All Sport is in huge trouble because of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). There are two seminal issues. First, do we accept as athletes and fans that sports competitions should be fair? That every athlete has a chance of victory dependent only on skill, tactics and training without PEDs.
Secondly, if we accept that fairness is the fundamental principle driving sport do we accept that the use of PEDs is wrong practically and morally because it gives an athlete an unfair advantage? If so we must do everything possible to eliminate athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors, sports associations and the heads of sports organisations from sport.
If we cannot accept these two seminal principles, forget about sport. It is doomed other than for its vacuous "entertainment value," the terms athlete and competition can be stricken from the dictionary and the thrill of victory can be consigned to the dustbin of history!
Secondly, if we accept that fairness is the fundamental principle driving sport do we accept that the use of PEDs is wrong practically and morally because it gives an athlete an unfair advantage? If so we must do everything possible to eliminate athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors, sports associations and the heads of sports organisations from sport.
If we cannot accept these two seminal principles, forget about sport. It is doomed other than for its vacuous "entertainment value," the terms athlete and competition can be stricken from the dictionary and the thrill of victory can be consigned to the dustbin of history!
If the NFL had a Commissioner with any integrity and concern for the football players, the organization would be testing random players throughout their playing season; I don't want to see another Peyton Manning scenario!
Why not allow doping? They do it anyway.
Am I in the wrong if I drink coffee and eat chocolate before an exam because it helps me?
Am I in the wrong if I drink coffee and eat chocolate before an exam because it helps me?
2
The title of your article - when are they going to look at winter sports the same way? - is a good question. Here's an even better one: when is everybody going to look at all professional sports, all of them everywhere, as a commercial enterprise based on drug addiction?
8
Enjoyed the article.
If you want to make a difference, go for the money. Highlight the corporate sponsors, and pressure them on their financial enabling.
A significant part of FIFA's motivation for change was through their sponsors.
If you want to make a difference, go for the money. Highlight the corporate sponsors, and pressure them on their financial enabling.
A significant part of FIFA's motivation for change was through their sponsors.
1
A timely article with much left to be discussed:
1) Why do sport? If it is for joy life-enhancement, doping is a cancer. Where some are prepared to cheat, and others prefer to remain honest, what happens to the joy and healthy lifestyle that brought us into sport?
2) What are the effects, long- and short term, of drugs? We hear about the bad health and reproductive issues of former Eastern Bloc athletes, and heart attacks among bike racers. Until much more is known, drugging appears dangerous.
3) Is there any way to limit Big Money in sports (Brazil, FIFA)? With the sums involved, officialdom is as corrupt as the athletes who dope - and perhaps even more guilty, because it is the job of officials and sports organizations to protect athletes as well as to promote sport.
4) How can we bring youth into sports, knowing that at some point drugs will be necessary in order to succeed? What to say when sports icons are cheating, and role models are endangering their own health?
5) What about athletes who refuse to cheat? Why try if you know that another athlete is willing to steal a medal by drugging? Further, drugging will always favor the richer athlete or association. Should we just hand the medals to the country with the best doping labs?
Sport is at a crossroads. It has been there for a decade or more, so it is good that things seem to be happening. But I remain cynical. Will future generations have to be content what we allowed to be destroyed?
1) Why do sport? If it is for joy life-enhancement, doping is a cancer. Where some are prepared to cheat, and others prefer to remain honest, what happens to the joy and healthy lifestyle that brought us into sport?
2) What are the effects, long- and short term, of drugs? We hear about the bad health and reproductive issues of former Eastern Bloc athletes, and heart attacks among bike racers. Until much more is known, drugging appears dangerous.
3) Is there any way to limit Big Money in sports (Brazil, FIFA)? With the sums involved, officialdom is as corrupt as the athletes who dope - and perhaps even more guilty, because it is the job of officials and sports organizations to protect athletes as well as to promote sport.
4) How can we bring youth into sports, knowing that at some point drugs will be necessary in order to succeed? What to say when sports icons are cheating, and role models are endangering their own health?
5) What about athletes who refuse to cheat? Why try if you know that another athlete is willing to steal a medal by drugging? Further, drugging will always favor the richer athlete or association. Should we just hand the medals to the country with the best doping labs?
