A modest dose (two milligrams per day) of growth hormone is associated with a 3.9% boost in sprint capacity, which researchers
estimate translates to shaving 0.4 seconds off a 100m time. Sprint capacity in men receiving both growth hormone and 250 milligrams per week of testosterone increased by an average of 8.3%. Thankfully our American negro athletes (and Jamaicans) don't need to resort to this sort of cheating. (Link via
Randall Parker.)
Do you think that the negro dominance of sprinting is mainly due to HGH and test use?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say "mainly", but we have no way of knowing what the black-white gap in elite sprinting performance would be in the absence of performance enhancing drug use.
ReplyDeleteProbably what would be a small gap stemming from genetics is widened by sociological causes and further widened by drugs.
Here's an article from BALCO owner Victor Conte:
As soon as I found out what Tim was taking, I said: "You're oversaturated with performance-enhancing drugs. Too much is just as bad as not enough." I first met Tim when I gave him some of "The Clear" in Sydney, and he visited BALCO in November. I'd assembled a team -- Project World Record -- that included Milos Sarcev, a brilliant bodybuilder, and Charlie Francis, who coached Ben Johnson when he won gold in the '88 Games. Milos developed Tim's weight-training program. Charlie developed his track-training program. And I developed his pharmacology and nutrition program. Graham was the front man.
Want to hear something amazing? There's a BALCO calendar for Tim that shows he was taking insulin, EPO, growth hormone, "The Clear" and adrenaline -- five different performance-enhancing agents -- through 2001. At the end of June, Tim won the United States Championship. Soon after, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency sent him a post-competition letter that said: "Congratulations, Tim. You've tested negative for all performance-enhancing substances in the sample that was collected." He was using all these drugs and [the] USADA couldn't detect any of them. So how easy is it to beat the USADA test? It's like taking candy from a baby. The results of Project World Record, by the way, were phenomenal. Tim made $600,000 in 2001.
Conte says he was "already rich" and designed drug regimens for black athletes out of a desire to "make history" rather than make money.