I woke up this morning to a disturbing comment on one of our articles (10 things not to do right before a championship meet). A commenter, who identifies himself as a new swim parent, was asking about whether USA Swimming has outlawed energy drinks, and whether USA Swimming has a similar rule. The question was spurred on by the fact that he had seen 10-year olds at his kid’s meets drinking energy drinks (and many thanks to him for bringing this very important topic up).
This is unbelievable to me, that children this young are consuming energy drinks. I’ve seen it plenty at high school meets (though, I’d never let my swimmers use them), which is bad enough. College swimmers down them all the time (despite NCAA restrictions on caffeine consumption). I assume that pro swimmers use them heavily too. But to 10 and 11 year olds? That’s nauseating. (Besides which, the results of several scientific studies point to the conclusion that using energy drinks to improve athletic performance is a no-go, despite what “anecdotal evidence” might show.)
It’s one thing to use them, in moderation, if you’re an adult, and that’s your choice. But the risks for children are huge. Caffeine at that level has been linked to seizures, and the quickest way to find out if your child has an undiagnosed heart condition is to load them up with energy drinks and throw them into an athletic competition. If USA Swimming doesn’t have a rule about this on the books (I can’t find one), it’s something that they need to seriously take a look at.
We hear the huge outcry about water temperatures and open water safety, with the mantra of “better safe than sorry,” but why doesn’t anybody seem to want to apply the same theory to these energy drinks? Especially when outlawing them doesn’t even speak to the core of the sport (as it does with water temperatures in open water swimming)?
And furthermore, any coach who encourages 10 year olds to drink these type of drinks needs at the least some serious re-education, and at the worst to be relieved of their coaching duties. I encourage you to watch the ESPN video linked below on the danger of these drinks, and share it with your team, fellow swim-parents, fellow swimmers, etc. I’m sure there’s going to be a ton of pushback to this, because I know of several coaches who swear by the stuff, but ask yourself if it’s really worth the risk for swimmers that young to be loaded up with this stuff.
Whether or not the energy drink contains banned substances/a health threat is only part of the issue.
The argument that soft drugs lead to hard drugs can also apply here. If a parent encourages a child to drink something that will help them go faster, I’m guessing that same child won’t be too concerned if somewhere down the line they are offered a different substance with the promise that it could do the same.
You’re entirely right when you say that when you’re an adult its your choice, but young children need to be encouraged to race with the talent they were given and training they have put in, not be offered short cuts at such an early age.
Good point Tom. You’re creating bad habits at a formative time, and they’re always going to see that as the right way to go. It could also keep kids from working hard at practice (“Oh, I’m doing everything right, I just added time because I didn’t have enough energy drinks.”) when the answer is often a lack of practice effort.
Believe it or not the practice of 10 year olds chugging energy/health drinks right before “racing” happens regularly. One would be shocked at what they see and hear sitting in the stands and in the staging areas. When you walk into a hotel and you see parents carrying in cases of these drinks prior to a meet it is very disturbing. Quite frankly it is revolting to see the lengths that some parents will go to in order to “encourage” success in their young kids. “Here honey, drink this it will wake you up and make you faster.” “Here sweetheart, if you drop 3 seconds I’ll buy you ………”, “Oh it must be the suit……I’ll get you the “fast” one,”… Read more »
I had a parent ENCOURAGE his sons to take these drinks in high school, even after I banned them from competition. The father told them to drink them in the bathroom stall, so that i would not see them.
After confronting both the parent ( who is an ER doctor) and the athletes this was the quote ” WE are not as good in swimming races unless we have these” Addiction problem????? That’s like me saying I don’t coach as well unless I drink a six pack of beer.
I can’t wait till they get to college and get drug tested and fail after winning an event, then they will learn.
The most common stimulant in energy drinks is ginseng, which is not explicitly listed on anyones banned substance list, (NCAA, USA, or IOC). However, there are several accounts of ginseng products containing ephedrine, which is explicitly banned. Obviously ephedrine isn’t going to be listed on the side of an energy drink can, so you really don’t know if your taking it or not, but if you are someone who has any possibility of getting randomly tested, its not worth risking a 2 year ban, especially since energy drinks haven’t even been shown to actually improve performance. For the record, here are some energy drinks than contain ginseng, just off the dome,
Monster… Read more »
Rockstar
RedBull
Nos
Redline