arnold on aas

[decadbal]

being a xpro, i figured this could fit here..

It all started with steroids.

The rise to governor was built on his movie fame. The movie career sprung from his notoriety as the world's top bodybuilder. His claim to that perch was based on his winning a record seven Mr. Olympia titles, with the aid of muscle-building drugs pumping up a body that was once no more techno-human than that of, say, your average junior champion curler -- of the broom, not barbell variety. Which Arnold Schwarzenegger was as a boy in Austria.


Arnold has been pointed out for his influence in the introduction of steroids in professional sports.
As Schwarzenegger rationalized as recently as 1996, "It was what I had to do to compete. The danger with steroids is over-usage. I only did it before a difficult competition -- for two months, but not for a period of time that would harm me. And then afterward it was over."

He got what he needed. He moved on.

He didn't die.

His back erect and his smile as bright as the mid-day sun, Schwarzenegger, now 56 and California's governor, seems the picture of health and vitality. Large-living proof of how synthetic hormones can actually enhance a person's existence. The new, updated role model for steroids, to replace that of the withered Lyle Alzado.

The anti-steroids lobby is having a hard time grasping what it means to have a steroids profiteer as head of the nation's most populous state. But this much is certain: If Schwarzenegger has any reservations about how his rise to the governor's office might heighten the acceptance of steroids, in sports and elsewhere in society, then his new job offers the chance to adjust his legacy.

"He's in position now to have influence," said Richard Pound, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which conducts testing for the Olympics and other sports bodies. "He can address the labeling of (muscle-building) supplements. He can deal with the trafficking of steroids, the use of steroids, the medical classifications of steroids that have no therapeutic application. There are (criminal) disciplinary issues."

California is the world capital for performance-enhancing drugs. It's the state that introduced steroids to the NFL, via the San Dianabol Chargers of the 1960s. Much of the steroids trade in this country still runs through California, where stopping the flow from Mexico is a low priority for law enforcement. California companies led the fight against regulating potentially dangerous sports supplements.

The latest company under a spotlight: San Francisco-based Bay Area Laboratories Co-Operative (BALCO), now the subject of a federal grand jury inquiry and, according to the U.S Anti-Doping Agency, the alleged disseminator of designer steroids to high-profile athletes. More recently came a report that four Oakland Raiders had received letters from the NFL that they had failed for THG and could faces suspension by the NFL.

	Supps