Shamed British sprinter Dwain Chambers is releasing his book detailing his sprinting glory days, taking banned substances and pressures of being a top 100m sprinter.
From quotes from the book below, Dwain reveals a number of pressures and dark sides of taking banned substances.
“When I was clean, my personal best was 9.97 seconds. A year on, after the sleepless nights, the anxiety, the pain of the cramps, the blood draws to make sure I wouldn’t suffer a stroke or worse, the inconsistent races and the disappointment of missing events, my personal best was 9.87 seconds. I wondered what the hell I had been doing to myself.”
A clean best at 9.97 seconds at the time was a real achievement, until very recently times were not slashed, even Usain Bolt had progressively lowered him times. Dwain Chambers apparently took cocktails of banned substances and openly admits to taking the banned drugs.
“I was routinely tested for performance-enhancing drugs by an independent tester. Not once did I test positive. By the time I had passed 10 tests, I had won a European gold but my times were hardly improving,”
It baffles me how a sprinter, world class could not understand or appreciate the risks he was taking to slightly reduce his times. Some people question why professional athletes may choose to take banned drugs, or even recreational drugs, in the case of the ex Bath and England player Matt Stevens he was tested positive for cocaine use, he did not do it for performance enhancement but took it nevertheless, sometimes mistakes or habits die hard and in the case of Matt Stevens, Mark Bosnich and other professional athletes it is not always a case of taking drugs to take an illegal step forward.
There are no doubts in my mind Dwain Chambers did this to speed up but also warms of the pressures and the side effects of taking such substances.
“My motivation was the fear of what might happen. I had a 200,000 pounds contract with Adidas that had a clause in it which reduced my salary by half if I was no longer in the top three (rankings), so I convinced myself the drugs were working.”
I am not sure pressures from Adidas were really a problem, more to the point with or without drugs he could not ultimately lower his times and better his speeds.
To me, I can see why pressure of being one of the best would lead you to try things to enhance your performances, I can also see why money would also push you to try and seek an advantage but if you were experiencing the side effects and still take the drug cocktails for .10 of a second is crazy in my mind.
I am not singling out Dwain Chambers, he is not the first or the last to take substances and I do not blame him but releasing a book which will be dramatically blown out of all proportions. The other side to it is whether the British athletics body and coaches will be penalised for Dwain Chambers actions ultimately damaging the potential coming through currently and in the future.
Danny Denhard
Betalabs