Given the increasing emphasis on data and tools to record and evaluate performance, it's almost certain that someone, somewhere, has or is experimenting with controlled use of anabolic steroids and other PEDs to evaluate and chart the effects on athletic performance. It would only take an elite level athlete who's no longer actively competing, or taking a sabbatical from sanctioned competitions, to serve as a lab rat. We already know from various doping scandals that some nations have engaged in doping for its teams in international competition, so the infrastructure exists for qualified lab testing. But don't expect to see those results published anywhere in any legitimate medical or science journal. Hacked and leaked, sure.
Go back to the Floyd Landis case at the 2006 Tour de France. It's among the few cases where an athlete admitted to specifics about doping and the effects.
Short version:
- Without adequate juicing, Landis was physically exhausted and lost 10 minutes, and the yellow jersey, in Stage 16.
- With juice, the next day on another mountain stage Landis won Stage 17 and secured the TdF win with a long solo breakaway, basically turning a mountain stage into a time trial, along with solid performances in subsequent stages. One of the most spectacular come from behind victories in cycling history. Check out the videos on YouTube.
Yeah, that kinda got everyone's attention.
That's how much difference it makes.
Skip to 3:48 of this video of the press conference after Stage 16 and listen carefully to the reporters' questions and Floyd's response:
Reporter: ''Today had absolutely nothing to do with them monitoring you?"
Landis: ''No... today... was not a factor."
Reporter: ''Would you tell us if it was (a factor)?
Landis: ''No.'' (Nervous laughter.)
(Several reporters laugh. Obviously worst kept secret in the TdF.)