Anti-Doping and Congress

Two weeks ago Trent Staley posted an article on the AEC Blog from the January Issue of Outside Magazine titled Good Cop, Bad Cop. The article exposes some of the issues that are affected athletes and the ways they are forced to sacrifice in hopes of keeping the sport clean. If you have not yet read this article, please do.

Then last week AZ Senator John McCain held a press conference to talk about a bill he is proposing to require all supplement manufacturers to register the ingredients of each product with FDA. Among those in support of the bill are Bud Selig, Commissioner of the MLB, Travis T. Tygart, CEO of USADA, and the Athletes' Executive Committee's own Kicker Vencil. An article reporting the subject can be found on ESPN.

The concept of this bill is very simple, and that's what makes it so intriguing to me. If the ingredients in all supplements are clearly disclosed, it becomes much easier for athletes to compare the banned substances list to the list of ingredients on a product's package. Ultimately this would be a better situation for athletes across many sports, and could put anti-doping agencies one step closer to having a seal of approval on 'clean' supplements.