Gail Devers Quotes

These days the temptation to use steroids in sports has become too great for many young athletes.

I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989 -1990 off season, and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again.

I never took banned substances, but I have been courted by doctors who wanted to improve my blood in the laboratory. My mother always put them on a flight.

Owners, the way they blackballed me from baseball, the way they used me, in a sense, and then the way they wanted to send a signal to the other players, saying, you know, we're going to get Jose Canseco out of the game. This is a cue or a message for you other guys to stop using steroids because the owners lost total control of the steroid use.

That's what Major League Baseball's steroid scandal was all about, the hidden harm in competitive sports that sends the wrong message to the young.

Anabolic steroids were not banned until after the 72 Olympics.

I've been asked a lot lately if tennis is clean or not. I don't know any more how you judge whether a sport is clean. If one in 100 players is doping, in my eyes that isn't a clean sport.

Steroids can seem necessary to compete at the highest levels, and the quick rewards can outweigh the long term consequences to the user's health.

The only reason I took steroids was for my health purposes. I did not take steroids to get any gain for any strength purposes.

I'm for a drug-free sport and always will be.

If you look at the sponsors who were in the sport 15 years ago compared to now there are a lot fewer. Why? Because those runners who took drugs tainted the sport. They tainted all of us in it.

Football, basketball, and the Olympic sports all have their problems with banned substances.

Well, when I think of steroids I think of an image. You have the advantage over someone, which is a form of cheating. I guess it wouldn't be right unless it was legal for everybody. Reason it's not legal for everybody is because it can hurt people seriously.

Despite reforms in steroid control, serious problems still occur in and out of baseball.

An athlete may not know what they're putting in their body.

I mean, does anyone seriously think there are no drugs in Olympic sports just because they do some kind of testing? They are highly competitive sports with highly competitive people and just with competitive business people do whatever they can do to get ahead.

There are just so many substances that are considered banned substances because in some way it could help your performance on the court. As athletes, we should be responsible for what we put in our bodies.

USADA is wonderful, I think they're doing a remarkable job, and they do a remarkable job all around the world.

I love the USADA.

I'm the only person in this sport, for the most part, that ain't on steroids. Now there's new rules in effect, yeah, you've got guys not on steroids now, but they used to be. They've always been on steroids.

I do feel I was overshadowed by some of those guys (who took steroids) . . . I had a diminished-skills clause written in after I hit 29 home runs and drove in 92 RBIs, and I think those (steroid-aided home run hitters) are partly to blame.

Chemo gets all the notoriety, but for me, radiation was really the tough one.

I never see bodybuilding on the sports page and it is not considered to be a sport because of the drug question, because of steroids, let's be honest.

I could sit down and give USADA my opinions on it, but I want to say they've done a great job. Guys like me are shining because of USADA.

We're tested eight, nine times a year - blood tested, urine tested, so I mean, if people think I'm doing something, tell them to increase the testing.