It is no secret that steroids have been a part of sports on a global scale and with the recent government sponsored drug use in Russia it was evident that this usage may be far more spread than originally thought. However, it was recently announced that after just one Olympic cycle away from Russia’s infamous steroid takeover of the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang were steroid free.

It was reported that out of all Olympic athletes, only four of them were found with prohibited substances in their system. However, in none of these four cases was in any type of human growth hormone or steroids that were culprit. A few athletes tested positive for drugs prior to the games but were sent home before competition started.

While the headline makes for a warming piece of information for those concerned with the integrity of competition and the risk of steroids destroying that, the fact that no athletes competing in the games tested positive for steroids should still be taken with caution. It has been no secret that anti-doping efforts have struggled to identify users in recent years and physicians and steroid users have gone to great lengths to create ways to hide these drugs in the body.

Although it is good to be optimistic and believe that more athletes are going natural and avoiding steroids in competition, it isn’t realistic to assume that doping is no longer an issue. In reality these low numbers of identified users may ultimately just mean that athletes are using more sophisticated drugs and getting better at hiding them.

Source: https://www.steroidal.com/steroids-news/international-doping-tests-confirm-2018-winter-olympics-pyeongchang-steroid-free/

• Jacob Groat