Bigger faster Stronger Doco :(

Ive been sick the last few days which is a bit of a shame. Ive been training pretty hard doing alot of cardio and weight training as well as alot of uchikomi and nage komi but unfortunately i have caught a cold. So ive been watching a few movies while being at home, one of them in particular was a documentary called Bigger Faster Stronger.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=55243562

It was pretty much about steroid use in America and how all the American hero's eg Hulk Hogan, Arnold Swzaerneger and Rocky all all on steroids and people look upto them but steroids are illegal. From an athlete point of view the Documentary was pretty much about the stereo typical body builder and powerlifters that were picked on at school and the only way to get respect was to go on steroids and become huge.

the whole video was trying to give a 'intellectual approach' to taking steroids. It really annoyed me for the following reasons
1- they had these old retired drug testers on there saying 'all athletes are on drugs'
2- they constantly portrayed that you cant win without drugs
3- pushing the fact that if everyone is on them it evens the playing field

In saying that though the doco gave you alot of facts but they didnt give you ALL the facts. For example they were saying that athletes train at altitude or sleep in a altitude chamber in order to increase red blood cells, which is true. But in contrast taking EPO or blood doping does the exact same thing but they are illegal while the altitude stuff is legal. The doco was saying why is that, technically they are both performance enhancing.

So interesting argument but they didn't give viewers all the facts. The International Olympic commiteesays that for a drug to be deemed illegal it must be 2 of 3 things.
1- performance enhancing
2- be against the spirit of the sport
3- detrimental to your health

If a drug is only 1 of these three things then it is Legal. If it is 2 or even 3 of these things it is deemed illegal. So think on on this. Water is a legal substance. But although water is legal, but injecting it is illegal. This is because although injecting it is not really performance enhancing it is against the spirit of the sport and it is detrimental to your health (this is because coaches were injecting and not registered nurses.) So therefore anything involving an injection is illegal.

So an altitude chamber is performance enhancing but not against the spirit and not detrimental therefore its legal. but injecting EPO and blood doping is illegal because its against the spirit of the sport and its detrimental to your health.

I didnt end up watching the whole doco i ended up fast forwarding and then just turning it off. It made me think as usual of my favourite quote which is just so so true.

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."

Everything is possible if you bust your butt and work hard for it. No one gets anywhere without hard work. doing tours i have had many people say to me, 'man your so lucky you got to go to the Olympics." and im like are you serious?
i didnt get my name pulled out of a hat.
i have been busting my butt since i was about 12 to get there. That's 10 years. I have sacrificed time and effort and put relationships on strain to get there. I've travelled all over the world getting beat up to get there. Not to mention 5 knee operations and a permanently mangy ear. There is no 'luck' about it.

Hard work, dedication and studying yourself and the sport is the only way to get anywhere in sport.

Have an awesome day
Matt