Taking any illegal or banned substance which alters the normal functioning of the mind or body for the purpose of enhancing athletic performance is a decision to cheat, endanger one's health and encourages others to cheat.
A. Position on Drug Testing 1. The Foundation is against any unreasonable invasion of privacy and believes that drug testing is an intrusion into the physical person that constitutes unreasonable search when drug testing is conducted without cause. However, the Foundation believes that the pressure to win in elite level sport is cause to suspect drug use in sport. Therefore, the Foundation supports impartially administered, unannounced random and voluntary drug testing programs conducted according to protocols that eliminate the possibility of error and protect the rights of athletes and their coaches. The Foundation also supports testing for and rules that ban recreational as well as performance-enhancing drugs and alcohol in motor sports, pistol, rifle or other sports that require complete control of mental and physical capabilities in order to prevent the injury of spectators, officials and other participants.
2. Drug testing is a potentially embarrassing and degrading experience. Sport leaders should take care to explain and demonstrate procedures to athletes and to adequately explain the purpose of such programs in safeguarding the integrity of sport and those who practice drug-free participation.
3. All athletes subject to drug-testing programs should receive complete information about such programs, which shall include but not be limited to (1) a complete listing of banned drugs with both their generic and over-the-counter names, (2) a detailed description of selection procedures and the drug-testing protocol, (3) any appeals procedure available to athletes who test positive, (4) a description of penalties that may be imposed on the occasion of a positive test and (5) a hotline number for use of athletes or their physicians for the purpose of providing answers to drug questions.
B. Position on Rehabilitation and Reinstatement for Competition1. Drug rehabilitation programs controlled and directed by licensed professionals with each program being tailored individually to deal with the specific cause and use and type of drug should be available to all athletes.
2. Sports governance organizations and professional leagues should compile and distribute a list of rehabilitation programs which accept athletes seeking help with drug problems.
3. Any female athlete who demonstrates that she has taken HGH or anabolic steroids should be banned from continued participation. Strength and kinesthetic gains stemming from the use of such drugs are irreversible: therefore reinstatement would give the athlete a physical advantage.
4. Athletes who do not use male hormones should be reinstated following completion of a banned penalty period during which they are frequently tested on an unannounced and random basis with no positive results.
C. Foundation Awards and Program Participation Policies1. Foundation awards program policies clearly specify the ineligibility of athletes who have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs until they have demonstrated they are drug-free, have been rehabilitated and reinstated by their sport governing bodies. Foundation awards shall not be revoked in the event an award recipient violates these standards subsequent to receiving a Foundation award or there is no knowledge of such violations prior to receipt of the award but such information becomes public afterward. If questioned about Foundation award recipients who subsequently test positive for banned drugs, the Foundation should respond to public inquiries with a statement that (1) clearly states its opposition to the use of the drugs, (2) offers regrets concerning the occurrence and (3) expresses concern that the individual seek counseling and rehabilitation.
2. Athletes who have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs shall not be invited to participate in Foundation programs or to represent the Foundation in any capacity until they have demonstrated that they are drug-free, have been rehabilitated and reinstated by their sport governing bodies.
D. Women's Sports Foundation Guidelines for "Right" Decisions by Athletes 1. Athletes should say "no" to taking drugs for any non-medical use, i.e. enhancing muscularity, increasing strength, improving ability to train, increasing endurance, losing weight, calming nerves, getting "up" for a contest, etc.
2. In the case of illness or injury, an athlete should:
- a. Not take performance-enhancing drugs and insist, with the advice of your physician, that she be prescribed only the needed amount of pharmacological assistance (medication).
- b. Say "no" to all but scientifically validated substances for treatment.
- c. Insist on full disclosure by her physician of the effects of any recommended or prescribed drug including but not limited to, the effect on athletic performance.
- d. Give her physician a USOC or NCAA listing of banned drugs and state her commitment to being a drug-free competitor.
3. Accomplished athletes are respected role models in our society. What an athlete says and does about recreational or performance-enhancing drug use will influence the decisions of others. Athletes should participate in voluntary drug testing programs and demonstrate their commitment to drug-free sport.
E. Leadership Guidelines for Parents, Coaches, Trainers, Physicians and Strength CoachesPremise: Young athletes will seek to please their parents, coaches, trainers and strength coaches and will follow the instructions of physicians.
8.1.6 Guidelines for "Right" Leadership1. Parents, physicians, coaches and trainers have a responsibility to educate athletes about the ethical implications of drug use. Taking any legal or illegal substance that alters the normal functioning of the mind or body for the purpose of enhancing athletic performance is cheating.
2. It is the responsibility of any parent, physician or sport leader to protect the health and physical well-being of the athlete. Athletes should be informed of all banned substances and the health dangers of each.
3. Parents, coaches and trainers should carefully check the reputations of physicians and sport leaders to whom they entrust the well-being of their children to ensure that these people:
- a. do not advocate taking drugs for non-medical use;
- b. have taken a strong position in favor of drug-free sport;
- c. recognize the responsibility of athletes and sport leaders as role
models in our society.
4. Parents, physicians and sport leaders are responsible for developing the appetite of an athlete for drug use whenever they advocate "winning at all costs". Keeping sport in perspective is an important responsibility.
- a. Rules make the game. Teaching athletes to understand the importance of rules in ensuring the fair contest as opposed to techniques that evade the application or intent of rules has important implications in the development of an athlete's attitude toward cheating and decisions regarding drug use.
- b. Striving to achieve one's best effort is essential in the evaluation of the meaning of winning and losing. Losing while giving one's best effort against a superior opponent is preferred to winning while giving less than a best effort against an inferior opponent. One's best effort cannot be determined if the athlete alters the normal functioning of mind or body with legal or illegal substances with the intent of using such substances to enhance athletic performance.
- c. Since the appetite for drug use is provided by societal pressure and many athletes, especially women, have been socialized to please others, parents, physicians and sport leaders are responsible for directly stating their opposition to drug use in sport.
- d. Parents, physicians and sports leaders influence athletes by their example. Their misuse, regardless of legality, of recreational or use of performance-enhancing drugs will negate any verbal statement against drug use.
5. Institutionalized Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs
- a. The Women's Sports Foundation calls for the international governing bodies of sports to impose bans on international sports participation by those nations in which institutionalized use of performance-enhancing drugs has been demonstrated.
- b. It is the responsibility of each sport's international governing body to have a drug testing program in place, administered by an independent agency immune to nationalist influences, to detect institutionalized performance-enhancing drug use by its member nations. Such a drug testing program must include random, unannounced and year round out-of-competition testing.