Sport is at a crossroads. It has been there for a decade or more, so it is good that things seem to be happening. But I remain cynical. Will future generations have to be content what we allowed to be destroyed?
4
International sports competitions are a farce. Some countries support their athletes from a young age with room, board and training. Others like ours, make the parents foot the bill for training till they are ready for international competition. They also insist they be amateurs and not accept money for their participation.
The whole system is rigged before the games begin. Just let the dopers compete and stop pretending there is any honesty in sports. I'm sure there are athletes who do not take drugs, but they are probably in the minority. We frequently see those who claimed they were clean only to have a tearful news conference admitting that they indeed were dopers. There are three kinds of athletes, a minority who don't take drugs, a group who take drugs and are caught, and a larger group who are taking drugs and just haven't been caught yet. The ancient Olympics were halted because of cheating. Either it's time to stop them again, or just let the cheating continue and call it entertainment.
The whole system is rigged before the games begin. Just let the dopers compete and stop pretending there is any honesty in sports. I'm sure there are athletes who do not take drugs, but they are probably in the minority. We frequently see those who claimed they were clean only to have a tearful news conference admitting that they indeed were dopers. There are three kinds of athletes, a minority who don't take drugs, a group who take drugs and are caught, and a larger group who are taking drugs and just haven't been caught yet. The ancient Olympics were halted because of cheating. Either it's time to stop them again, or just let the cheating continue and call it entertainment.
4
Competitive sports are the most corrupting activity ever invented. Every conceivable opportunity to cheat will be exploited. Sports organizers of all types need to step back and determine what will and will not be allowed, based on their ability to detect cheating and whether anybody cares. In golf, surgical vision enhancement is fine. Why not drugs in other sports? But continue to ban remote controlled footballs or blade-tipped shoes in soccer. And any rules that remain must be enforced ruthlessly. Or just wise up, like they did in wrestling: abandon "competition" entirely so that you can put on an even more spectacular show!
3
"Mikhail D. Prokhorov, who owns the Brooklyn Nets, succeeded Tikhonov as president of Russian Biathlon and has poured many millions of dollars into the sport."
It's kind of funny how Donald Sterling got kicked out of the NBA owners club for talking in private like a jealous old fool, but Mr. Prokhorov's fascinating life story doesn't seem to have elicited much curiosity on the part of the NBA brass.
It's kind of funny how Donald Sterling got kicked out of the NBA owners club for talking in private like a jealous old fool, but Mr. Prokhorov's fascinating life story doesn't seem to have elicited much curiosity on the part of the NBA brass.
5
Months ago, I asked what the summer olympic scandal would mean for cross country skiing. What is the likelihood that Russians would sweep all the podium finishes in the 50K at the Sochi Winter Olympics? They beat every Norwegian, every Swede and all the rest of a powerful filed. That race really annoyed me. This year they doing just so-so in the World Cup.
3
Great article, thank you! I hope the US officers apply pressure on international anti-doping commissions in winter sports, just as they (successfully) applied pressure to FIFA.
3
Who cares. All athletes have access to the drugs. If it's not seriously harmful to their health, let them do it.
2
The elite athletes may be able to use performance enhancing drugs safely if they receive proper medical supervision. But your son or daughter, competing in the same sport, and emulating his or her hero, will not have the same supervision, and then the drugs become dangerous. All of those drugs which produce more red blood cells increase blood viscosity, and minus supervision, you can die of heart failure.
5
Funny how many Olympians are busted for doping, but few, if any, pro football players get busted. And if they are busted, they get a slap on the wrist.
4
Excellent article! We see in womens biathalon (the version of biathalon i follow) athletes from countries like russia and belarus with no pyramid of amateur through pro participation in the sport finishing well ahead of those biathalon mad scandinavian countries. Biathalon may be popular on tv in russia, but the population, especially women, doesnt do it at all either for sport or for exercize. The results that we see, therefore, are about as likely as an ad hoc team of "pro" ballplayers from laos consistently beating a team of us all stars in baseball. To anybody who paid attention, russia's sochi overall results were deeply, deeply suspect. Its time to send a strong message to russia: institutional cheating, be it in biathalon or the budapest memorandum has no place in the civilized world. A total, uncompromising 20 year olympic ban on the whole country is in order.
