Benefits from doping could last decades according to new research

Scientists at the University of Oslo have found that athletes can benefit from taking anabolic steroids for decades after they have taken them. These new findings will obviously have major implications considering that those that are caught are serving two year bans.

Kristian Gundersen, Professor of Physiology at the University of Oslo said..."I think it is likely that effects could be lifelong or at least lasting decades in humans. If you exercise, or take anabolic steroids, you get more nuclei and you get bigger muscles. If you take away the steroids, you lose the muscle mass, but the nuclei remain inside the muscle fibres. They are like temporarily closed factories, ready to start producing protein again when you start exercising again. Our data indicates the exclusion time of two years is far too short. Even four years is too short."

These findings are all the more relevant now considering that controversial US sprinter Justin Gatlin has been nominated for IAAF male athlete of the year.  Gatlin was the 2004 Olympic 100m gold medalist and was double sprint world champion in 2005. He was banned for four years from 2006 to 2010 after failing a drugs test for a second time.

In the last week, Olympic discus champion Robert Harting from Germany asked to be removed from the nomination list in protest at Gatlin's inclusion.

Dai Greene, a former British 400m hurldes champion offered this opinion......"It shows one of two things: either he's still taking performance-enhancing drugs to get the best out of him at his advanced age (32), or the ones he did take are still doing a fantastic job because there is no way he can still be running that well at this late point in his career."

There is a very good article today by Tom Fordyce about the study on the BBC News website.

The BBC also had another article about Justin Gatlin yesterday.

All this no doubt will add to the pressure to have the governing body the IAAF to do something serious about doping. It's a bit of a farce that they can take a take a Gold medal off the French athlete Mahiedine Benabbad for taking off his singlet in the home straight of the steeplechase race in the European championships yet they can have one of the most notorious dopers nominated for male athlete of the year.