Doping tests on University of Waterloo football players have uncovered “unprecedented” levels of cheating, including the first-ever sanction for human growth hormone in North America, say officials with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport.
The breakthrough findings should prompt professional sports leagues, including the National Hockey League, National Football League and Major League Baseball, to impose HGH testing, says Paul Melia, president and chief executive officer of CCES, which conducts testing on amateur and professional athletes.
“These were deliberate attempts by athletes to dope, to cheat the system, to take a shortcut and to succeed at any cost,” Melia said of the positive results from team-wide testing in March on 62 members of the Waterloo Warriors football team.
In all, eight players were sanctioned for using steroids or HGH, a level of cheating that’s off the charts, said Christiane Ayotte, director of the Doping Control Laboratory in Montreal, which conducts CCES tests.