Michael Phelps or Why You Should Fear My Drug Test

[Hans]

Recently, I stumbled upon an online article from USA Today about former swimmer Michael Phelps testifying in a congressional hearing about anti-doping measures. If you don't know him: Performance-wise he was to Swimming what Lance Armstrong was to Cycling.

You can find the full article here.

Phelps said: "I don't believe that I've stood up at international competitions and the rest of the field has been clean. I don't believe that. I don't think I've ever felt that."

Now think a minute about that. The most successful swimmer in the world who won 28 olympic medals in his career of which 23 were gold medals said that his opponents (who were the best of their respective countries) were on drugs. But he was able to beat them, drug-free, multiple times. Am I the only one sensing some hypocrisy here?

If you're the winner of some high-level competition, positive drug tests of your competitors (or them not having a drug test at all, which makes it even worse) should make you very nervous actually. Since if your competitors (again, the best of their respective national pools) need to resort to drugs but couldn't beat you nevertheless then what does that tell us about you?

[Grinch]

Phelps probably is a genetic outlier at the far right end of the bell curve. Not the sharpest stick in the shed, he probably would not know how to acquire or cycle PEDs.

[Hans]

Phelps probably is a genetic outlier at the far right end of the bell curve. Not the sharpest stick in the shed, he probably would not know how to acquire or cycle PEDs.

But probably his coaches would ...

In former communist countries it was not unusual for coaches to give their trainees some "supplements" for better health and recovery. Those kids never knew they were drugged.

Phelps definitely has a formidable physique for swimming. He was born (made?) for swimming (as are the best athletes of other countries). However, besides his exceptional success, there is another thing that makes me very suspicious: his insane training volume. During his training periods, he swum 85km per week accompanied by significant amounts of strength training. He ate 10,000 kcal per day.

And then do not forget that swimming is very susceptible to PEDs due to its high demand of endurance and power.