When Athlete's Drug Testing Goes Way, WAY Overboard

I'm all for drug testing. I don't care if it's players being tested, managers, clubhouse attendants, Dave Dombrowski...whoever it is, I really don't care. These people put themselves out in the public light and have earned every suspicious eye. I think the drug testing should be as thorough and as comprehensive as science has possible. If they come out with a good HGH test, I'm all for it. There's one thing I'm not for, though, and that's what happened in Sweden according to Deadspin: you cannot suspend someone for taking medicine for high blood pressure.

Like David Pinto of Baseball Musings I'm really angered by these revelations. And this is not the first time I've heard of ridiculous suspensions like this. Zach Lund was suspended in 2006 for taking anti-balding medication like Propecia according to the New York Times--even though he had disclosed his use of this to his sport and started using it before it was ever banned by an anti-doping agency--and Washington Capitals goalie Jose Theodore was suspended for the same thing in 2006 according to ESPN. This past Olympics, female Russian hockey player Svetlana Terenteva tested positive for using cold medication, but according to the New York Times, she was only reprimanded. Yes, taking cold medication when you play a Winter Olympic sport is very wrong.

And, yes, according to the National Post, Paralympians do cheat. But as that article says, the goal of those cheating athletes was to boost blood pressure. But Glenn Ikonen, a Swedish Paralympic curler, tried to lower his blood pressure, to--you know--save his life. I'm not sure if the anti-doping agencies have seen the news, but high blood pressure kills. And as someone who takes a beta blocker, this isn't something you take lightly, even in your 20s. But Ikonen isn't in his 20s...he's 54 (in the picture above from the Telegraph, Ikonen is the old dude in the middle)!

"I am shocked. I couldn't imagine this. I am an old man. I'm 54 years old. I would never take anything I can't take," Ikonen said in a statement released by worldcurling.org.

I'm shocked too, Glenn. Shocked and appalled. A two year ban for trying to save your life (according to The Local, Ikonen checked before it was a banned substance so he wasn't trying to hide it)? Shame on you, anti-doping agency; you truly are shown to be the biggest "dopes" of all.