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(Lol @ Mar. 14 2007,21:58)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I can't imagine anyone currently competing at the top level in any sport who hasn't had some kind of assistance along the way. I'd like to think that it happens but I don't really believe it.</div>
Pro bowlers? ("sport" being loosely defined)
I tend to agree with you. The public is now becoming more aware of this, but the sport that doesn't get enough (bad) publicity for this IMO is the NFL (professional American football). I remember as kid decades ago when big linemen were 6'6" tall and 260 lbs. Now they're 6'0" and 330 lbs at 21 or 22 years old coming out of college. The stronger ones are bench pressing 225lbs for 30-40 reps or more at the NFL "combine".
I just have a hard time believing that they're all so strong and physically mature at a young age only by better weight programs.
I do think that, taking a
lot longer to get there, someone with the right genetics can come close to the performance levels of the drug enhanced. Not in BBing, but in most other sports, including strength sports. My benchmark, until it's proven that he cheated is Shane Hamman. I've posted about this elsewhere, but perhaps not here. Hamman Clean & Jerked 523lbs, which AFAIK is still the American record. Now C&Js of over 580lbs have been done in competition by a couple of lifters. This is only about a 20lb increase over Vasiliy Alexeev's best 30 or more years ago. So Hamman's lift is about 90% of the best of all time, which record has not changed much in 30 years whatever drug use there has been in the sport.
Here is the point: Hamman claims to be drug free. I've also seen Glenn Pendlay insist in very strong terms that he is convinced that Hamman is lifetime drug free. So taking that at face value, I'm thinking that someone can come within at least 90% of the top strength performances drug free. However, if drugs add even a few % to the best a lifter can do, it will still be impossible for a natural lifter to ever get to the highest level as long as others can manage to cheat undetected. Unquestionably, the cheaters can get to high levels a
lot faster than the drug-free, given not being caught.