«I would like to tell my story to help many kids. I would like to tell them: don’t do it. I’m going blind from glaucoma, I’ve had 3 liver tumors, I have three coronary bypasses, I have high blood pressure and all why? I abused substances to get bigger and bigger.”
Marco is from Rimini, but the name is fictitious because we have chosen to protect the privacy of those who have decided to talk about intimate and painful episodes that also concern their own health. He is 63 years old, and says he is a “miracle worker”.
Let’s start from the beginning, when did you first take performance-enhancing drugs?
«At 18, I was very thin, almost skeletal. The family doctor told me: why don’t you go to the gym! Try to exercise because you risk hunching over. In short, I started lifting weights and, little by little, I approached the bodybuilding discipline, bodybuilding. At 18 I weighed 63 kilos with a height of 1.75 metres. I started going to the gym more and more often, training hard, with increasingly heavier loads. I went every day for at least two hours. It was the ’80s and ’90s: at the time it was mostly hearsay, there were no athletic trainers and you could buy almost anything you wanted in the pharmacy. So, at a certain point, someone suggested a little help to me which, as time passed, became a necessity.”
At what age did you start taking doping?
«At 19 I started doing competitions: I went up on stage and, in a slip costume, did poses. That is, you had to show all your power. Take precise poses, movements that highlight your muscles. We have seen pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger many times. Here’s a bit like this. In 1985 I weighed 83 pounds of lean mass with only 0.3% fat. I started taking drugs at that time. I bought them in the pharmacy without problems, they were salable and therefore you trusted them because they were in a certified business.”
Was he aware of what he was taking or was he unaware of the side effects?
«I was aware. I was taking anabolics, testosterone, growth hormone. Anything to bulk up your muscles. They told me to take a certain dosage, I doubled it.”
Why? How did he make her feel?
«Invincible, strong. One who could break everything. Between the 80s and 90s I worked as a porter in the butchery sector. I was raising a dead pig by myself. I felt stronger, I had overcome my shyness, I looked at myself and said: “God, I’m so big. Nobody checked. In my time I also won the non-professional European championships twice.”
When did you start to understand that it’s wrong?
«You don’t understand, that’s the problem. There is so much pressure, passion and ignorance that keeps you going. There is the competition to be the biggest and push the limits. Until one day you feel sick and the doctors tell you you have a tumor. I have had three liver tumors: at the age of 40 I was operated on for three liver tumors. I got over them, but still took anabolics. I didn’t stop even then.”
How are you today? Do you still use them?
«I stopped, but not for long. About 5 years ago, after I had a heart attack: I have three bypasses and I’m going blind from glaucoma. I’m fine, I control myself and I move forward. But when I see 25-year-olds making the mistake I made, I want to tell them that the game isn’t worth it. Young boys who have to take “Cialis” or Viagra to have sexual intercourse. It’s not fair and I’m sorry. Everything for appearances, to make bombs.”
Do you still go to the gym?
“Of course yes. I am alone, I have no wife, I have no children. I train because it’s good, because I have friends but today I’m no longer obsessed and if I feel like pizza on a Saturday night I’ll eat it. Of course I’m a little oversized, I weigh 102 kilos. I’m fit with a bit of a belly.”
No pizza first?
“No. Feeding must be super controlled. I was able to eat two kilos of chicken breast for breakfast with the egg whites. Only the egg white, not the red.”
A very personal question: but when you stop taking anabolics, does sexual activity resume in a normal way for a man?
“Absolutely not. Even if you stop, sexual activity does not resume as before. With testosterone taken, the natural gland atrophies. Then you can try them all, but it’s useless…Special treatments must be done.”
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