Tiger Woods - The "Just Do It!" Man "Did It!"

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Okay, I have avoided Tiger and his off course habits since the story first broke waiting for the media to either leave him alone or start telling the truth about him but so far the media has been pre-occupied with trying to build a calendar of Tiger's mistresses while not paying a lot of attention to the facts.

How could America's most reclusive sports figure with the choirboy image who made over a billion dollars, the man who helped Nike sell the slogan "Just Do It!", fall from grace at warp speed because he "Did It!"? Better yet, why does the trigger happy news media so intent on documenting his sexual escapades ignore one of the most likely causes of such a radical change in a celebrity?



The facts, Tiger has an addiction to sex and after a life of self-induced isolation in which he was the star of his own sex show he got caught. A greater fact, I believe drugs could have been a major factor in his descent into Hell and the collapse of his world of fantasy. I am not talking about illegal drugs but the prescription type including steroids that killed Elvis and Michael Jackson.

Just look at the following series of photos and in particular look at his arms. In the first he won his first pro tournament in 1996, the second was his first Masters in 1997, twelve years ago. By the third photo about 2005 there was a noticeable change in his physical strength. The final photos show him today and include his most recent Vanity Fair photo shoot. His arms grew dramatically in strength, the kind of growth only seen with the help of the American athletes nectar of the gods, steroids and hormones.









But sustained steroids use has a number of side effects and the superman complex along with bizarre behavior can be part of it. If he spent his years in pro golf taking steroids it means his performance was not based on skill but on illegal prescription drugs. It also means he did not earn the titles fairly any more than Barry Bonds or Mark McGuire earned the home run record in baseball. Artificial stimulation is not an acceptable training technique.



On December 15 of last year the New York Times newspaper ran the following story which is partially reprinted here.

The New York Times
Sports Medicine Pioneer Subject of Doping Inquiry

This article was reported by Don Van Natta Jr., Michael S. Schmidt and Ian Austen and written by Mr. Van Natta Jr.



A Canadian doctor who has treated many NFL players as well as Olympic medalists like Donavan Bailey and the world’s top golfer, Tiger Woods, is under criminal investigation in the United States. He is suspected of providing athletes with performance-enhancing drugs, according to several people who have been briefed on the investigation.

The F.B.I. investigation of Dr. Anthony Galea, a sports medicine specialist who has treated hundreds of professional athletes across many sports, follows his arrest on Oct. 15 in Toronto by the Canadian police. Human growth hormone and Actovegin, a drug extracted from calf’s blood, were found in his medical bag at the United States-Canada border in late September. Using, selling or importing Actovegin is illegal in the United States.

Dr. Galea is also being investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for smuggling, advertising and selling unapproved drugs as well as criminal conspiracy. He is tentatively scheduled to appear in a Canadian courtroom on Friday.

Dr. Galea and his lawyer say his innovative treatments do not break any laws or violate antidoping rules in sport. “We’re confident that an investigation of Dr. Galea will lead to his total vindication,” said Brian H. Greenspan, Dr. Galea’s criminal-defense lawyer. “Dr. Galea was never engaged in any wrongdoing or any impropriety. Not only does he have a reputation that is impeccable, he is a person at the very top of his profession.”

Dr. Galea has developed a reputation among elite athletes for accelerating recovery after surgery or for helping them avoid surgery altogether by using a blood-spinning technique known as platelet-rich plasma therapy, as well as other pioneering procedures, on knees, elbows and Achilles’ tendons.

Although he said he prescribed human growth hormone to some patients in his general practice and had used it himself for 10 years, Dr. Galea, 50, said in an interview that he had never treated professional athletes with H.G.H.

Dr. Galea said Mr. Woods was referred to him by the golfer’s agents at Cleveland-based International Management Group, who were alarmed at the slow pace of Mr. Woods’s rehabilitation after knee surgery in June 2008. The doctor said he flew to Orlando, Fla., at least four times to give Mr. Woods the platelet therapy at his home in Windermere, Fla., in February and March of this year. When asked for comment about Mr. Woods’s involvement with Dr. Galea, Mark Steinberg, of I.M.G., responded in an e-mail message: “I would really ask that you guys don’t write this? If Tiger is NOT implicated, and won’t be, let’s please give the kid a break.”

Dr. Galea’s legal problems began in late September when his assistant was stopped entering the United States from Canada. Her car was searched by border-crossing guards and authorities found Dr. Galea’s medical bag, which contained four drugs, including human growth hormone, Dr. Galea said. “It was for my own use,” he said.

The authorities also seized his laptop computer and a sonogram machine, he said. His assistant, he said, often drove him around and that was why his belongings were in her car. The assistant, whom Dr. Galea declined to identify, has stopped working at his clinic and, he said, is now cooperating with the authorities.

Federal investigators in the United States are basing their investigation, in part, on medical information found on Dr. Galea’s computer relating to several professional athletes he treated, according to the people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.

They did not identify any of the athletes whose names appeared on the computer.

Dr. Galea said “it would be impossible” for the authorities to have found information linking any of his athletes to performance-enhancing drugs.

On Oct. 15, the Canadian police raided Dr. Galea’s clinic, the ISM Health & Wellness Centre in Toronto. Sgt. Marc LaPorte, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said Dr. Galea was arrested and released the same day after questioning. Mr. Greenspan said court documents, which are not public under Canadian law, show that his client faces three charges, one under Canada’s food and drugs act, one under its customs act and a conspiracy charge under the criminal code. The customs and the drug charges relate to the misrepresentation of goods and drugs.

As part of his practice, Dr. Galea said he prescribed human growth hormone to patients 40 and over to improve their stamina when working out and to combat fatigue, among other health benefits.

“The authorities here and elsewhere have it wrong,” Mr. Greenspan said. “They don’t understand the medical aspects.”

Prescribing human growth hormone is legal in Canada but approved in the United States only for a few specific uses that do not include hastening recovery from surgery or injury. In the world of sports, under World Anti-Doping Association guidelines, H.G.H. is banned though not widely tested for because it requires a blood test. The N.F.L., the N.H.L., the N.B.A. and Major League Baseball do not test for H.G.H.

Ten years ago, when he turned 40, Dr. Galea said he began injecting himself with human growth hormone five days a week. Using H.G.H., he said, may allow him a longer lifespan with his wife, who he said is 22 years younger. “If the body is healthy, then your mind and intellect are free to study, to feed your spirit,” he said during one of several lengthy phone interviews over the past several days.

[end of article clip]



So, we have a Canadian and FBI criminal investigation underway concerning a doctor to Tiger Woods who is being investigated for falsifying the identity of drugs he prescribed, giving illegal substances to athletes, and who knows what else. It would only be natural that a billionaire athlete might seek out his help. Based on the startling physical changes in Tiger Woods over his 12 year career it appears he might have started some time ago.

Why did the American media bury this story? Very little if anything has been written since the arrest of the doctor as he crossed the border. We know he was at Tiger's home multiple times earlier this year treating him. What don't we know? And even the rather arrogant doctor claims his records would not implicate athletes in a drug scandal.

Of course not, since the Canadians have already charged him with falsifying the names of the illegal drugs in his records. However, there may be a lot more to this criminal investigation since the doctor's assistant who was intimately involved in the treatments turned informant for the governments and quit her job with the doctor. Stay tuned for more.


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