NONFICTION - June 15, 1986

FOUL PLAY: DRUG ABUSE IN SPORTS by Tom Donohue and Neil Johnson (Blackwell: $16.95). Another in the series on the wide world of drugs-in-sports: Two British medical researchers have compiled a depressing account of how athletes in every sport have turned to drugs of every sort to boost their performance. This is not new. Athletes in ancient Egypt were said to consume “the rear hooves of an Abyssinian ass, ground up and boiled in oil.” Modern drugs such as anabolic steroids may be no more useful and equally disgusting. The authors cite the best medical evidence on the effects of various drugs on performance, concluding in general that a drug may help a little but will likely do harm to an athlete’s health in the future. Often, the drugs, as with megadoses of vitamins, do little other than enrich your urine. But the possibility of gaining an edge, even at the eventual expense of their health, is evidently a good bargain for most athletes. More than 100 top American athletes were asked: Would you take a particular drug if it could make you an Olympic champion but also kill you within a year? Nearly 55% said they would. Don’t count on athletes to reform sports, the authors say. Instead, sports authorities need to crack down--more tightly written rules, more sophisticated testing and harsher penalties for violators. Sports competition is only worthwhile if it is honest and fair, and using drugs is neither.