In the United States, sports is taken seriously, if not obsessively. And some people will do anything to achieve success in the world of sports, even cheat. Being successful in sports could be the golden ticket to stardom and unimaginable riches. Professional athletes are larger-than-life, looked up to and seen as heroes by young kids. Many American youths dream of becoming the next Michael Jordan or Babe Ruth or Tiger Woods. Many of these kids’ parents also dream of the same thing for their kids, supporting them in their athletic goals. Some parents, however, pressure their kids up to the breaking point.

Recently, we have seen parent’s obsession with their kids’ athletic success reaching new and scary heights. Recently, two such cases involving parents exploiting their children have made headlines.

In Gilbertville, Iowa, police were called after a 14-year old boy assaulted his mother. In the investigations, police found syringes and more than a hundred pills inside the boy’s room. The father, Anthony Garleman, admitted to injecting his son with anabolic steroids to give him an edge in the highly competitive environment of wrestling in Iowa. Garleman said that he wanted to “motivate” his son who was a wrestler in Don Bosco High School, Gilbertville, a school which has produced a number of state wrestling champions.

Another, more notorious case, was found in Michigan. Jim Gahan, trainer, promoter and mentor to his son, Corey Gahan, a promising speed and in-line skater with a lot of potential, was obsessed with molding his son into a world class skater with a winning career. He started giving Corey a drug regimen when he was only 13 years old, which eventually derailed Corey’s professional career in skating.

At age 10, Corey moved to Florida with his father to train for in-line skating before going on to speed skating. Jim changed Corey’s coach when he determined that Corey was not developing fast enough. Together with the new coach, Jim put Cory under a pharmaceutical diet of steroids and human growth hormone. Corey’s body grew bigger and he went on to winning championships, breaking records, and making a name in the skating world. As a reward, Jim showered Corey with an assortment of gifts that no kid can resist: PlayStations, television sets, and an American Express Gold Card.

The intense workout program that Corey had to endure was too much for his body and thus pain pills were added to his cocktail of drugs. Everything ended when Corey tested positive for an assortment of drugs. Ultimately, Jim Gahan was sent to prison, their father-and-son relationship ruined.

Behind the noble and glorious picture of sports and athleticism filled with human spirit, integrity and strength, lies the underbelly of the sports world where there is a lot of opportunity to make a lot of money. Behind the splendid dreams of every young athlete is an army of parasites waiting to exploit these dreams for financial rewards. Unfortunately, the very people that the young athlete trusts are the same people who exploit his or her dreams: coaches, school administrators, and even parents.

Ryan Shooltz, 25, who had pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges in October of last year, has been given a rare second chance by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor. Shooltz has had a series of brushes with the law several years ago. In last week’s sentence hearing, Shooltz told Judge Ponsor that he had since reinvented himself and thus asked the judge for a second chance through his lawyer Thomas Lesser.

Judge Ponsor admitted he had a “bad taste in his mouth” when he came to the hearing and wasn’t particularly keen about the defendant, which he told defense lawyer Thomas Lesser even though Shooltz was just a student then when he got busted. With his particular case, however, Shooltz faced little exposure to a jail sentence.

Shooltz indictment came after three years from the time he was caught in his apartment in Amherst in 2004. According to court records, a friend of Shooltz died of methadone overdose and police thus made the necessary investigations. In the apartment, the investigators found piles of illegal substances including human growth hormone, anabolic steroids, vitamins and a host of other pills. State Prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin O’Regan told Judge Ponsor that a “cornucopia” of substances (legal and illegal) were found in Shooltz’s refrigerator and in other places in the apartment. He said that the apartment cultivated a culture tolerant of drug-use.

Atty. O’Regan further explained that the sheer number of substances found in the apartment showed that Shooltz’s case wasn’t merely that of a student who wanted to build muscles or enhance athletic performance, or even a case of merely sharing steroids and other substances with friends. He said that Shooltz imported steroids from China and that he sold these over the Internet.

Shooltz’s defense attorney, Lesser, argued that even if the pills were quite substantial in amount, these were really just enough for personal consumption by about half a dozen people. Lesser said that for those who used steroids, a typical three-month course for one individual would involve inducing 20 to 30 pills daily. In asking for a second chance for his client, Lesser emphasized that Shooltz did not have a criminal record since his late teens when he had a series of brushes with the law. Since then, he has been working as a salesman, acquired an apartment in Quincy had a long-term steady girlfriend.