4
I hear a distant rumble, a quiet persistent rumour: Jim Thorp was restored to his powers, says he wants to run again.
He forgives us. Imagine that.
He's clean. He wants to make us great again.
He learned how to ski. He flies. He roars.
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's superman.
It's time we believed. We were great once.
I'm voting for Jim Thorpe.
He forgives us. Imagine that.
He's clean. He wants to make us great again.
He learned how to ski. He flies. He roars.
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's superman.
It's time we believed. We were great once.
I'm voting for Jim Thorpe.
1
Perhaps we should spend our time and energy on trying to find who isn't doping at this point.
5
Corrupt. But they managed to go after snowboarder Ross Rebagliati's gold medal when he had THC in his system.
14
I came to the comments section to write that they need to exempt snowboarders. Otherwise, it's like a turkey shoot. And as you implied, the boarders don't do the enhancers.
6
If they can't fully enforce the rules then for the dope heavy events they could make a special division just for the dopers.
If they come out of the closet with it then at least the non dopers will get the recognition they worked harder for. Then let the fans and the advertising dollars decide which division is more prestigious.
There is not a game out there that isn't rigged one way or the other. Is there?
7
Of course, willful obliviousness is just as as great a crime as doping itself. So, it seems, Prokhorov. But one thing we can be sure of (for better or worse): if the Nets' owner compelled his players to dope, the Nets would still lose.
5
Given all the immense problems in the world which the human race needs to confront, who cares if athletes use performance enhancing drugs? Sports are nothing but entertainment. If they all disappeared tomorrow, the world would keep on going. Besides, it seems to me that "anti-doping" folks have created a whole industry around catching "cheaters." What a waste of time and energy.
8
Could not agree more. Here's an idea: Let's save the multiple millions of dollars utterly wasted on anti-doping agencies, educate athletes on the dangers of performance enhancing substances, and then let them do what they want. If anyone thinks fans will stop watching sports because of this, they have not been paying attention.
3
One part of me agrees with you, hey let them be educated and o what they want!! Party man
but the other side knows that people are being pressed tricked into taking stuff with long term results that they dont know or understand. In addition, once corrupted one cant or probably cant compete, so they are essentially forced to dope, or give up.
Long term results bad to very bad and unknown.
So you can answer, hey who cares what they do , we love it, cheer, buy beer wine , great entertainment man, whats the problem? The problem is really, how far is this from the Roman colisseum, gladiators? A paid underclass entertaining us.
To me this is a real issue that I cant ignore
but the other side knows that people are being pressed tricked into taking stuff with long term results that they dont know or understand. In addition, once corrupted one cant or probably cant compete, so they are essentially forced to dope, or give up.
Long term results bad to very bad and unknown.
So you can answer, hey who cares what they do , we love it, cheer, buy beer wine , great entertainment man, whats the problem? The problem is really, how far is this from the Roman colisseum, gladiators? A paid underclass entertaining us.
To me this is a real issue that I cant ignore
6
I guess the problem of doping does matter to all those athletes (and it's the majority of them) who work very hard every day for the love of sport, and with very little or no financial support. If they quit practicing and competing because the field is rigged, there goes the entertainment value for couch-potato viewers and lucrative advertisements for corporate exploiters of athletes.
1
There is nothing to prevent a voluntary athletes association (cross-sport might be best) from agreeing to a rigorous testing regimen, and labeling themselves as the non-cheats. With verifiable, publicly accessible tests to prove it. And a marketing label for participants (and sponsors - interested, Nike?) to use promotionally. One strike and you're out. No fines. No suspensions. Just a voluntary association of like-minded athletes, agreeing on a principal of clean competition.
Oh, yes - snowboarders - The testing limits would be for PEDs and their ilk only. Recreational substances are a different matter.
Call it Athletes Responsible for Competitive Honesty - ARCH for short.
Ask the Serena Williams, Derek Jeter, Roger Federer, Muhammad Wilkerson, Eli Manning, LeBron James and Stephen Currys of the sporting world to get the ball rolling.
Slogan - "I win on the field - not in the lab." Make it a badge of honor, and promote the heck out of it.