Fitness model loses job after steroid admission

Fitness model Christian Boeving lost his gig as an endorser for a supplement company after saying in a documentary that he has used anabolic steroids since he was 16, the New York Times reports.

Boeving was among the athletes featured in the sensational documentary “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” that looks at America’s win-at-all-costs culture and the role played by performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids. Boeving was filmed two years ago, but the film was not shown for the first time until this winter at Sundance.

Mr. Boeving said he had nearly forgotten about the interview until he heard from the film’s representatives just before it was shown in January at the Sundance Film Festival. “They said, ‘Look, we’re just letting you know you mentioned the word steroids in it,’ ” Mr. Boeving said. “But I didn’t think I would get into that much trouble, because I thought it was pretty apparent that the top people in the industry use steroids to look like we do.”

A company whose products he endorsed, Iovate Health Sciences, apparently did not think so, and promptly severed Mr. Boeving’s contract. Iovate Health Sciences did not return calls for comment last week.

Mr. Boeving had represented over-the-counter dietary supplements in Iovate’s MuscleTech division, including Hydroxycut, which is meant to burn fat, and Nitro-Tech, which is meant to build muscle.

Boeving had worked for the company for nine years and said he made enough to live on. He does not regret making his admission.

“Even in the film, I said, ‘look, I do take the products I said I take — I do take Hydroxycut, I do take Nitro-Tech, but I take other things as well,’ ” he said. “They felt like people were going to walk away feeling like steroids, not MuscleTech products, made my physique what it is, and they have built this industry on telling people, ‘This is what I did to build my physique,’ ” Mr. Boeving said.

This is rank hypocrisy on Iovate’s part. I doubt that they perform regular and rigorous steroid testing of their models, and if they did they would have a small pool from which to choose from. Bodies like those shown on the cover of fitness magazines, while the product of a lot of hard work, are also built through the use of drugs, as Boeving admits; he is being punished for telling the truth.

The magazines and the supplement makers are selling the illusion that physiques that are big and ripped can be built simply by exercise and using their products (in the film there is a terrific segment showing “before and after” photos being shot the same day). Very few people have the genetics to achieve such bodies naturally, but that does not stop the spin and hypocrisy evident in the fitness industry. They don’t care if you use steroids, just don’t be honest about it. –Jim Buzinski