After reading an article on The Salt, NPR’s food blog, I was left to wonder, what does clenbuterol have to do with top volleyball athletes?

According to the article, China just lost in the 2012 FIVB (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball) World Grand Pix finals to the United States. China’s coach blames it on lack of animal protein. Apparently, since the Chinese athletes were “on the road” competing they didn’t have access to “clean” meat. The team typically gets its meat from organic farms that guarantees its meats are clenbuterol free. But why add clenbuterol to your meat in the first place and why is it important that athletes don’t consume it?  Clenbuterol is added to animal feed and is known as a “lean meat powder” and it’s considered a performance-enhancing drug by the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency. The articles states that “some 50 percent of meat consumed in Beijing is said to contain the chemical”. 

Since they had been on the road for several weeks the athletes stopped eating meat all together, so the coach blames their low performance on access to “clean meat”. I guess the real question is, why are Olympic athletes, Chinese astronauts, and other high ranking officials the only citizens that have guaranteed “clean food”. My eyebrows are raised. 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/07/05/156295405/warning-against-eating-meat-has-chinese-olympians-off-their-game#more