Chinese Teachers and Coaches are Pushing Teenagers to Use Steroids

In a global society that is so obsessed with sports, the pressure to win is always high. Whether it’s soccer in England, baseball in Japan, basketball in Croatia, or football in America, the message is clear: Win at all costs! And at the high school level, it is often the parents, teachers, and coaches who push athletes into the mentality of having to prevail at sports in order to be successful in life.

It’s no secret why adults are so concerned about sports at the high school level... There\'s a lot is at stake here. The reputations of entire towns can sometimes be based on how well their high school sports programs excel. The reputations of young teenagers can also be based on their accomplishments during a sports career and this image of them may even carry on into their adult years.

But even with so much on the line in high school sports there is a point where, in the effort to win, people can go too far. And many think that some parts of China are going beyond this breaking point and onto a road that high school sports certainly should not travel. A road that leads to teenage sports doping.

Concern has been raised in China about high schoolers engaging in sports doping ever since the crackdown at one of the nation’s most prestigious sports schools (sports academies at the high school level that recruit promising young athletes) that uncovered a huge scandal involving everyone from young students to teachers and coaches.

Liaoning Anshan Athletics School, the alma mater of some of China’s greatest athletes, was recently busted by the Chinese Olympic Committee Anti-Doping Commission and China’s State General Administration of Sports (CSGAS). What these authorities found during their raid was shocking to say the least.They found 450 doses of steroids, testosterone, and EPO plus a slew of hypodermic needles.

The numbers in their findings don’t even tell the full story in this case though. Where anti-doping officials found some of the drugs and needles provided a more accurate description of how deep this scandal actually goes. The refrigerator of the school’s headmaster, Shao Huibin, said everything as it contained 300 bottles of EPO (erythropoietin), 9 bottles of testosterone, and 141 bottles of various other steroids.

At one point during the raid, authorities found several school staff members injecting 10 student athletes with drugs, including one kid that was only 15 years-old. They also found 25 bottles of EPO, another 9 bottles of testosterone, and 17 bottles of steroids in this room. Drug tests that were performed on the 10 athletes in the room later revealed that 8 of them were being injected with steroids. Several of these athletes had won gold medals in the Chinese Junior Games in sports like wrestling and weightlifting.

In the wake of these events, teachers and coaches at the Liaoning athletics school face numerous charges and criminal prosecution under the tough anti-doping laws that China enacted only two years earlier. The laws are so strict in fact, that members of the school staff may even be looking at prison time. Whether or not any teachers or coaches go to the big house remains to be seen though.

One thing that is already clear, however, is that the once proud reputation of the Liaoning Anshan Athletics School has taken a huge blow. Well-known across China for their prowess in all sports, Liaoning Anshan had previously produced numerous world and Olympic champions. Since opening in 1992, there is really no other school in China that can compare to Liaoning Anshan in terms of success in sports.

<p< Liaoning Anshan’s unparalleled accomplishments were formally led by its deputy sports chief, and world famous distance running coach, Ma Junren before he retired. In the 90’s, Junren-coached female runners dominated the world distance running scene en route to taking several world titles home and breaking quite a few records along the way. Junren claimed that the secret to their success was nothing more than caterpillar fungus, turtle blood, and a brutal training schedule (yeah right).

What authorities found at Liaoning Anshan was anything but turtle blood or caterpillar fungus. But what’s really surprising is that this hasn’t been the first time that steroids and other sports doping substances have been found at an athletics school in China. And this has prompted many to question how many other schools in China have a doping problem.

A CSGAS statement regarding the Liaoning Anshan school stated, “It is the second doping scandal involving a sports school and it is even more serious because it happened after the promulgation of China's anti-doping code and it happened as the 2008 Olympics is closing in.”

The first major doping scandal at a sports school happened in 2002 when authorities raided the Liaoning Shenyang Sports School. Although the incident was kept a little more quite than what happened at Anshan since it was before the anti-doping laws of 2004, it was still reported that illegal performance enhancing drugs were found at the school. This coupled with the most recent bust at Liaoning Anshan is definitely enough to raise more suspicions about the Chinese athletic system.

And, as the CSGAS statement alluded to, the timing couldn’t be worse as the 2008 Olympics that are set to be in Beijing are less than two year away. Getting the Olympics over a host of other countries that included the US, Japan, France, Canada, and England was a blessing for the rapidly developing nation. A blessing that China hopes to turn into something very positive for the world’s most populated country.

They’ll have their work cut out for themselves now more than ever though as they need to break their reputation as a major sports doping nation. This reputation has grown due to a number of Olympic and world competition scandals including several in the 90’s where a total of 32 swimmers were reprimanded as a result.

Since the 2004 doping laws that were implemented to clean up the nation’s athletics by 2008, 17 other athletes have tested positive for illegal performance enhancing drugs and received punishments for being caught. Some even got hit with two year bans for their involvement in sports doping.

Whether or not China can tone down its sports doping on the professional athlete level remains to be seen. But it’s clear that the nation needs to make the stoppage of sports doping at the high school level a definite priority. After all, the majority of teenagers don’t need to use steroids and other performance enhancers since their bodies already produce enough of the testosterone and hormones that many adults are lacking.

Furthermore, most of them don’t have the knowledge of these drugs to make informed decisions on their own. In turn, they may rely on the advice of others that don’t have the best interests of the athlete’s long-term health in mind when they are giving out suggestions. Especially if the person is a coach whose goal is simply to win.