USATF Masters T&F Media guru Bob Weiner, in a previous career gig, was the chief spokesman for Barry McCaffrey , the U.S. drug czar in the late 1990s. Now Bob has combined his interests in masters track and anti-doping with a timely column in today’s Charlotte Observer. (Bob is too modest to mention that he’s also competing this weekend — in the M55 1500 and steeplechase.)

Here’s the column, for future reference in case link goes dead:
The dream of pure sport
Events at UNC Charlotte show clean competition can exist
From Robert Weiner, former spokesman for the White House National Drug Policy Office and Masters Media Chair for USA Track and Field:
With the shocking revelations of positive drug tests by Tour de France winner Floyd Landis and world 100-meter record holder Justin Gatlin, we are led to believe that drugs are everywhere in athletics. The saga continues for baseball star Barry Bonds and NFL Carolina Panthers who have been accused of using illegal and dangerous performance-enhancing drugs. Chinese and East German swimmers, Russian shot putters, Spanish and Russian Olympic champion skiers have all been exposed or thrown out for illegal drugs.
But despite the growing belief that all sports are drug laden, it’s not true.
As kids, we all dreamed of the purity and beauty of athletic competition. As adults, we long for these goals to be still out there, even though we have become cynical.
Guess what — pure, clean, high level sporting competition does exist, and one example is 2006 USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships coming to Charlotte this week, Aug. 3-6, at the UNC Charlotte track.
Thursday through Sunday, 1,400 competitors ages 30 to 95-plus will put on what should be an extraordinary demonstration of speed, power, skill and endurance. Forty-three current world champions and 10 Olympians are among the competitors.
The meet will spotlight amateur sports at their finest. This will be about who will jump highest, sprint fastest, endure a distance the most efficiently, or throw the farthest. Track events range from 100 meters to 10K, while field events include the full range of jumps and throws.
Farmer Trent Lane of Baker, La., is the oldest competitor. The 96-year-old stays in shape by working on his farm. His regimen has lifted him to age-group records in the shot put, discus, hammer and javelin. Sure some of these older athletes take medicines, but no one is in the competition for the money — there isn’t any to be had!
These are athletes who have figured out how to pace themselves not just in their races but through life. Charlotte’s 70-year-old Gerald Vaughn, who was a construction company’s human resources manager for 24 years, has broken the indoor and outdoor world shot put record for the 70-plus age group and will try to improve on that at the meet.
Major league baseball, cycling and the NFL could learn from track and field as a whole, by the way: At the Athens Olympics, there was not one positive drug finding among U.S. track athletes, because all were scared straight beforehand. If positive before the Games, they were banned from the sport. The newest bust of world record holder Gatlin shows the sport tolerates no cheaters and “it doesn’t matter who you are,” as USATF CEO Craig Masback said. Baseball and the NFL have yet to develop and enforce a comprehensive testing program including all the obvious drugs — not just steroids.
Purity in sport still exists, and you can witness it this week right here in Charlotte. Lifetime fitness through physical competition is the message. Come see for yourself.
Write Bob Weiner at weinerpublic@comcast.net.
Me again:
I appreciate Bob’s passionate portrayal of masters as drug-free, but many older athletes have confided to me that they know of folks on PEDs (performance-enhancing drugs) in the American age-group ranks. I don’t have documentary proof of this, but I take these reports at the word of the sources.
Of course, it’s really a moot issue in USATF — since no drug-testing takes place at any masters track meet in the United States. And never will, from all accounts. Too expensive.
So the only Americans subject to anti-doping protocols are those who compete at WMA world or regional meets that do (spotty, at best) drug-testing.
And given how serious many older athletes are about their T&F achievements, it’s not a stretch to think that more than a handful of athletes in Charlotte are on HGH, steroids, EPO or any of the freely available substances being marketed to older folks to help them improve fitness and virility.
Bob is right in showcasing the Charlotte meet, but for the wrong reasons. It’s not because we’re all pure as the driven snow. It’s because we’re freely pursuing our dreams, against the clock and against Father Time. It’s because we rage against the dying of the athletic light.
That and 1,400 other reasons.
See U in Charlotte.

As promised, Bob Weiner has shipped out his pre-Charlotte press release, which the local organizing committee is shopping to various media in hopes of bringing suitable attention to our national championships. The release is dated July 31, but Bob has given permission to post it here. You can use any of its information to talk up the meet in your own locale. (Bob hasn’t specified the Olympians, but I spot these: Bud Held (1952, 1956 javelin), Patricia Porter (1988 high jump), James Barrineau (1976 high jump) and Karl Smith (1984 110H for Jamaica.)

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Finally — some imagination in a masters nationals. Gordon Edwards, director of the upcoming USATF nationals in North Carolina, says he’s lining up some celebrity presenters – including several Olympians — for the awards stand as well as providing dozens of prizes beyond medals for the best age-group performances. And the top male and female age-graded performers will get treadmills, Gordon says. Already vying for the oldest entrant is Trent Lane, 96, a Louisiana resident.

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