1975 Anabole Steroide, Diskussion in Großbritannien

1975 fand unter der Schirmherrschaft des British Journal of Sports Medicine BASM eine internationale Konferenz unter dem Thema „Anabolic Steroids and Sport“ statt.* Die erste Internationale Konferenz hatte im Mai 1964 in Gent stattgefunden, siehe >>> hier. Anabole Steroide waren in den 1970er Jahren ein großes Thema, das weltweit im Sport äußerst kontrovers diskutiert wurde (siehe hierzu die auf c4f umfassend dokumentierte Diskussion in Westdeutschland). Paul Dimeo schreibt über die Diskussion zu Anabolen Steroiden in Großbritannien in den ersten 1970er Jahren anlässlich der BASM-Konferenz:

Even when testing was inroduced in an experimental way at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, there was uproar that any positives could not be punished:

Lieutenant Colonel Fraser, the medical superintendent at the competitors‘ village, has confirmed that no action will be taken if it is proven that an athlete has broken international sports rules by taking steroids, and no names of those sinning will be revealed. This seems an extraordinary decision and Mr Wally Holland, manager of the English weightlifting team, said yesterday that he was flabbergasted that such infringements should ever be tolerated. (The Times, 17 July 1970)

This does seem quite presumptuous given that the IOC did not ban steroids until 1974 when a reliable test had been found. Indeed, the major studies in this field were not published until 1974 and 1975. (lt is not entirely clear who conducted these tests and using what sort of methods.) Nonetheless, the comments by Holland and the emotive position taken up by The Times newspaper indicates that the established, majority opinion in Britain was against doping. By 1972 such headlines as ‚Drugs put British athletes‘ health at risk‘ (The Times , 21 April 1972) show the consensus of opinion and the scaremongering tactics of authoritarian discourses. Indeed the health risks of steroid use were regularly cited in media stories despite a lack of scientific evidence to support such claims, perhaps symbolising the weakness of the fair play rationale for anti-doping.

Such was the British interest in the subject that the BASM hosted a second major intemational conference, this time entitled ‚Anabolic Steroids and Sport‘ and published the proceedings in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. By this time, Arthur Porritt was a Peer of the Realm and President of BASM. The journal Editorial noted that:

In the past few years, developments in complicated biomedical techniques, increasing awareness of the hazards of overdosage of hormones, and a spread of the use of steroids by athletes, have justified this Association in organising another symposium on doping, this time devoted to the use, abuse and detection of anabolic steroids in sport. (BASM 1975a:58)

Much of the conference was devoted to highly technical studies of the effects of steroids and the construction of a testing system. But the British attitude of despair, that drugs ruined sport, was best represented by A. H. Payne, who drew the confrence’s attention to some of the hypocrisies in anti’doping:

Sport for all? I don’t think that sport is for the top class athlete. There is this paradox that the top end of sport is nothing like it is lower down. Perhaps the ladder of progress goes through the clouds and enters some cuckoo land where, whatever it is we do it is something other than sport. In the narrow context of the symposium we are concemed about sport and sport should be synonymous with fair play. But there isn’t fair play when some are are aided by drugs. In order to ensure that evervone has access to these drugs in order to ensure fair play – or do we admit that the title of this symposium is a contradiction in terms… Are the rest of us, the general public, not encouraging the arhlete to cheat when we agree with the reporter who writes of that athlete’s failure in an unfair competiton? Or is that non-drugged loser the real ‚winner‘ after alll?

(der gesamte Vortrag von Payne: A. H. Payne: ANABOLIC STEROIDS IN ATHLETICS (or The Rise of the Mediocrity), Physical Education Department, University of Birmingham)

The pragmatic line taken by most interested parties was that sport needed to continue but rhe authorities had to clamp down on drug use. Suggestions that deeper problems needed to be solved first were iignored. Perhaps the best comparison is with alcohol use, where the deeper sociai problems that lead to addictiom, that is homelessness, poverty, stressful domestic relations, macho cultures of binge drnking, have not been tackled by the punitive strategies such as banning drink’drivers. Nonetheless, British individuals were pushing foreward anti-doping through media coverage, conferences and scientific research. Most significantly, the.British sports establishment led the way in trying to find an accurare and applicable method for steroid testing.

(Paul Dimeo: A History of Drug Use in Sport 1876-1976, S. 110f)