HYDE: Steroids' taint creeps into senior power lifter's saga

August 22, 2006

Maybe you remember my charming column about an aging antiques dealer who offered some fresh air in a sports summer suffocating under the drug-addled angst of Barry Bonds, Floyd Landis, Justin Gatlin and now Marion Jones.

Don Broverman, tough as walnut bark, fun as Friday, discovered he was breaking power-lifting records even as his sun was setting.

At age 65! While selling armoires by day!

This is what's known in the business as a human-interest story. Sports is a vehicle to tell a better, broader story. A people story. An uplifting story. And the e-mails from readers agreed.

"Thanks for the story on Don Broverman -- he gave my 71-year-old bones some motivation ..."

"Tell him he's the talk of our condominium this morning ..."

"This is the type of story you should be doing more of ..."

"You should know Don Broverman failed his drug test with USA Powerlifting on 7/17/04 and has been on suspension ..."

At age 65! While selling armoires by day!

It's true, too. At least it's true he tested positive for the steroid boldenone and was suspended for two years by USA Powerlifting, according to state chairman Robert Keller, whose organization follows world anti-doping guidelines used by the Olympics.

The rest of the story sits under the predictable he-said/I-said cloud of Bonds, Landis and Gatlin.

The names change. The quotes don't.

"I've never taken a steroid in my life," Broverman said.

And you know: He's as mystified as anyone.

"If I've had steroids in my system, I don't know where I got them from," he said.

And yes: Maybe it was the testing.

"They said to give them $100 and they'd test me again, but I already had paid them for one test that was wrong," he said. "Why would I pay again?"

This isn't to attack or defend Broverman. It's to scream about the milepost we're at in sports. Even the good stories can turn on you. Which recent event says this clearest?

Barry Bonds becoming a home-run king while two books allege he was on a shelf full of drugs like the Clear, the Cream, insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone, decanoate (a steroid called "Mexican beans" for how fast it works), stanozolol (which Ben Johnson made famous), trenbolone, Winstrol, Deca-Durabolin, Modafinil (a narcolepsy drug taken as a stimulant) and Clomid (an infertility drug that helps steroid users regain natural testosterone).

Landis losing his Tour de France crown and Lance Armstrong saying, "If the NFL had the same policy that cycling has, we'd be talking about something different than Floyd Landis right now. It would be a huge story." (Any doubters out there?)

Gatlin and Jones becoming the latest drug questions in track.

A senior citizen in the middle of a steroid story.

Boldenone, the steroid in question with Broverman, isn't made by the human body.

It was "developed for veterinary use, mostly for treatment of horses," the online encyclopedia Wiki-pedia says. "It is not indicated for use in humans in the U.S. and is available only through veterinary clinics."

Broverman and I talked about steroids before the first column. He showed testing records from the Amateur Athletic Powerlifting Federation, another power-lifting group at whose tournaments he has set records.

An AAPF official confirmed he hasn't tested positive at the group's tournaments.

So we're where we often are. America's best home-run hitter, top cyclist, fastest male runner, most accomplished female track athlete and a sixtysomething antique dealer from West Palm Beach are all in the same room this summer. Denying. Debating. Asking you to believe.

"What sense does it make for a guy like me in his 60s to take steroids?" Broverman asked.

On that, everyone agrees.