The Next Level of Body Shaming: How could you not be on drugs?

TTrigger warning: this article facially mentions race and nationality, so strict scrutiny should apply. Jk, everyone should go take Constitutional Law tho.

Just recently, ITA (International Testing Agency) reported that the famous Chinese weightlifter Lu Xiaojun (吕小军) tested positive for the use of prohibited peptide hormone erythropoietin (EPO), source. 

At first, I was shocked. 

A) Lyu is one of the most recognizable names in weightlifting (of all time), and I dare say that he is the most recognizable one in the Internet era. He has a legendary career that is about to have a satisfactory conclusion, so why would he ruin it for himself? 

B) The sample is from a “testing mission”, which means a surprise attack that no one other than ITA knows. To do such a thing (essentially, lying to customs and then randomly showing up and confronting national athletes) is obviously difficult and not done often. Yeah, you could say that it has to be done secretly because China won’t give honest self-testing results (cuz it’s China), but I would also assume that China is more restrictive on doping in the first place (also, cuz it’s China).

C) The doping tested is EPO, which is odd to the professionals. According to StatPearls, EPO’s main effect is stimulating red blood cell production, which can “increase stamina and performance”, said ITA. Doping surely boosts performance, but increasing red blood cells and stamina is obviously more desirable for sports that require stamina, like long-distance running/swimming or cycling. If weightlifters want to use illegal substances, they would go for something that helps with sudden bursts of energy, not long-period stigma boosters like EPO.

And then, I was shocked to be shocked. This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone, right? I mean, all top athletes are doping. It’s an open secret. Even world champions get caught doping all the time. It applies to all kinds of sports, especially weightlifting. For example, Ilya Ilyin (Kazakhstan, 4 world championships), Dmitry Klokov (Russia, 1), Lasha Talakhadze (Georgia, 6), and Loredana Toma (Romania, 2) have all received doping charges. It’s not the problem of whether the top athletes are using drugs or not; it’s about when they get caught.

Yeah, sure, why not. It’s so easy to just believe that. After all, people need an answer, but they don’t need to see the full picture. Are all top athletes using drugs? It doesn’t matter. What matters is the sickening, automatic thought that when athletes set records, they must be using drugs. There’s just gotta be some shady business behind it, especially when it’s done by someone not from North America or Western Europe.

(was doing my research and then got this lol)

The answer to that is, as always, power. The central countries of NA and Western Europe have been in control of the fundamentals of athletics, including rules, anti-doping, and judge selections. The core administration team of major organizations like the International Olympics Committee almost never lets people from other regions into the administration, especially Asians and Africans. It becomes increasingly obvious that those organizations target “other” countries more often. Softball and baseball were dropped from the Olympics as soon as Asian countries started to win gold medals. Both sports were added back for 2020 Tokyo but removed again, eagerly taking medals from former hosting Asian countries. 

The same has occurred for rulemaking. As soon as the “other” countries invented a new technique or became dominant, the rules were changed to limit their advantages. This happened too often, like banning Olga Korbut (Soviet Union)’s movement in Gymnastics, putting a 14y.o. age limit after 12 y.o. Fu Mingxia (China) became the youngest diving international champion, and changing numerous aspects of swimming, skeet shooting, gymnastics, table tennis, etc.

The gold medal doesn’t mean everything though, the image of physically superior foreign people (and essentially, foreign races) does. The West has been spreading the idea of “physical self-hate” to the “other” parts of the world for decades. Having a Jamaican who simply runs much faster or a Chinese who just has an aesthetically superior physique is just unacceptable.

That’s why Usain Bolt gets 200+ drug tests every year, and it goes the same for Lu. Lu Xiaojun’s name is so recognizable (more famous abroad than in China, actually) in not only weightlifting but also bodybuilding, which makes him a target. And here it goes, the icon of weightlifting inside and outside of China was caught using a weird drug through a surprise attack when Lu Xiaojun did zero competitions and practically just retired after the 2020 Olympics.

Is he actually using drugs? Maybe. I couldn’t possibly care less. What I see is that the same group of people who advocate for human rights and diversity also fail to recognize the effort from the “other” parts of human civilization, and that sickens me. The testing agencies, organizations, and rule-makers can find athletes guilty and discredit them years after their accomplishments, but in the end, who is truly innocent?