Judge Ponsor told the lawyers that he was considering sentencing Shooltz to community confinement for a period of six months. He did not want to give him straight probation because this might send the wrong message to the public regarding substance abuse. Ponsor also commented that six months in a halfway house was not such a bad thing, because it would allow Shooltz to see “how the other half lives.” He also added that no one submitted letters to support Shooltz asking to lighten his sentence, as is the custom in federal criminal sentence hearings.

Lesser did not think it was necessary to draft letters and was not encouraging anyone to do so. Ponsor is still in the process of reviewing Shooltz case to confirm if he has indeed “turned a corner” and will be continuing the sentencing late February.

In almost every field, the glory of sports has been tainted with drug and steroid scandals; The boxing world was not spared from these scandals. Steroid abuse can play a very dangerous role especially in the sport of boxing where performance enhancing drugs have the ability to strengthen and increase the speed of a boxer’s punch to superhuman levels to the point of becoming lethal. Under steroids, a boxer’s fist is a lethal weapon. That is why, for boxers, a steroid scandal can ruin a career. Compounded by public perception that steroid-use is cheating done only by bad guys—as made infamous in the Rocky Movie Series starring Sylvester Stallone, a steroid scandal can mean the end of a boxer’s career.

One of the most phenomenal lightweight boxers in history, Sugar Shane Mosely, has had his career jeopardized when his name was tied to the recent Balco investigations. At the height of his career, Shane Mosley seemed to have grown bigger overnight and turned from a mild-mannered person to a swearing, aggressive person, as recounted by Mosley’s 23-year chiropractor, Dr. George Del Junco. Maybe it was the pressure of the boxing world that pushed Mosley to the other side. It could have ruined him forever. Fortunately for Mosley, he was given another chance to prove himself again.

In the past weekend, 38-year-old Sugar Shane Mosely fought against Antonio Margarito (who was pegged to finish off Mosley’s career) completely drug-free, showing the world that he was still the first-class fighter he once was. After the BALCO scandal, Mosley has been written off competitions and his titles and awards were revoked. He was painted by the media as a notorious steroid user, and since then, has been fighting to claim back the name and fame that he had lost. This time, Mosley came in clean going all the way to win the World Welterweight Champion. Undoubtedly, this was the most important fight of his career yet.

For the last decade, Mosley has been accused and called names, tarnishing his reputation. But this game may just as well bring him back to the glory days that have gone. Ironically, it was Antonio Margarito who was caught cheating in the recent fight. The referee discovered that Margarito’s gloves were lined with plaster cast before the start of the fight and was thus forced to change gloves. In this particular game, the audience could say that Margarito was the bad guy and Mosley the good guy.

Unlike in movies such as Rocky, the good guys aren’t always good and the bad guys aren’t always bad. Bad guys are still given a second chance to redeem themselves while good guys have the possibility of ruining their careers in the future. Like Shane Mosley who went down the road of steroid abuse, fighters can still regain what they have lost during their moment of weakness. Inherently a good fighter, Mosley was lured into a false promise that steroids seemed to offer. In the end, what saved him was cleaning up and fighting his best drug-free.

The controversial report of Henry Waxman on steroid use in professional wrestling draws reactions from TNA wrestlers. Based on the report of Waxman, the number of wrestlers taking steroids in the WWE and TNA Wrestling is alarming. It even involved some personalities in the professional wrestling and caused their executives to be grilled by congressional inquiries. In TNA wrestling alone, it was revealed that 15 of the 60 wrestlers who were tested last year gave a positive results for steroids use. Another major concern is the presence of other prohibited substances in the 11 TNA wrestlers. If we will make an analysis on the total users of prohibited drugs in the TNA, we can conclude that there are 43% of them taking steroids and other banned substances. This would show that use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs in this sport is really rampant.

However, TNA wrestlers were not happy with this report of Waxman. According to them this may give a negative impression specially to the young audience who are the major viewers of this sport. TNA wrestler Shawn Daivari even posted on his site shawndaivari.com, his views and comment on the Waxman report. He made his criticism just days after the report was released.

