Running Again -- on Empty

By TED GUP.

In the Seoul Olympics of 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson won a 100-meter gold medal in 9.79 sec. His fall from grace came almost as fast, after it was revealed that he had used steroids to achieve his world-beating performance. His deception shocked the sports world and caused the loss of his medal, but it also held out the hope that athletes tainted by steroid use might finally forsake the drugs that many believe stimulate muscle growth and enhance strength. Last week, after two years' banishment, a steroid-free and noticeably less muscular Ben Johnson returned to the track in Hamilton, Canada, and ran his first race since the scandal, a 50-meter dash. He finished second, in 5.77 sec., 0.16 sec. off the world indoor mark for the distance.

Johnson's return may signal his rehabilitation, but the link between sports and steroids is as pervasive today as before his ignominious fall. And by all accounts, steroid users are getting younger: a 1990 federal study says 250,000 adolescents use the drugs. Even athletes who have never used steroids suffer from the blight of performance drugs, coming under suspicion each time they score a personal best or put on muscle.

"Two years ago, I was jumping for joy, in high hopes that better testing and closer monitoring would follow the Johnson incident at Seoul," says Dr. Robert Voy, former chief medical officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee. "But looking back today, I see that almost nothing has been done." Moreover, efforts to detect steroid use face formidable difficulties. Warns National Collegiate Athletic Association drug tester Frank Uryasz: "Drug testing in this country is in its infancy."

The best defense against steroids, year-round random testing, is meant to counter athletes' efforts to hide the presence of drugs by stopping their use just before competition. But year-round testing is costly and complicated. Even sports organizations that say they are intent upon rooting out steroids -- the U.S. Olympic Committee and the NCAA, among them -- are only now gathering the experience and resources to do so. The NCAA conducted about 14,000 drug tests in 1990, vs. 5,000 in 1986, but year-round testing is still limited to Division I football.

Ollan Cassell, head of the Athletics Congress (TAC), the governing body for - U.S. track and field, boasts that TAC's year-round testing is the world's best. But a lack of technicians forces TAC to exempt from examination any athletes living more than 75 miles from testing centers. Last year TAC exempted or excused more athletes (395) than it monitored (246). The group says it will hire an outside firm next month to close that gap.

But athletes still seem determined to outwit testers. "I feel sorry for my friends in the lab business," says Charles Yesalis, a Penn State University professor and steroid expert. "It's not even a close fight." Some athletes use so-called masking agents, chemicals that muddle test results to conceal steroid use. Others have turned from synthetic substances to human-growth hormone, which is virtually impossible to detect. Some have retained private labs to help them cheat.

Despite the daunting problems, there is room for hope. Long-rampant steroid use among professional football players may be falling because of tougher testing, stiffer penalties and a changed player attitude toward drugs. Last November, President Bush signed legislation adding steroids to the list of tightly controlled substances, restricting their distribution and giving investigative authority to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Outside the U.S., steroid use may even be waning. East German swimmer Raik Hannemann, who won the bronze medal in the 1990 Goodwill Games, said he took steroids from 1982 until 1988. "It was a normal thing all over the world," he says. With Germany's unification, East German swimmers became subject to a much tougher testing program, which ended broad steroid use, Hannemann claims.

But the myth that steroids provide gain without pain dies hard. For years, physicians have warned that steroids could cause cardiovascular and liver disease, as well as sexual dysfunction. Nonetheless, some athletes still believe they can be taken safely. Now it appears that "severe psychiatric symptoms are much more common than severe medical symptoms," says Dr. Harrison Pope, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Pope says steroids can cause aggression, impair judgment and, in rare cases, lead to psychotic behavior. At least 10 steroid users have been involved in murders or attempted murders, he says.

What will it take for athletes to think differently about steroids? Maybe more cautionary tales like that of Rhory Moss, the 21-year-old star quarterback from New York's Hofstra University. For six weeks last year, he injected steroids into his buttocks, not to improve his football, he says, but to look good in a bathing suit for spring break. Within weeks, he added 12 lbs. to his 180-lb. frame. But an NCAA drug test detected his steroid use, and his coach sat him out of the semifinals of the NCAA Division III championship. His team lost, and Moss could face a year's ineligibility. "I screwed myself, I screwed the team and the people who rooted for me," he says. "It's not worth it." Too many others still need to learn that lesson.

With reporting by Lee Griggs/San Francisco and Alexander Tresniowski/New York