitness clothing, it's tough to find anyone who thinks it's a problem that athletes in any sport use steroids, human growth hormone or other illegal substances.
"There will be no progress in any sport if people don't come up with new nutrition and new medication,'' said behemoth pro bodybuilder Nasser El Sonbaty, all 305 pounds of him. Nasser, as bodybuilding fans call him, won the Arnold Classic in 1999, and was autographing photos of himself from a booth sponsored by Flex magazine, a bodybuilding monthly that lists Schwarzenegger as its executive editor.
Sonbaty and others interviewed on the jammed expo floor this weekend said it's a losing battle for the government or organized sports to try to ban illegal substances. Rather, they suggested, the way forward is to allow the legal usage of such substances under a doctor's care.
Fighting to keep drugs out of sports, he said, is "like trying to put a speed limit on Formula One racing.'' It won't work.
Frank Zane, a former Mr. Olympia, could win bodybuilding's top prize weighing just 190 pounds in the 1970s. A competitor today couldn't even get on stage at less than 220 pounds, and many weigh more than 300 pounds.
Zane, now 62, says illegal chemicals play a role in the physical growth of today's competitors: "It's rampant in every sport, but we've ignored it for a long time. People will use any means to enhance their performance. The public expects it.''
Regulated use could be necessary, he allowed, "so people don't kill themselves.''
Baseball and BALCO
The enthusiasm for performance-enhancing substances comes despite a federal investigation into the alleged distribution of steroids to Olympic and other professional athletes by those affiliated with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. The BALCO case prompted Congress last year to toughen penalties for distributing steroids without a prescription and add more substances to the list of banned materials.
Major League Baseball officials and its players union also negotiated a new, more stringent steroids testing policy, which for the first time will publicize the names of those players caught using the banned drugs.
The move by baseball came in the wake of stories about the BALCO case published in The Chronicle, including a report that New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi told a federal grand jury investigating BALCO that he had used steroids. Congress continues to pursue the issue, and a House committee has asked baseball commissioner Bud Selig and a number of players and former stars, including former home-run champ Mark McGwire, to testify at a hearing later this month.
Schwarzenegger, who first gained fame more than 30 years ago as a bodybuilder, admits he used steroids to build muscle. Back then, it was legal, if done under a doctor's direction. And while the governor has said he doesn't regret using drugs during a competitive career that ended in 1980, he said athletes and young people today should stay away from now-illegal substances. At the same time, he admits that several of the men who compete in his annual show use steroids and other illegal substances to build their massive physiques.
In an interview Saturday, Schwarzenegger took a much harder line than the fans and competitors that swarmed him at the annual festival he has sponsored since 1989.
"The problem is we want to get rid of the drugs," he said, rejecting the idea of deregulating steroids.
Schwarzenegger also said he'd like to see more stringent drug testing of bodybuilding competitors.
Giant muscles popular
Still, the governor's youthful buffed-up likeness was sold this weekend on everything from T-shirts to elaborate leather jackets and expensive portrait art. The Arnold physique, however, was dwarfed by the superhero-size "ripped" muscles of one of this generation's stars, Jay Cutler, the three-time Arnold Classic winner with the 22 1/2-inch biceps.
"I've followed him for years, since 1989 -- and watching him grow is unbelievable,'' said fan Melanie Mangan of Akron, Ohio, after waiting to pay $10 for an autograph and eagerly posing with Cutler for a photo.
Mangan said Cutler's rapid growth wasn't disturbing at all. "It's very, very motivating,'' she said.
Ray Tyler of Columbus, at the expo with his kids, also said he'd watched Cutler's physique rapidly swell over the last three years. Asked if that could possibly be natural, Tyler shrugged: "Whatever he's doing, he's doing it right."
Indeed, many of those drawn to the world of bodybuilding and pro fitness say -- whether the government wants to regulate the sport or hopes to discourage such mega-bodies -- the fans adore them, and that's what counts.
"They don't want to see their neighbor on stage,'' said Jon Grove of Kennesaw, Ga., who came to the show with a legion of beefy power lifters from North Georgia Bar Bell, a gym that draws competitors from across the South.
"This is a strength and muscle event, and they want to see guys lift unreal weights. They want a 1,200-pound squat, not a 900-pound squat,'' Grove said. "They want big bodies.''
Strongman competitors in the group, such as middleweight power lifter Scott Albon, 30 -- who bench-pressed a record 705 pounds last year -- said he and others in his sport were not tested for steroid use at the Arnold event. "They did it one year, and the fans were the first to complain,'' he said. "It's a losing battle.''
Albon and others said that government -- and especially the governor of California -- should take a hands-off attitude, and let the competitors decide what they're willing to do to make it to the top.
"Nobody wants to hear their idol speaking negative about their sport,'' Grove said of Schwarzenegger.
As he signed autographs and hit poses for fans this week at the Bodybuilding.com booth, Bob Cicherillo also argued that regulation wasn't the answer. The bodybuilder, who will compete next weekend at the San Francisco pro show, said the use of steroids and other drugs for sports isn't like the illegal use of crack or heroin.
"I don't see people robbing banks because they're on steroids," he said. "The government can't control it, so they try to ban it.''
But there were some who insisted that -- despite a marketplace that pressures for bigger, stronger, faster -- some are getting wise to the dangers of steroids.
Doing it the hard way
Women's pro heavyweight bodybuilding competitor Lisa Aukland of Bel Air, Md., a perky blonde with stunning musculature who holds a doctorate in pharmacology, said she's among those who refuse to take part in the "win-at-all-costs" drug mantra. As she joined a parade of toned females backstage applying gleaming body oils in the "pump room'' before taking the stage for the women's competition, Aukland insisted that those with a passion for the sport must get their hard bodies the hard way -- by careful diet and grueling exercise.
The drugs "can change your look'' and come at a high price, said Aukland, shaking her head sadly. "That makes me smart enough to stay away from all of it.'' Page A - 1
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/06/CLASSIC.TMP.
I have absolutely NO genetic potential whatsoever. 
