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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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2 3 - 0 9 - 2 0 0 5 Failed steroid test capsizes pro surfer
‘Neco’ Padaratz first athlete in sport’s history to test positive for performance enhancers
AP NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — World-class professional surfer Percy “Neco” Padaratz Jr. has been stripped of his points and banned from competition for the rest of the year after testing positive for steroids, a surfing official said Wednesday. Padaratz, 29, tested positive for three types of steroids, according to the official. He failed a random drug test conducted last fall at a competition in France, results of which became available in July. Padaratz acknowledged that he had been using the drugs without a doctor’s supervision to help a back injury, said Robert Gerard of Newport Beach, the rules and discipline judge for the Association of Surfing Professionals. “Not only is he the first athlete in the history of the sport to test positive for steroids ... it is the first time I have had even heard a whisper of any athlete involvement with steroids,” Gerard said. The anabolic steroids — methyltestosterone, mestanolone and oxymetholone — are performance-enhancing drugs, Gerard said. Even if they were being used to treat a back problem, that in itself would have given Padaratz an unfair advantage over other surfers who had to skip competitions while their back injuries healed through traditional medical methods, Gerard said. “I unequivocally think there is no place for steroids in the sport,” Gerard said. “There are tens of thousands of young people that look up to these athletes.” Padaratz won the 1999 Gotcha Pro surf event in Huntington Beach and is one of only 45 men and 16 women who each year qualify to be on the World Championship Tour. He was stripped of all points won this year on that tour and the lower-tier World Qualifying Series. While he has a chance next year to attempt to regain the world tour, he will be facing hundreds of competitors in the lower tiers. “In the entire history of surfing ... only a handful of surfers who have dropped off the WTC have been able to claw their way back,” Gerard said. Padaratz could have appealed his ban to the ASP board of directors but chose not to do so. If he tests drug-free and is reinstated next January, he will have to work his way back onto the world tour from scratch. Padaratz who now lives in Brazil, could not be reached for comment. |
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