Sports Illustrated commented on the unfortunate situation of amateur and professional sports in contemporary society, “…the absence of positive drug testing should not be taken as proof that doping did not occur.”

The renowned magazine went further in explaining its perspective. “Every advance in the detection of performance-enhancing drugs has been met with an advance in masking.

When a method for detecting excessive testosterone using the body’s testosterone/epitestosterone ratio was developed in 1981, East German doctors began synthesizing epitestosterone for their athletes to inject along with testosterone to keep their ratios stable. The strategy surface again in the rub-on steroid lotion made infamous [with Marion Jones and other American athletes]. One popular current doping method is micro-dosing, or frequent use of small quantities of testosterone or EPO; enough to get a benefit, but not to exceed the testing threshold.”

Sports Illustrated also addressed the highly popular HGH (human growth hormone), “The current method of detection [of HGH] is so feeble that an athlete who injects HGH for lunch can be clean for testing by dinner.”

The world of open water swimming has, fortunately, not been plagued by athletes who are drug cheats – but it cannot be stated that open water swimming is perfectly clean. Where are the problems? How can we identify and strive for perfection? The 99.99% of swimmers who maintain the highest levels of integrity deserve a level playing field.

Dr. Annette Salmeen, herself an Olympic swimming gold medalist, a Rhodes scholar, research scientist and a board member of the United States Anti-Doping Agency will address various issues of drug taking and anti-doping measures at the Global Open Water Swimming Conference in New York City.

Dr. Salmeen’s perspective, knowledge and insight in this netherworld of competition and sports will be fascinating to hear as the sport of open water swimming strives to remain a sport of integrity.

Copyright © 2011 by Open Water Source