Genetic engineering and steroid enhancement could turn Superman-like fantasy figures into reality, US football officials and players warned in a Congressional hearing on Wednesday.
The first signs of a massive mighty race might already be appearing in 21st century US sports, where teams do not face World Anti-Doping Agency standards even though lawmakers are pondering imposing such measures.
Concerns about the future of doping were on the minds of several who testified at a House Government Reform committee hearing about steroids in the National Football League (NFL).
The notion of a super-fast, super-strong man might even be playing out in the NFL, where linemen are more massive and faster than two decades ago, even though NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said his sport has no steroid problem.
"The quickening pace of new developments in medicine and science, including gene engineering in ways we have not even begun to see, heightens the challenges we all face," Tagliabue said.
"They are body altering, and eventually they will be gene altering," he said.
Gene manipulation could replace bionics as the technology which will create a Darth Vader or Steve Austin, better known as TV's Six Million-Dollar Man back when that sum was amazing in the US sports world.
"As scientists come to truly understand, and therefore be able to alter, the genetic structure of human beings, the Six Million-Dollar Man will no longer be a television fantasy but will instead become a near-term reality," Tagliabue said.
"When that happens, the issues that our society is discussing today ... will be as irrelevant as the blacksmith in the automobile age. These genetic alterations are likely to be undetectable and far more effective at enhancing performance."
When asked about the growing size of NFL players in the past 20 years, Tagliabue said greater specialization has made position players massive or smaller depending upon needs.
But Tagliabue also noted how other sports have found giants from around the world, notably 7-foot-6 Chinese center Yao Ming of the National Basketball Association's Houston Rockets.
"We have Yao Ming playing in the NBA," Tagliabue said. "No one saw Chinese players of that size playing in the NBA 20 years ago."
Linn Goldberg, a US Anti-Doping Agency physician, has watched teen hero images from G.I. Joe to Wonder Woman take on pumped-up proportions.
"Children's items and images have had a `steroid' makeover reflecting unrealistic muscular body types," he said.
Muscle men and super women through steroids were discussed a day after a US university study showed steroids are popular with pre-teen US girls seeking a more statuesque womanly form at a younger age.
"Seven percent of middle-school-aged girls are now using steroids to give their bodies tone, to make them look better," committee chairman Tom Davis said. "This is dangerous."
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