The issue of drug use in sports has never been a simple one, and it’s never encouraged the most rational, even-tempered reactions from people. The issue has exploded recently in the sport of weightlifting with a record number of positive drug tests at the 2015 World Championships, followed by several positive results in the IOC’s retesting of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
 
Many lifters who were imagined to be clean (or at least, wished to be) have been outed, and some shady dealings with testing cover-ups have been exposed. It’s left a lot of people frustrated, disappointed, angry and often ambivalent, and sparked a lot of ridiculous comments and arguments online.
 
Here’s what I've noticed about the reactions to anything regarding PED use in weightlifting:
 
The only people who don't care about drug use in the sport are those who don't compete or coach competitive lifters. Spectators don't get an opinion on this issue—It's a sport first and entertainment second. If you’re not at athlete or coach who has to deal with these things firsthand, you have no vested interest. If you don't enjoy watching weightlifting without drugs, I don't care, and neither does any lifter or coach. Bye.
 
People like to claim that PED use isn't the only reason the best lifters in the world are so good, ignoring the fact that no one intelligent is arguing that point. There are a multitude of elements that go into creating a great weightlifter such as proper starting age, genetic predisposition, anatomical factors, culture, financial support, coaching, commitment… the list is extensive. However, this argument fails to take into account that if you have two athletes with the same basic abilities, commitment and opportunities, PEDs will unequivocally make one better than the other. Anyone who argues with that is the same kind of person who will argue that two isn’t greater than one.
 
People love claiming that US lifters are as dirty as their international counterparts. Unsurprisingly, this only comes from people either outside the US or Americans who are not involved in competitive weightlifting and have absolutely no understanding of how drug testing works in the sport of weightlifting. No, it's not the same as other US sports. And no, no one intelligent is claiming that no US lifters have ever used PEDs—of course they have. Some have gotten caught, and some have gotten away with it despite a lot of us knowing they’re dirty.
 
But it's a pretty easy set of numbers to locate for comparison to know how unreasonable (stupid) the idea that American lifters are as dirty as everyone else is, and if you have even the smallest experience in the sport, you know how thoroughly our top lifters are tested out of competition. We have had lifters tested multiple times in a month, woken up at 7 am by USADA unannounced—urine AND blood. I know lifters at the Olympic Training Center who have been tested more than once in a single week even. If you don't have this experience firsthand, excuse yourself from the conversation because you have nothing to contribute.
 
Drug users like to pretend drugs don't really help that much. Even if you're an idiot who doesn't know how much PEDs help, ask yourself why, if they don't help much, athletes would risk their careers and their health to use them. You can argue that these drugs aren’t really unhealthy, but the fact is that because of their illegality, research on them, especially long-term use, is virtually non-existent and any use is truly a gamble. It’s also a fact that women in particular experience serious and irreversible side effects—ones that cannot be denied because they’re visible. If you think so many athletes would willingly accept these things just for fun with no expectation of performance improvement, there’s really no hope for you in this discussion.
 
People love to say it will never be cleaned up so why bother. Because some of us actually take this sport seriously and want to be able to compete. It’s not easy to dedicate your life to a pursuit with the knowledge that you will very likely never make it to the top, even knowing exactly why. However, knowing why isn’t the same thing as being willing to break the rules to even the odds. If you're one of the people who likes to chime in from the sidelines, see above about me not caring about your opinion. Unfortunately, drug users will always be able to stay ahead of drug testers—it’s the nature of the relationship. That said, the recent IOC retesting has shown that this can be helped to a large extent. Users are able to stay ahead because they can use substances that can’t yet be tested for—if users know testing agencies will go back and retest later when technology has caught up to former use, it will be a bigger deterrent, especially when medals and records are stripped as they should be. There needs to be this threat of retesting, and legitimate penalties to the lifter—like lifetime bans for multiple offenses. Penalties also need to be levied on national governing bodies for their athletes to force them to actually test internally rather than doing anything from ignoring to condoning to actually sponsoring drug use.
 
I understand weightlifting spectators just want to see the biggest lifts possible—just like football fans don’t want to watch a bunch of 175 lb. men skittering around the gridiron instead of 300-pounders who can sprint and jump like athletes half their size completely obliterating each other. But what I, and all real athletes and coaches want, is to be able to compete and truly find who the best are.