PED's in Ultimate

Is it possible? Is it impossible? Is there a sport better suited for PED use?

After following the Cushing story for a little while, I can not help but consider the possibility that PED's are in our sport.

Ok, first off, lets re-visit the definition of Performance Enhancing Drugs. In glancing at Wikipedia's page on the topic, I couldn't help but notice that marijuana actually can be a PED in sports like archery to reduce jitters and to steady one's hand. Using this definition, PED's are definitely in our sport.

However, what about the good stuff like steroids and HGH? Is it possible that they exist in ultimate? I suppose those that have never thought about it, or come across anyone who has, these sorts of PEDs are not unlike hard drugs. I personally have only seen cocaine twice and have never seen heroin, PCP, Ecstasy, etc.. and would have no clue how to procure any of them, even if I wanted to. That does not mean that they do not exist though and given the fact that steroid use is prevalent in high schools across the US, I am inclined to believe a motivated adult could find whatever they thought would help.

This concept is even more alarming when considering the number of players in our sport. A quick glance at the college rankings site indicates that there are over 600 teams registered on the score reporter, in the open division alone. Now I do not claim that all are active teams, but that is a lot. If I could venture a guess as to how many people play ultimate, I suspect the number would fall in the 10s of 1,000s and with such a large sample size, I am skeptical that 100% are clean.

What's worse is that ultimate, like most professional sports, is ideal for PED abuse. Some say steroids or HGH can not help you hit a fastball, but they sure as shit can help you heal. That is the canonical use for steroids. Can you imagine how valuable such a substance would be in getting through an arduous 6 month season? What about overcoming an injury or giving you the boost you need to make the cut? Which brings me to my next point, who would consider using.

For most top shelf athletes, PED use in ultimate is likely unnecessary. If you are gifted physically, you likely have no interest in artificially boosting your body's ability and would likely feel unimaginable guilt and regret if you did so. But realistically, such athletes do not constitute a majority. They represent the small few that can walk onto a field and stun the masses simply by doing their thing. But what about the rest of us? How badly do you want to make the A team? What would you sacrifice? And are you even mature enough to understand the implications and consequences of your actions?

I suppose one could counter that because one's financial stability does not depend on their performance in ultimate, the temptation is not as prevalent as in professional sports. My response to this lies with availability. Yes, if sequestering steroids required knowing the right people, paying the right price, and/or venturing into some really dark places, steroid use would be a rough road for the recreational player to traverse. However, with websites like this and this, one just needs a credit card. Punch in a few numbers and your address and boom, welcome to 20 inch pythons. The ease of the internet once again shows that it comes with some drawbacks.

Considering the fact that abuse knows no age and the sport has grown into the same demographics that have already been shown to use PEDs (high school students) I am inclined to believe that somewhere, someone is using. That being said, my biggest question is "How does this affect spirit of the game?" Forget refs, forget muscling for position, travel calls, or double teaming. What about steroids?

Scary as it may sound, perhaps someone reads this and gets an idea. Hopefully it is an administrator looking to build some sort of testing infrastructure, but I suspect it could be a college kid who's a little scrawny, who loves the game, and simply HAS to make his/her A team. And to add to the temptation, who's going to stop him/her? What is in place to even address the issue? Once again, forget refs, what about PEDs?

I suppose this issue is a few years down the road, but only because no one has been busted yet. It took Black Tide getting booted from Nationals to get people to pay attention to years of eligibility. Then again, how would one currently even recognize or catch a PED user? Which is probably the scariest component to the argument. We simply can't.

just my thoughts

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