Ore. Program Wins $1 Million To Fight High
School Steroid Use
By LaRue Cook(AXcess News) Washington - Sports
Illustrated donated $1 million to a non-profit
organization Wednesday for its work to prevent
steroid and drug use among high school athletes.The
first annual SI Champion Award was given to Drs.
Linn Goldberg and Diane Elliot of the Oregon Health
& Science University."The magazine has
been at the forefront of the steroids issue with
more than 10 cover stories on steroids since its
first in 1969," said John Squires, co-chief
operating officer of SI owner Time Inc.
"This
award serves the spirit and the mission of the
magazine, and we decided to throw all our weight
behind this issue."Goldberg and Elliot's
ATLAS and ATHENA programs were among 48 programs
that applied for the grant. They will be given
cash and public service announcements in the magazine,
with the hope of initiating a national network
of SI Schools to spread awareness about steroids.
"When Diane and I first began our research
in 1987, we felt like explorers without a map,"
Goldberg said. "National drug surveys did
not include steroids it was a silent problem.
Then we remembered the words of Yogi Berra, "You
have to be careful if you don't know where you're
going, because you might not get there.'"After
starting ATLAS at a Portland, Ore., high school
in 1993, Goldberg and Eliot realized that they
needed to design separate programs for boys (ATLAS)
and girls (ATHENA) to coincide with the different
reasons each uses performance-enhancing and body-shaping
drugs. Both programs use 45-minute, student-led
sessions to teach about risks associated with
steroid and drug use.
More than 60 U.S. high schools
use the programs.On hand to speak at the ceremony
were Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Joseph R. Biden
Jr., D-Del.; and Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va.,
all of whom were instrumental in the hearings
held by Congress last March to confront the steroid
problems in professional sports.McCain, who sponsored
the Clean Sports Act of 2005, said that testimony
by parents whose children committed suicide due
to steroids grabbed the attention of Congress
more than the Major League Baseball players who
gained most of the media attention during the
hearings.According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's 2003 report, nearly 850,000
high school athletes admitted using steroids,
one in every 45 athletes, almost triple the numbers
from 1993.
Biden said some members of Congress
hoped to spend more than $350 million for steroid
prevention programs over the past two years, but
the money was not approved.He applauded the efforts
of Sports Illustrated and said he foresees $15
million of federal money going to ATHENS and ATHENA
this year. But he said there is still a long way
to go in the battle against steroids, a battle
he takes personally."What about the notion
that we've always talked about : that a motivated,
coordinated, dedicated athlete can dream of playing
any sport any time," he said. "As a
155-pound halfback ... I actually believed like
thousands of kids that if I just worked hard enough
that this was merit I could do it.
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