Drug testing

[Dark Energy]

Anyone know what the actual process is for NCAA wrestling?  Some questions …

1) How often does the NCAA test?  Does this frequency vary for tier of wrestler (need to define tier but hoping the idea makes sense)?   
 

2) What does the NCAA test for?  Is the test sensitive to a very wide range of PEDs?  Are PEDs included at all?  Is it a narrow range?

3) Is the testing considered likely to find and identify wrestlers using PEDs?  Or is it too infrequent, to narrow, or otherwise not good enough so that the general consensus of people with real knowledge feel that it is ineffective?

 

Wouldn’t it be incredible if there was an investigative journalist / newsroom out there that would dig into this?  Perhaps has been done for a similar standing sport … if so, I’m curious.

[Dark Energy]

Bueller?  Bueller?

[Coastal]

NCAA testing is sort of a joke.

USADA will test most competitors since most of the high end college wrestlers will take part in freestyle season.  Mesenbrink was subject to additional testing due to making the US National team for example.      The only way to avoid PED testing is to be like Spencer Lee and suspicously skip four years of freestyle.

[TheGingerBeardMan]

2 hours ago, Coastal said:

NCAA testing is sort of a joke.

USADA will test most competitors since most of the high end college wrestlers will take part in freestyle season.  Mesenbrink was subject to additional testing due to making the US National team for example.      The only way to avoid PED testing is to be like Spencer Lee and suspicously skip four years of freestyle.

Repeatedly tearing his ACLs just to avoid PED testing. Must have been juiced to the gills!

[wrestle87]

17 hours ago, Dark Energy said:

Anyone know what the actual process is for NCAA wrestling?  Some questions …

1) How often does the NCAA test?  Does this frequency vary for tier of wrestler (need to define tier but hoping the idea makes sense)?   
 

2) What does the NCAA test for?  Is the test sensitive to a very wide range of PEDs?  Are PEDs included at all?  Is it a narrow range?

3) Is the testing considered likely to find and identify wrestlers using PEDs?  Or is it too infrequent, to narrow, or otherwise not good enough so that the general consensus of people with real knowledge feel that it is ineffective?

 

Wouldn’t it be incredible if there was an investigative journalist / newsroom out there that would dig into this?  Perhaps has been done for a similar standing sport … if so, I’m curious.

This already happened in the early 2010’s.  Have you ever heard of icarus and bigger stringer faster?  Also worth looking up dudes named broderick chavez and louie simmons.

Drugs are part and parcel of competitive sport.  Sport develops top down, from the highest level and trickles down over time.  Pushing the limits requires supernatural recovery.  We are the only country who get up our own butts about it because commercial interests fan the competitive flames of patriotic and regional devotion for economic gain.

Literally nowhere else in the world cares about exogenous supplementation, it’s expected and typically state sponsored. They don’t dance around whether or not something is effective.

Us complaining about drug use is like people arbitrarily deciding it is cheating to use a barbell to get stronger. “They used the bad tool to get better, shaaame, shaaaame!”

”A prominent US athlete has been removed from olympic team trials after video of them conducting dangerous barbell back squats was released to the media, they apologized and promised to stick to calisthenics and dumbell lunges in the future.”

Edited Saturday at 05:48 AM by wrestle87

[Fletcher]

I can't think of the last NCAA wrestler (or any NCAA sport) getting suspended for PEDs. The only ones getting busted are competing internationally and getting popped by WADA.

[AgaveMaria]

Will they start with Meyer Shapiro?

[CHROMEBIRD]

It's mostly pushed down to the conferences and individual programs. The NCAA tests for PEDs throughout the year and for illegal narcotics during postseason NCAA tournaments, but it's random and with up to 2 days advance notification. Most schools get zero or just a day's notice that they've been selected for drug testing. 

The theory is that schools will want to do their own regular testing because they'll be able to get in front of penalties in case a kid tests positive. And sometimes, athletes can unknowingly test positive based for a banned substance in a medication or OTC dietary supplement that shows up as a masking agent, so this gives them time to stop use of the product or request a medical exception. The NCAA's banned substances list is pretty much identical to the WADA classification system.

People have long joked about the prevalence of PEDs in wrestling and other college sports. In the name of fairness, it might sound ideal for the NCAA to test all schools regularly all year 'round for all possible banned substances, but they wouldn't have the scale or resources to do so. So, here we are.