quote:<HR>Originally posted by dragonsrouges:
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I think we as a population don't take enough responsibility for our own actions... Whatever happened to clean and healthy lifestyle?
I don't think we were always this dumb as humankind but somewhere along the line, wow did we go off-track...
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Great points, dragonslayer.
So that I do not make an ill-formed conclusion regarding any situation or issue, I try to take the time to understand how we got to where we are, because deep in my core I know that no issues are black and white, as if overnight somebody decided to say, "Hey, let's eat Peanut Butter because it will give us that edge."
In the case with almost all of sport, including but definitely not limited to some Tour d' France riders, maybe Barry Bonds and others, any other sports figure you can think of who's been linked to illegal means to gain an edge over competitors, sports figures do not decide over night to do illegal things to gain an edge. The more competitive the field, the more time goes by, weaker athletes in mind and body will look to something other than hard work and grit to gain an edge. They will still put in their time, but they will seek alternative boost to equal or excel. That is sport.
Why do they do it? Competition. It all starts with healthy competition. But where does it go awry? Maybe it is commercial. Consider this (no facts, just guessing from experience): Money. Money enables would-be cheaters to cheat. Consider soccer in the US. Kids growing up historically had very few places to graduate to. NASL (old soccer legal that folded in late '80's) was long gone. MLS pays little to nothing, and all the good players go to Europe. And even if you were good enough to make a team, even today if all you are is an average player, you will make, at most, $25K per year. Yeah, no kidding. Steriods and EPO and blood doping is not a problem, probably because there is no money in the sport. Look at other sports with similar ground roots -- it's all the same. Little to no problems with steriods.
Now insert money and you have football, baseball, Tour d' France, etc.
But the thing is, for the athletes close to "making it", it doesn't happen over night. Time goes by when they climb up the ranks. Eventually they get coaching, a team, a nutritionist, and a buddy in the system who is either doing something illegal or promotes doing something illegal because, well, everybody is doing it. And also, hey, this is so new it will not show up on any tests, because, hey, it's not even banned yet. Weaker athletes, both mental and physical, will be more apt to bite.
That's how sport gets polluted with illegal substances. Perhaps it really is all related to money.
Now that I've agreed there's a problem in most popular sports, what can we do about it.
Dragonslayer is right. We, as a society, need to act and act together. Not only must teams who catch these cheats strike that player from the team, but coaches must call players out, players must call players out, fans must call players out, media must call players out, sponsors must call players out... we as a society must take responsibility to call the evil-doers out. There's no other way.
Right now the Tour is in the middle of transition. This is nothing new. They've been in the middle of this for a few years. The good news is that more and more cheats are being caught. And more will. There has been uproar to cancel the Tour because, well, with the top guys out and even top teams, nobody is left. That's hogwash. The athletes left are the real deal until prooven otherwise. The Tour MUST go on, for it is a freedom of speach and a sporting rite. To cancel the Tour would be akin to refusing to go outside your house after 911. It just isn't right. You don't surrender what it means to be human when one thing goes wrong, but at the same time, we have to take responsibility of our own actions -- actions as a human race -- when athletes cross the line. This happens all the time in other aspects of life; just, it hasn't happened as much as it needs in the sporting world.
One of the sports I most enjoy is woman's soccer at the high school, collegiate, and professional level. I enjoy it so much because it is pure, through and through. In any given game, not an athlete on the field is there for the money, because, truth be known, there is no money. They fight for a head ball because they love the sport. The slide for the ball because the want the ball and want to distribute it to a teammate; not because if they do enough slide tackles some team will offer them a new contract.
The doping and cheating in cycling is a great shame. But the Tour is far from over. We are in the middle of a cleansing period. In order to remove anything from life, the first part is identifying the problem, second is noticing it when it happens, third is crafting an appropraiate alternative action to take when it does happen, and the fourth is acting on it. It's hard to tell where we are right now, but we are someplace. If more and more people take more responsibility, especially sponsors with the money and influence of coach and captain, we will get to cleaning up sport and making it more pure sooner. This is also why I like the Olympics, or at least why I
used to like the Olympics. It is filled with more amatuer ahtletes in bizarre sports that will never see much more than a dollar of sponsor money.
Long live the Tour. Give it a couple of years and it will be closer to clean. We are only in the middle of change. But don't be patient, for not being patient is a form of take responsibility and letting those in charge know that their cheating is not tolerated.