The major issue that is being raised by Daivari is the authority and the understanding of Waxman of the professional wrestling as a physical sport. Daivari said, “What bothers me is for the average person who isn’t in the know of this industry, it paints a bad picture of pro-wrestling whilst leaving every other form of entertainment to be,” “Wrestling is part of the entertainment industry. Like music, movies, TV, sports, books etc. etc. etc.” The wrestler argued that wrestling is just like other industry which may have similar problems but its the media who made some hype on the issues.

Daivari also tackled the issue on “use and abuse” of steroid and other substances in this sport. He said that steroids have medical properties that may help an athlete thats why a doctor can prescribe it while other substances such as cocaine and LSD can’t be prescribed by doctors since they don’t have any medical value. He even mentioned the drug Vioxx as an example. Based on the studies, he said that the drug may cause heart failure but FDA found on their study that the use of this drug still give more benefits than its percieved side effects.

“I think people are uneducated as to what anabolic steroids are. Anabolic steroids are synthetic hormones. Birth control is a steroid. Some antidepressant drugs are steroids. More often than not, again in cases of USE and not ABUSE they have medical properties that are beneficial to the person prescribed the drug,” Shawn Daivari said.

The wrestler believes that the drug programs of the biggest wrestling companies in the United States, which are the WWE and TNA, are at par with those of the National Football League and the International Olympic Committee. “If synthetic hormone causes the damage that Henry Waxman feels it does, his letter should ask congress to have synthetic hormones removed from the market by the FDA. He has his right to his opinion. If that is how he feels, then he should have his freedom to speak on the matter,” Daivari wrote. “But to go on a witch hunt against pro-wrestling is preposterous and probably won’t go anywhere when both of the biggest wrestling companies in the USA have GOOD drug policies that hold up just as well as the NFL’s drug policy and even the Olympics drug policy.”

He also commented on the use of HGH or human growth hormone by professional athletes. Daivari said, “It seems like you cannot go a month without hearing a pro athlete, be it hockey, football, pro-wrestling, etc. going ahead and tearing a muscle clear of the bone/tendon while they’re working. 95% of any orthopedic surgeons will prescribe Human Growth Hormone (a synthetic hormone i.e. a steroid) to co-inside with rehabilitation. Human Growth Hormone helps the body regenerate tissue. It creates more red blood cells. These are attributes with use that show it’s medical value”.

As in the case of Nandrolone-Deconate which most doctors would prescribe after reattaching torn anatomy is another synthetic hormone that causes the body to go into a positive nitrogen balance. He said that it allows the body assimilate more protein, which every one knows, is the building blocks of repairing damaged tissue. “So of these crazy percentages that Mr. Waxman likes to present to congress, does he take into consideration the number of “positive” wrestlers that have had reconstructive surgery in he last 3-18 months of testing? Daivari also questioned Waxman if he knows the number of athletes who used these drugs legally in the USA, who followed FDA guidelines and hormones prescribed by medical doctors. “No. He doesn’t. Because as I said earlier he is on a witch hunt. Am I saying that EVERYONE is innocent, and using drugs within the guidelines of doctor or FDA approval? No. We know that’s typically not the case. But is there any way that I believe 70+ percent of the locker room is drug abusing addict? Also no.”

We are expecting that more professional wrestlers will be doing similar actions just to counteract whatever negative effects of the Waxman report to its fans.

Floyd Landis is very excited as well as a bit nervous as he thinks about his return to the sports world via next month’s Tour of California. The return to professional sports stems from his two year doping ban finally running its course.

After being stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title due to a failed dope test, the American cyclist has missed the thrill of competition and is eager to forget the memories of his protracted bid through the courts to prove his innocence.

After training with his OUCH cycling team, Landis admitted to reporters that he had really missed all of it in the last couple of years. Landis has been doing one thing in the last 15 years of his life and the two years of drama that still revolve on cycling, so the sport really never left his mind. Landis said that he almost feels a bit nervous because it’s been long since he raced.

The 33-year old who turned professional in 1999 with a stint at the Mercury Cycling Team, also claimed that he has not thought about it much because he focused on other things. Then he started planning and focusing on the races and visualizing what it would be like, and now he’s getting really excited – more than he had been in a long time.

