Kathy Jager denies taking PEDs, vows to return to track in 2 years
Kathy at Berea. Jeremy Langton photo for USATF
Kathy also wrote:
The medication my doctor prescribed during my banned two years (1999-2001) was not on the prohibited list, and when I was tested numerous times by the USADA I obviously would not have been reinstated had I tested positive. Based on this information, I have not requested a TUE. … Anyone interested in my condition lipodystrophy can Google it and see pictures and description of why I have no body fat and look more muscular. I take my health seriously, especially since my stint placement and extreme hypertension. I would never compromise this by using anything harmful or illegal. I plan to continue training and return to the sport I love when allowed.
Here’s a video about Kathy’s condition:
Valium therapy can cause problems with psychomotor reactions, therefore, during treatment with the drug https://www.therapyheals.ca/valium-10mg/ and 5 days after discontinuation, it’s necessary to not driving vehicles and not engaging in potentially dangerous activities that associated with stresses.
28 Responses
The Canadian hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep has lypodystrophy also. My grandfather who lived to be 100 years old had very muscular and strong arms at 100 years old and I have inherited a bit of that since I can get very lean and muscular pretty easily. If you have a genetic predisposition to being very lean and you train hard, you will not look like a normal person in your age group. I think that most elite athletes have certain genetic dispositions that seperate them from others. It is unfortunate that people will judge one another from appearances alone. I wish Kathy the best of luck in dealing with her health issues and I hope that we can get more clarity from the USADA in the future in regards to testing of Masters.
Lipodystrophy, which causes a redistribution of fat in the body, can affect both men and women and has nothing to do with taking steroids.
Kathy tested positive and is taking her punishment, but I stress again that those who were so quick to judge based on her appearance need to do a little self-reflection on their attitudes toward athletic women.
Nicely put Rod.
I am tired of the comments from all the “purer than the driven snow” commenters who condemn anyone caught in this sticky drug testing web without knowing anything of the circumstances.
Kathy is again a victim of the drug testing mess. How many more victims do we need before the policy is modified to take into account the genuine medical needs of masters.
I guess one message from all this is that all masters competitors who take any drugs of any kind (prescribed and OTC) need to check the USADA website and double check to make sure any drug they take in not banned or on the TUE list on a monthly basis since the list can change and we get no notice of the changes. It is not like we have to be listed with USADA or have agents doing this for us. Kathy was doing all she could to stay legal but got blindsided with a change in the list of TUE medications. This could happen to many of us who do our best to abide by the USADA rules.
I read a little about Lipodystrophy and the disease can have very serious complications. Steroids are used in a lot of medications and since I am not a doctor I would not presume to know why she took what medication. A simple statement that someone took steroids doesn’t tell the whole story.
Kathy Jager, I would like to appologize to you because you have confirmed what I’ve previously suspected, that you suffer from lipodystrophy. I am somewhat familiar with this condition, and the fact that it manifests itself via low bodyfat and extreme vascularity.
However, the rules of our sport state that you are ultimately responsible for what is in your body and the fact is that you have tested positive for medications containing ANABOLIC ANDROGENIC STEROIDS on two different occassions.
I hope that you will be able to find a medication that helps you lead a normal life and allows you to return to masters track & field when your suspension ends.
This is a tricky one. No one would want to discourage a person from taking needed medication(s)for medical purposes. But, if those medications aide performance then that is not fair to fellow competitors. The Masters governing group needs to develop policy that takes into consideration the differences that Master athletes deal with that are different from elite athletes that are subject to IAAF regulations.
Terry Parks, The steroids that are usually discussed on this website are ANABOLIC ANDROGENIC STEROIDS, and they are banned because they enhance performance.
Corticosteroids and glucocorticoids may be banned or have some restrictions of use, but in most cases, they do not carry the same stigma or penalties as hard-core PED’s.
Even though Cathy competes in more non-throwing events (100m, 200, pole vault, long jump)than throwing events and she absolutley dominates in the Women’s sprints in her age groups ranking 1st or 2nd in the Nation consistantly, compared to being average to slightly above in the throwing events, Ken, you couldn’t help yourself and post a photo of her throwing a shot put for your article. Really? Not one picture of her sprinting where her true talents are? You’re a class act all the way Bud, and posting that pic was a very nice way to distance guilty runners or other event athletes from the stigma and attention throwers recieve for susupicion of using PED’s…Mmmmm, so Women multi eventers using PED’s…I always wondered about a few of them…. Enjoy the attention ladies there’s more than enough to go around for everyone. Keep up the good work Ken!
