I’m not surprised another so called athlete has fallen by the wayside.
Can you name me a sport where the results aren’t fixed. Football Racing Cricket Athletics Rugby. Even Cycling and Fishing.

By Les Phillips on 07.30.06 12:32 am

Many sports are tarnished by the cheats and scandals.

The problem is the way this also affects the way the public looks at the ‘honest’ sports men and women who dedicate their lives to being the best, only to be looked on with suspicion.

I’ve heard people question both Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe recently, saying that their achievements have come ‘out of the blue’ and therefore they must be on drugs.

I think if they understood the amount of dedication and training these athletes put into achieving what they have, and their stand against drug cheats then they’d probably not think like this.

But for many armchair sport fans, it’s easier to jump to these conclusions.

By Daniel on 07.30.06 9:52 am

Playing devil’s advocate for a moment, the premise of drug using athletes having an unfair advantage works only if we assume there’s a level playing field to start with - which obviously there isn’t.

An athlete’s edge exists in their genetic make-up. You can’t simply start with a random baby and train it to run the fastest 100mt the world has ever seen by the time it’s 18 years old. That baby needs to have the genetic make-up which is sympathetic to running very quickly.

So it’s not all about training hard, and eating well. That’s part of it; but athletes are born and not created - and so for those people who are destined to come in second time and time again in the face of this unfair genetic advantage - performance enhancing drugs are their only way to restore parity.

Perhaps we should test for genetic advantage and stagger start athletes accordingly?

By Ian on 07.31.06 2:08 pm

Well, that’d be dull as all the races would end in a draw.

By Daniel on 07.31.06 2:19 pm

Mmm. But we handicap horses and their races don’t often end in a draw?

Perhaps we could place weights around the feet of faster athletes. Although, that might only encourage would-be Morris Dancers to flout the rules and use bells rather than weights - and other athletes may become disorientated. The relay race may also turn onto a farce as they bop other athletes on the head with the baton. The 100mt would be come a 10 step forwards, five steps back and a dose-i-doh with your neighbour. And you can forget the tripple-jump. Yes, it’s a dreadful prospect - what hope for the future of British athletics… ban the Morris Dancers!!

By Ian on 07.31.06 2:35 pm

Horseraces therefore use imperfect handicapping.

It obviously doesn’t take into account the genetic makeup that affects the disposition of horses/jockeys who aren’t as willing (or simply aren’t able) to put in the extra 1% effort that makes the difference between winning and losing.

Also, you would have to consider environmental influences as well as genetic. Someone who is ‘born to run’ (not The Boss), may not achieve the same success if they are placed outside of an environment where they can flourish.

So the handicapping system would have to be infinitely complex for it to work.

Which is why it’s a daft idea, and will never work - much like cheating through the use of drugs.

By Daniel on 07.31.06 2:44 pm

Agreed, but we’re surrounded by drugs - some are banned others aren’t, yet all can enhance an athletes performance - so unless you can ban the use of all drugs - including legal ones (which won’t happen) you’re always going to have cheats.

Also - I reckon dreaming up increasingly sophisticated ways to hide the use performance enhancing drugs - is no less a crime than feigning a fowl in the area to win a penalty. So why is one considered sportsmanship and the other not?

Both athletes want to win, both are willing to do whatever it takes, both are breaking the rules, everyone knows it’s wrong - yet one is guaranteed to get away with it - even in the face of video evidence. And the other, if caught, loses everything. There should be a zero tolerance approach to all found guilty of cheating. That’ll stop the divers in footy!

By the way, I read somewhere (I’ll dig it out in a minute - I don’t think it’s a factoid) that Chinese women athletes are encouraged to time the birth of their babies in line with training for big events, as there’s a natural drug that’s created during pregnancy which remains in a woman’s system in the months following birth - that’s proven to improve performance. Is this cheating?

By Ian on 07.31.06 3:17 pm

“I reckon dreaming up increasingly sophisticated ways to hide the use performance enhancing drugs - is no less a crime than feigning a fowl in the area to win a penalty.”

That would be a chicken’s way out…

By Daniel on 07.31.06 3:27 pm

Hey! - you edited that! I spelled it correctly (erm, whoops)!! lol

By Ian on 07.31.06 3:30 pm