Chris Kaman, Center for the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers
They sprint across finish lines in record time, sink impossible three-pointers, and inspire fans to jump up and cheer. But here's something you might not know about professional athletes: A surprising number of them have ADD. In fact, an estimated eight to 10 percent of all pro athletes have the condition, as compared to four to five percent of the general population of adults.
Many experts say a connection between ADD and athletics makes sense. "Having ADD can actually be an advantage in certain sports," says Mike Stabeno, author of The AD/HD Affected Athlete. "While some activities require intense concentration, that's not always the case with athletics. Everything happens instantaneously. You're in there for 10 minutes, you've got five people trying to take your head off, three referees, four teammates. You need to take in everything that's going on all at once. That's how people with ADD go through life. So it makes sense that they thrive in this field."
Of course, ADD does present certain challenges. Perhaps the biggest, say experts, is that many athletes are unaware that they have the condition. "A lot of athletes have ADD and don't know it," says Eric Morse, M.D., president of the International Society for Sports Psychiatry. And no wonder, says Stabeno, himself the father of two sons with ADD. "Chances are, no one ever considered testing athletes for ADD," he says, "since they are good at what they do. Sure, that pitcher may be a little flaky, but who cares, as long as he can throw a 95-mile-per-hour fastball?"
Among the athletes who do know that they have ADD, few are open about it. "They're often scared of what it could do to their career," says Morse. "In sports, no one wants to admit to a weakness."
Despite the risks, a growing number of athletes have come forward to acknowledge that they have the condition - including Terry Bradshaw, the Pro Football Hall of Famer who quarterbacked the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl victories in the 1970s; swimmer Michael Phelps, the first American to win eight medals in a single Olympic Games; and Pete Rose, whose ADD probably helped propel him to become the 1975 World Series MVP and to hold the major league all-time hit record - but also may have fueled the gambling addiction that led to his lifetime ban from baseball.
In this article, you'll meet three standouts in the current generation of ADD athletes. Each has had a different experience with the condition, but all are open about how it helped them, held them back, and ultimately shaped them into who they are today. Their stories, struggles, and solutions are reminders that ADD doesn't have to limit what anyone does in life.
Justin Gatlin
Co-holder of the world's record in the 100-meter sprint
"Nothing could stop me - not even ADD."
On May 13, running at an evening meet in Doha, Qatar, Justin Gatlin tied the world record in the 100 meters: 9.77 seconds. The time was a remarkable 0.09 seconds faster than his time in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens - which had been good enough to capture the gold medal.Since then, fans have hailed the 24-year-old Brooklyn, New York, native as the "world's fastest man."
Gatlin's triumphs on the track represent more than victories over his fellow competitors. They symbolize a highly personal victory over an adversary that had almost waylaid his entire racing career: ADD.
Diagnosed with the condition in first grade, Gatlin would never say that ADD, in itself, has held him back. On the contrary, he says his condition fed his love of track. "Ever since I could walk, I have been running," he remembers. "In class, I had trouble concentrating, but racing helped me focus."
In high school, Gatlin won event after event. He was unstoppable. Then, during his freshman year at the University of Tennessee, he tested positive for a banned drug and was barred from competition for two years.
What was the drug? Steroids? Growth hormone? No, it was the stimulant he was taking for ADD. The drug would have been permissible, Gatlin later discovered, if he'd known to file papers indicating that he was taking it for therapeutic purposes. But he had not.
"Everything I had worked for was going down the drain," Gatlin recalls. "I cried like a baby. They made me feel like a criminal and a cheater, when I had no idea I'd done anything wrong."
Eventually, the ban was reduced to one year. Still, Gatlin faced a difficult choice: Should he continue taking his meds - which helped him keep his grades up - or give up the meds so that he could compete in track? He chose the latter. "After the day I tested positive, I never took another pill," Gatlin says.
Off meds, Gatlin found it hard to concentrate. His grades plummeted. But gradually, with the help of tutors and a few simple changes (including a strict no-telephone-or-TV rule during study time), things improved. "When I needed to focus, I'd think about a college friend of mine who had told me she had ADD and was going to law school," he says. "That stuck with me. It made me think, if she can achieve her dream with ADD, I can, too."
Gatlin began competing again at the end of his sophomore year. But his problems with focus began affecting him on the track. "During one race, I spotted a promotional tent with my face on it," he recalls. "I couldn't stop thinking about how much I disliked the photo, or the earring I had on. It threw me off my game. That's the only time I came in dead last. I was so embarrassed!"
Over time, Gatlin's focus returned. By the time he was getting into the blocks for the 100-meter sprint in Athens, nothing could shake him. "In those few seconds when I was waiting for the race to start, I thought, 'Please, God, if I'm meant to do this, let it happen,'" he recalls. "When I crossed that finish line, I was so happy they could have sent me home with a cardboard medal. I wouldn't have cared."
In 2006, Gatlin achieved another "first," of which he's equally proud: making the dean's list. "I was surprised," he says. "With running, there's always been an award for doing well, but I never really thought I'd get an award for school."
Gatlin is quick to say that not everyone with ADD can, or should, go off medication. But he thinks more people should consider that an option. "It's natural for people, and parents, to want you to be the best by any means necessary," he says. "But all my life, I felt I was less of a person without medication. It became a crutch for me. It took me years to gain confidence that I could achieve whatever I set my mind to, even with ADD."
This article comes from the June/July 2006 issue of ADDitude.
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