What is discussed on this website is of little importance as far as what is banned by the USADA. The list of banned drugs is long and constantly changing. One has to look at the list on the USADA website regularly. Indeed, Kathy states that her medication was not banned initially and then became banned later.
Hi, Milt.
I have lots of photos of Kathy, but the photo I posted was from Berea, where the drug test was done. I wasn’t at Berea.
I am a bit confused. If people with this condition take a type of anabolic steroid doesn’t it affect their body composition even more. As in make them even more muscular than before? Which from what I am hearing is already abnormal muscular development to begin with. So what happens if they do not take this specific anabolic steroid? Also Why this particular steroid?
Just asking.
I understand Ken, but if you read what you posted as an outsider to Master’s T&F who is intersted in the story further or just new to the sport, no where is it mentioned in the article what events Kathy competed in. All they have to go by is the photo and most would assume she is just a thrower. I copied the story and e-mailed it to 6 friends not familiar to masters track and field, but do compete in open class in T&F and asked them what thier thoughts were about it. All of them simply said she was a masters shot putter that was suspended for some sort of illegal drug use. All because of the lack of information on Kathy and the use of that photo. Even though the article was written for us master’s, I even had to look her up to see she was a multi event athlete and her expertise were the sprints, long jump and not throwing. Since we live in a day and age where anything posted on the internet can be misconstrude and used as fact over other internet sites, TV and newspaper media I believe there was an error on your part in the lack of information on her athletic bio. After hearing so many writing just a few months ago about how ” they know just by looking” at certain throwers that were using some form of PED’s and the recent suspension of Mr. Shumaker, the throwing community doesn’t need another black eye due to lack of information on a sad, yet negative story. The media was not shy at all in telling the world that Mr. Shumaker was a masters thrower. Why stop that trend now.
P.S. Here is the title to your article about Mr. Shumaker on Masterstrack.com, “Drug positive at Berea nationals: M60 thrower Craig Shumaker” Even you didn’t hesitate to let the reader immediately know that it was a thrower that got caught.
Here’s a link to an article about Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, a Canadian hurdler also with lipodystrophy. http://www.spikesmag.com/features/priscillalopesschlieptheunderdogwhoovercametheodds.aspx It’s obviously a misunderstood condition, open to speculation, but I’ve known Kathy to be up-front and honest about dealing with her experience with it. I agree with Mary that Kathy’s case is really about someone trying to compete fairly, while dealing with medical issues, but then being tripped up by a change in the list of what is allowed for a TUE.
Thanks for the link Karla. I wondered about Priscilla until I learned about her condition. That taught me not to assume things based appearances. Kathy has said that she has always been very muscular and if you throw in the training, she will be ripped even at 67.
I really feel sorry for all the suffering that the little girl in the video has to endure. I am sure that Kathy has some similiar hurtful stories. For me, I just got strong easily and ran really fast and got fit easily. I don’t think that I have ever liked having my veins pop out, but I do like not looking like other 47 year old men and being able to still run open races. I think that it is easier for men who have similar conditions. If you think about it, very few of elite Masters or young elites look like their age group peers. That is because they are by definition outliers on the bell curve. We have all self selected into our sport because we like it and some were literally born to excel at certain disciplines. If you think that you can look at someone and tell if they are using PED’s you are wrong. If these magic eyes existed we would not need testing.
I agree with you Terry that you cannot assume someone is taking PED’s because they are muscular or they look strong. Those who can detect a drug user from how they look would have accused a 5 year old of taking steroids. Those of us who are predisposed to developing big muscles should not be judged or condemned for it. Although being a very strong & muscular child, I discovered my ability to get really strong when I broke my ankle in high school & started liftig weights. I was very athletic & excelled in most sports. My passion was sprinting but when I broke my ankle my senior year, I started to lift weights in gym class & after school so that I would not get out of shape. My coach commented on how big & strong I looked & said I looked like a shotputter, well guess what that is what I bacame. I discovered a natural gift and took advantage of it. The combination of speed, strength, explosive power & hard work contribute to my success. After reading Priscilla Lopes story, there is nothing wrong with her taking advantage of the strength associated with her disease as long as she is not jacked up on steroids. Or should people be banned who take advantage of the natural ability they were born with?
