Doping controls in the gym

In Belgium, you can be surprised by doping controls in the gym. In Sweden, you can be taken away for a doping control if you are very muscular. Here in the Netherlands, things do not seem to be moving that fast.

War on steroids

All of injecting Flanders was up in arms when members of bodybuilding forums reported raids in gyms. Like "Kazz", who was just about to leave the gym when he heard "stehen bleiben!" and saw inspectors approaching him. He was then required to pee in a cup.

Since 1 April 2015, renewed anti-doping legislation has been in force in the Flemish Community. Under that anti-doping legislation, both recreational and professional athletes can be subjected to checks. The only requirement is that the sport takes place in an organized setting. Gym membership also falls under this. But Flanders already has a longer history of prosecuting bodybuilders [1,2,3].

Yesterday we could read in Le Soir that in Belgian Wallonia, the anti-doping federation ONAD will soon start doping controls [7]. ONAD is taking over WADA's monitoring tasks in order to also check amateurs. Fines can run up to 10,000 euros. Gym membership can be banned.

Doping in Sweden

They also know a thing or two about it in Sweden. Pro bodybuilder Tony Freeman, also known as "the x-man", found that out in 2010. He was in Sweden for a fitness festival. While doing promotional work in a local store, he was detained and taken away by Swedish police [4]. According to Freeman, he was denied the right to legal assistance and was forced to provide urine. According to various Swedish media, he allegedly tested positive for testosterone (no shit), growth hormone and cannabis. However, he was released the same day without charge.

Toney was the first international pro bodybuilder to become a victim of "muscle profiling".

Police staff member Henrik Blusi generalized the actions taken against Freeman to all professional bodybuilders, saying: "If you are a professional bodybuilder you should not come to Sundsvall. We are very well informed here. We are currently conducting the largest doping trial in Europe, and then one should understand that we have an eye out for these things now. [4,5]

So if you are a Black man from the US, where you are already used to racial profiling, you then get arrested for your muscular appearance.

Doping control in the gym

Belgium and Sweden are not joking around with steroids. In the Netherlands, things have not moved that fast yet, although politicians here have also occasionally proposed checks in gyms.

"The problem, however, lies mainly in differently organized sport, particularly gyms and fitness centers."

Atsma is bothered by the fact that amateur athletes in the Netherlands are now checked more often than recreational athletes, while it is known that, especially in strength sports, they are easily tempted to use anabolic steroids (muscle-building agents).

Dutch politics, however, was not eager to go after anabolic steroid users by checking gyms. As previously described in a 2015 article, anabolic steroids barely interest Dutch justice in the first place, especially compared with the Belgians. Here, anabolic steroids are often "bycatch", for example when authorities are looking for an XTC lab or raid a motorcycle club.

A good thing?

What surprised me, however, was my personal reaction at the time to the reports of checks in gyms in Belgium. I thought it was ridiculous, but I could not really explain why.

After all, I am a natural bodybuilder who would rather have seen a world without anabolic steroids, growth hormone and insulin abuse for muscle mass and lower body fat. If it had never existed, the bar would never have been set so high. You would still impress people without looking like a cartoon character. So should I not be happy with attempts to combat anabolic steroid use? Should I not hope for checks in the gym so I can laugh while peeing in a cup?

I think I am simply used to the current situation in which recreational use of anabolic steroids is a personal choice. When it comes to competitive bodybuilding, their use is so common that it is hardly cheating anymore. A bit like the Armstrong argument. Belgian justice equates recreational use with use in competition, for both amateurs and pros. By also actively checking recreational use, these checks move more into the sphere of drug enforcement than doping controls.

Maybe I compare the social problem posed by anabolic steroids with the problems that arise from other drug use and possession of banned substances. "Do they have nothing more important to do?" But that is of course a non-argument. The fact that bigger problems exist does not mean this "problem" deserves no attention. The question is whether it is proportionate.

Hopeless?

In my view, these kinds of repressive measures hardly work, if at all. First, you cannot ban someone from bodybuilding the way you can throw a cyclist out of a federation. Yes, you can ban competition participation and even gym membership. But you do not need competitions or a gym to look like a bodybuilder. Even if you checked every gym every day, you would not be able to prevent testosterone from moving from gyms to home gyms.

You could also go to every competition to test. See whether more competitors remain than after the raid in Vlissingen, when every athlete fled from the inspectors. Eradicating bodybuilding as a sport and hoping muscular people disappear from the streets as a tactic. But as we recently described, many people who train for muscle mass have nothing to do with competitions at all. You would also have to check all international Insta-fit role models and shut down accounts after a positive test. Good luck.

References

1. forum.bodybuilding.nl/topics/dopingcontrole-fitness.267543/
2. forum.body-fitness.nl/Dopingcontrole-in-Fitness-resultaat-m450276.aspx
3. dopinglijn.be/dopingcontrole-wat-wie-hoe/dopingcontrole-wie-wanneer-waarom/wie-wordt-gecontroleerd/
4. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toney_Freeman
5. st.nu/medelpad/sundsvall/har-grips-stjarnan-misstankt-for-dopningsbrott
6. volkskrant.nl/binnenland/dopingcontrole-op-sportschool-bepleit~a686780/
7. plus.lesoir.be/146240/article/2018-03-19/le-kroll-du-jour-sur-les-controles-antidopage-dans-les-salles-de-sport