Performance-enhancing drugs and treatments have become a bigger problem than ever in recent years, both in the major U.S. team sports and in international competition. The International Olympic Committee appears ready to take serious steps to crack down on such drugs at this year's Summer Olympics in Sydney. Tour de France officials are set to meet Thursday in Geneva and are expected to discuss imposing EPO tests at this year's event. Baseball, buoyed in recent years by the success of muscle-bound sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, does not test for steroids use. According to players and general managers who discuss the problem off the record, steroid use has become widespread.
Some players say that as many as half a dozen players per team are using steroids.
Some put the number even higher. Where baseball insiders say once only big, strong players trying to bulk up and hit home runs used steroids, now steroids are also used by some smaller players looking to hit a few more homers, and by pitchers, looking to add a few miles an hour to their fastballs. But the common thread is the pressure to excel at the expense of long-term physical and mental considerations. The women now appearing in a Berlin courtroom during the widely followed trial have endured a wide range of health problems. Some became infertile because of the steroids.