Remember Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron”? In the late 21st century, the Handicapper General is in charge of making everyone in the country exactly equal in every way. Beautiful people are required to wear masks, athletic people must wear sashweights to slow them down, and intelligent people have to wear little mental-handicap radios in their ears. You can read the story at http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html.
Random drug test–I was drug tested twice within 24 hrs. at the Berea meet. The first day I was tested about 4:00pm as the winner of the pentathlon, and when I got done competing in the 8:00am long jump the next morning, I was tested again as the winner of the long jump.
We’ve implemented the drug testing, but it’s not quite the perfect answer for us masters. There’s still some “tweaking” that needs to be done.
Just a heads-up: The usatf.org Web site indicates that indoor nationals at Bloomington (March 2012) will have drug testing (you might have thought that testing was confined to outdoors).
If the pattern for the 2011 Albuquerque meet holds up, regular entry for indoor nationals will CLOSE in February, just 4 months from now (information about entry has not yet been posted on the Web site).
@ Ed #17
Thanks! I read that story a LONG time ago. Looked for it a while ago to help make a point in a discussion similar to this but couldn’t even remember who wrote it.
“Kathy is again a victim of the drug testing mess”. I do apologize for the rest of the world, we did not now…
Word from USATF is that Bloomington registration will begin after October 31st……No later than. Smartty
Love you Kathy!! Be well! Hope to see you soon!
met her at wma in sac. cal very nice lady sorry to hear that,
kathy keep head up nice person,im the runner that helped your room mate at wma
This is an excellent explanation of her condition.
HOWEVER… I can’t understand why some one that previously incurred a two year ban did not make absolutely sure that she was on firm ground before going to major meets where it was widely known that testing would be performed.
Either she did not bother to check the current WADA prohibited list for her present medication. OR, she did check and was either denied a TUE or did not bother to get one, basically choosing to “roll the dice” and hope she would not get selected.
Either scenario is inexcusable. The notice of testing was given to everybody, the WADA list is available to everybody.
The rules can’t be disregarded just because someone doesn’t think they are fair.
And now, because there is yet another high profile ban in masters track, the chances for a discussion of different standards for masters are again diminished.
Chuckxc (#26) nailed it on the head. As long as there’s a up to date WADA list of banned drugs and medications, there’s no reason to not check it prior to any major competition to be sure you’re legal if you are on ANY medications, especially after being caught once before. Being a nice person, great competitor or being a friend of, is no excuse for violations. These drug testings should definitely continue so that as we are finding out now, weed out the few that malicously, or not, are using banned substances. There will always be a certain amount of ego that goes hand in hand being an athlete of any age. As some masters see their athletic abilities, strength levels and health diminish with age, it can motivate some to make poor decisions whether it be purposely taking an anabolic steroid to get a physical advantage, or as simple as not checking a list for something that may be aiding a health condition, hoping you can slide under the radar. As innocent as the later of those two is, it directly affects all those other competitors that folowed the rules and get robbed of getting onto the medal stand or a second place finisher winning an event. Whether it be taking a banned substance or even bad mouthing of athletes that APPEAR to be too muscular or talented by those that are not as genetically gifted or aging poorly, they are mainly ego oriented actions and will always be a part of athletics. With drug testing in place we can somewhat please both sides. The athletes that tend to be more naturally physically gifted can quiet certain individuals back room suspicions and slander, while at the same time catching the real culprits that give a bad name to those that are doing things the right way. So what have we learned from these two recent suspensions? Don’t blow off declaring that you are on any medications for any reason. Don’t assume you are OK to compete at competition to competition until you check that list prior to attending or competing if you are on any meds, and don’t hope you will slide under the radar and not have your number called to be tested at any meet. I don’t think that’s too complicated for educated adults as ourselves to follow and if so, maybe you have more problems to worry about than competing at T&F meets.
Wow! Going to miss seeing you at meets. Don’t really know, now, if I will continue participating in the USATF venues (it is expensive and somehow I do not feel appreciated for the money I’m spending to contribute and participate.)
I always got a thrill seeing you there competing. It is very sad for me. I enjoy the friendships made at the meets. Now, it is getting so complicated! I guess [we] Masters Athletes are going to need to come up with an alternative means to participate in track without so much governance (maybe the governance is necessary.)I was a good athlete, but I guess I didn’t take track and field as seriously as others because we didn’t get paid (until Carl Lewis changed that.)I got some funny statements to make about that.
You know participating in track and field can be much more fun. Maybe, it is time for track and field to evolve into something more interactive with better incentives.
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