Sports Illustrated Supports High School Anti-Steroid Programs, By:  Nicholas Zifcak

Magazine seeks to help student athletes resist steroid use and revive the 'Healthy Mission of Sports'

February 13, 2006, Epoch Times Washington, D.C. Staff

CONCERNED ABOUT STEROID USE BY HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES: U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings responds to a question. On her left sits U.S. Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), with Scott Burns, Deputy Director, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to the far left. On the right sit John Squires, Co-Chief Operating Officer, Time Inc. and Mark Ford, President Sports Illustrated, far right. (Gary Feuerberg / The Epoch Times) 

Sports Illustrated ( SI ), a multimedia sports franchise which includes the renowned magazine Sports Illustrated, presented its first annual Champion Award to Oregon Heath & Science University (OHSU) for its ATLAS and ATHENA steroid and drug prevention/health promotion programs. OHSU will receive a grant and value-in-kind equaling one million dollars to administer the ATLAS and ATHENA programs. SI awards the Champion Award to non-profits that are involved in youth sports or are headed by a sports figure.

Doctors Linn Goldberg and Diane Elliot developed the ATLAS and ATHENA programs at Oregon Health & Science University. These programs investigate the reasons young athletes use anabolic steroids, alcohol and other drugs, and how to discourage their use. Since 1987 when their research started, over 7,500 high school students have been involved in testing.

At the press conference to present the award, Dr. Linn Goldberg explained the scientific basis for the programs: "ATLAS and ATHENA were tested in urban, suburban, and rural schools, and among all ethnicities. The results were beyond our expectations. New use of steroids, alcohol, marijuana, narcotics, amphetamines, and sports supplements were reduced, along with lowering of diet pills and drinking and driving. At the same time high school athletes improved their nutrition habits."

Through the grant from SI , the programs will receive cash and public service announcements in the magazine totaling one million dollars to create a network of SI Schools. The schools will serve as national models promoting the healthy mission of sports.

Concern regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports led to congressional hearings by the House Government Reform Committee in March 2005. The committee subpoenaed Major League Baseball (MLB), and retired professional baseball players, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmiero, Barry Bonds and others to testify. While many sports fans and commentators criticized Congress that it had stepped beyond its bounds, criticism died down when parents of two amateur baseball players, whose suicides were attributed to steroid use, testified before the committee.

Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), then chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, spoke Wednesday at the press conference about how steroid use has trickled down. "Professional athletes use steroids to stay ahead of the competition, college athletes feel pressured to use steroids to get drafted, and high school athletes use steroids to get on to the next stage of their careers, and on and on and on."

While steroids were already common in professional baseball in the 1990s, the problem has only spread to high schools in the past few years. According to the Center for Disease Control's most recent (2003) survey, an estimated 85,000 high school students have admitted using steroids. Since 1993, steroid use among this age group has increased from one in 45 to one in 16.

Sports Illustrated president Mark Ford and OHSU researchers expressed concern for teenager's health and referred to reviving the "healthy mission of sports." Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) illuminated the heart of the issue: integrity. "I would suggest this goes far beyond health, it is about the honor of a nation, it's about the honor and the purpose of sport." He expounded that in our American meritocracy if one is to be judged by achievements and abilities, we must maintain integrity as a virtue. "Once we choose to sacrifice [integrity] on the altar of money and winning, we have sacrificed much more than the health of our young people. We lose our reason for being."

Also in attendance at the award announcement were Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and Scott Burns, Deputy Director, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

When asked if there was a chance Congress might appropriate the $15 million needed to expand this program, Senator Biden responded "I think [the chances] are better than even." But he warned that many prevention programs have lost funding in FY 2007 budget and these programs will all be lobbying to regain funding.

ATLAS (Athletes Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids) is a multi-component program for male high school athletes, first instituted in 1993. Through student-athlete led sessions taught in small groups, it is proven to reduce risk factors and use of anabolic steroids, alcohol and other illicit drugs while promoting healthy nutrition and exercise behaviors.