College Athletics

Charles Yesalis said that an average of 14.7% of the males and 5.9% of the female athletes in all sports surveyed reported steroid use. A 1989 NCAA study based on self-reporting estimated steroid use at less than 5%.

“This represents an upper bound, and for the first time there are boundaries and somewhere in between is reality,” Yesalis said.

Even though the five schools that agreed to participate in the study were estimating use among their opponents, Yesalis said the athletes said a lot about their own programs.

The study projected steroid use at 29.3% for football teams, and 20.6% among men’s track and field teams.