Bush Takes Aim at Sports Doping

In singling out the issue of steroid use in sports in his State of the Union address, President Bush on Tuesday underscored the emerging significance in the public arena of sports-related anti-doping efforts, experts said, adding that the momentum the president’s speech can offer is both welcomed and long overdue.

The president, in a speech that opened with a focus on issues of national security, took time near the end of the 54-minute address to describe the use of performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids as “dangerous” and to call on sports officials to “take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough and to get rid of steroids now.”

Bush’s remarks come amid months of steady reports about the use of steroids and other substances in U.S. sport, especially baseball, and in the wake of recurring episodes in Olympic sport, most notably in track and field, that led officials elsewhere to suggest in recent years that U.S. authorities were not serious about curbing doping.

Nonetheless, the mere mention of the anti-doping issue -- among so many priorities on the White House agenda -- could prove of enormous symbolic import, here and overseas, experts said.

“This is our Ben Johnson moment,” Gary Wadler, a Long Island physician and leading anti-doping expert, said in response to Bush’s speech, a reference to the Canadian sprinter who tested positive for steroids at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.

“This is a time for national introspection and the role sports play in our society as well as the whole issue of how performance-enhancing drug use is undermining the essence of what competitive athletics is all about.”

Others also noted the symbolism but questioned whether it would lead to anything concrete. The president did not propose any new government initiative.

“The fact that he says it doesn’t mean that he’s going to follow up with any meaningful action,” said John Hoberman of the University of Texas, like Wadler a longtime expert in the anti-doping field.

In November, baseball officials announced that 5%-7% of 1,483 tests conducted last year on big leaguers had come back positive for steroids.

On Dec. 31, in what would be the federal government’s first prohibition of a dietary supplement, the Bush administration said it would ban ephedra, the popular herbal derivative. The debate about ephedra intensified after the death last year of Baltimore Oriole pitcher Steve Bechler, 23, who had used it.

“We agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed in the State of the Union address and will continue to work with the [major league players’ union] to get to a zero-tolerance policy in Major League Baseball,” Rob Manfred, MLB’s vice president of labor relations, said.

Don Fehr, the union’s executive director, declined comment.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said, “We agree with the president and that’s why our owners and union many years ago adopted the strongest steroids program in sports, with year-round random testing and immediate suspensions for positive tests.”