Floyd Landis’ doping ban ends on Friday, and the cyclist believes that he is great shape for the 14th-22nd February Tour of California. He said that his fitness is comparable to other years in wintertime and that he has quite a few climbs that he does in training and he would time himself and those similar to when he was racing and preparing for Tour de France.

However, the cyclist also said that there are things about the race that one can’t stimulate. There the peloton dictates how hard you ride and you can’t decide even if you are tired. But all things considered, Landis is as good as he is right now.

When Landis was ask if he have any plans on competing for this year’s Tour de France, he said the wouldn’t rule out trying to get back to Europe at some point but still not right now. Landis considers himself lucky to have a place in cycling and to have experienced what he did; he vows he’s not going to leave a disappointment.

The cyclist tested positive for synthetic testosterone after winning the 17th penultimate stage of the 2006 Tour de France. He gave an amazing comeback in the final mountain stage one day after a poor performance. Landis consistently denied any wrongdoing and blamed procedural errors by the French laboratory for his test.

For the last two years, Floyd Landis had been working on a protracted bid to prove his innocence in courts all over the world. In 2007, a 10-day hearing in Malibu was followed by a 5-day hearing in New York in March last year. Until his final appeal was rejected by the Court Arbitration for Sports in June.

Landis described it as a very traumatic experience and said he was happy to leave it all behind. He says he’s happy to be focused on something positive while he moves forward.

Landis also explained that if he was to do anything differently, he wouldn’t have spent much time doing that because he at the time made decisions based on what he knew, and they weren’t exactly the most informed of choices.

He said that there is any purpose to serve him to sit and recall what he could have done differently and he is certain that there are some things and there is always hindsight but he doesn’t think it has any value there.

Some of world’s top cyclists may find themselves testifying again after a Spanish court decided to reopen the sports largest doping investigation. Jaime Lissavetzky, Spanish sport minister said on Monday that a third review of Operation Puerto means that ‘oral testimony’ will be expected.

About more than 50 cyclists were originally caught up in the blood ring that was exposed in May 2006. This month, a Madrid provincial court repealed the decision to shelve the case because “evidence exists that a crime was committed against public health.”

Five were originally charged before a judge closed the case. He considered nothing wrong had taken place according to the laws in force at the time. The case was reopened in February 2008 just before it was closed again in September.

In the 2006 Tour de France, nine riders were excluded after the raids, including Giro d’Italia 2006 champion Ivan Basso and 1997 Tour champion Jan Ullrich.

Operation Puerto was Spain’s biggest judicial probe in investigating doping in sports of cycling. Police who raided different locations in Madrid and Zaragoza found hormone medications, steroids, EPO- an endurance-enhancing drug and about 100 bags of frozen blood. All the paraphernalia and equipments found in the sports related place were employed for blood doping.

Names from the Spanish sporting elite were brought out and were duly arrested – Dr. Eufemanio Fuentes, former Liberty Seguros Director Manuel Saiz and Comunidad Valencia’s Ignatio Labarta.

Though Fuentes’ clients include other sports figures, only cyclists have been dragged into the controversy – some to face sanctions in their own countries. Scarponi was given an 18 month suspension, while Basso got worse; he was banned for 2 years from professional competition.

The case was however dismissed in March 2007 as Judge Antonio Serrano came to the decision that no laws were broken. The case was opened following the amendments in Spanish drug laws. Judge Serrano was also pressured by Spain’s sports ministry to reopen the case to seek resolution on whether any laws on handling blood as well as blood products were violated in the blood doping scandal.

On November of the same year, the case peaked when Cristina Perez, Dr. Fuentes’ wife disclosed that what she knows can ruin and will ruin Spanish sports – that she knows about Spain’s prized athletes that have been using drugs to boost their performance in competition.

Perez also revealed that amazing performance of Spain’s athletes in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics could be somehow attributed to her husbands’ assistance in making enhancement drugs to players. Perez had also joined in the said Olympics in the 1600m relay team competition.

After being shelved twice, the Operation Puerto has been unlocked the 2nd time now. Madrid’s public prosecutors immediately filed an appeal to ensure that the case gets a review. Madrid’s district attorney said that Dr. Fuentes’ and others encouragement, assistance and condoning of steroid use as well as blood doping in athletes could place these people’s health and even lives at risk.