From: cw@orion.uucp (C.W. Chung)
Subject: Re: Steriods. (was Re: Chicago Tribune: How Zhuang won gold medal)
Organization: Objectivity Inc.
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 01:25:50 GMT

    In article <Bs3u8v.Iv4@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> xlli@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (xiao-lin li) writes:
    >In article <1992Jul28.144525.24505@athena.mit.edu> zhuh@athena.mit.edu (Hui Zhu) writes:

    >>No! I won't be surprised! Just by looking at Zhuang Yong & Lin Li's bodies and 
    >>hearing their voice, I believe everything! :)  

It is grossly unfair to Zhuang and Lin!  They have spent years of hard work
in traininng.  What you are saying is "if you are a female athelete having 
a male-like muscluar body and a deep low voice, you must be taking steroid"!
I think one has to have much more compeling evidence before leveling such 
charge!  Weight-training is very common in all sport, especially in swimming
where upper body muscle is so important.  So it is not uncommon to see top
swimmers with strong upper body muscle.  And it is not all that rare for 
women to have low deep voice.  As many other netter has pointed out, the 
women diving bronze medalist Ellen Clark looks more like man than Zhuang 
and Lin! (Actually, even Fu MingXia has very strong upper body!)

    >Can any one in this network give a detailed analysis about the use of
    >steroid? Why it affect one's body and voice? What is the rule of
    >olympics in testing steroid? Why she was not tested. Was she told
    >that she would not be tested?

Steroid could build up one's muscle and strength tremendously.  I have seen
a TV documentary (PBS?) many months ago, some astonishing fact that I vaguely
remember is: before taking steroid, one interviewee could benchpress 100 pounds
or so.  After taking steroid, he could benchpress something like 300 pounds!!
Taking steroids is supposed to be very common in United States, even in professional
sport, and elsewhere in the world (East Germany).  The longterm effect of taking
steroid is very serious.  Recently, a famous L.A. Raider linebacker died of 
steroid-related disease at the age of early 40s.  It was a slow and painful death. 
His body had been shrinking.  He is one of the most-feared linebacker in NFL and 
a very 'macho' guy.  When he dies, I think he was barely over 100 pounds.)

Drug testing is religiously followed in Olympics.  Today's Wall Stree Journal
has a detail report of the process of drug testing in the Olympics Section.
(By the way, WSJ is probably the best and less-biased major US publication when
it comes to international affairs.)  The 3 medalist and the fourth competitor
have to go through drug testing.  The athelete has to come out with a urine
sample within an hour under the direct monitoring of a nurse or a doctor,
and within an hour, a special envoy is assigned to escort the athelete and
make sure the athelete is in sight all the time.  The identity of urine sample 
is twice removed from the tester, so the tester don't know whose urine is.
A total of 8 different tests are conducted to test for Steroid, cocaine and
others.  The parameters of the tests are changed from time to time so that
it is more difficult to 'get by' it.

    >I really pissed up by this allegation with evidence. Is this guilty
    >by suspicion?
    
I have the same feeling too.  It is no time to be cynical.  In the absence
of compelling evidence, why don't we just sit back and enjoy watching the 
Games, and appreciate the blood and sweat of all the atheletes from China,
USA and other countries?

 -cw-