Getting back to prostate enlargement prior to the making of the first anabolic steroid dianabol the Russian Olympic lifters were injecting straight testosterone in doses so high some had to use catheters to pee. Dianabol was created to get the anabolic effects of testosterone while minimizing the androgen effects.
Hmmm.
"In 1954, Ziegler went with his York buddies to the World Weightlifting Championships in Vienna, Austria, as the team’s doctor. Ziegler watched as the Soviets hoisted ungodly amounts of steel. Like any red-blooded American, he was leery of the Russians, whose physiques he found suspiciously hairy and outsized.
“Some of the competitors, even young ones in their 20s, needed to be catheterized in order to urinate,” he later told the Los Angeles Times. "
https://slate.com/culture/2005/02/the-doctor-who-brought-steroids-to-america.htmlThat story about the Soviets having to catheterize their athletes comes from a Los Angeles Times interview from February 1984 ,almost thirty years after the events. That was at the time when the Eastern Bloc was boycotting the LA Olympics and the use of sports in the service of Cold War propaganda was in full swing.
Still, prostate enlargement and having to catheterize oneself to pee must be pretty commonly observed phenomenon among bodybuilders and powerlifters. Is it?
It certainly does seem to indicate very heavy abuse of testosterone -and corresponding increases in muscularity,strength and power-among the Soviet athletes in 1954 .
Given what we now know natural weightlifters(for example, the American weightlifting team lead by Bob Hoffman of York Barbell fame) would be at a profound disadvantage competing against these lifters.
Yet,if we look at the results of the 1954 World Weightlifting Championship ,we see the US weightlifters almost neck and neck with the Soviets(3 Gold medals to 4) .We see American Olympic Gold medalists, like Pete George and Tommy Komo, beating the Soviets into silver place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_World_Weightlifting_ChampionshipsSeems ,we may conclude American weightlifters back then were
that good that they could-completely natural- outlift heavily juiced up Soviets in the three Olympic lifts: the Olympic press, clean and jerk and snatch.
