The shoes continue to fall. When the idea of performance enhancing drugs first surfaced, few suspected that it was a widespread phenomenon. We just marveled at the sudden super-human results talented athletes were producing. Remember those impressive “women” in the Olympics from East Germany? Cycling had long been suspect and the worst was confirmed with Lance Armstrong finally admitting to using pharmaceuticals to push him beyond normal limits. His crash was particularly painful for the public because he had overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to win the Tour de France seven consecutive times and then turn his stardom into an organization to fight cancer. Too good to be true–and it was. He lied as efficiently as he cycled.
Baseball had revealed its dirty secrets earlier and the records set by Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, and Al Maguire all turned out to be flawed. Performance enhancing drugs were behind them all. As if that wasn’t bad enough, all of these athletes lied—and lied for years—about their involvement. Now, arguably one of the most talented players ever to pick up a baseball bat has come clean. How ironic is that phrase? Alex Rodriguez, already convicted by organized baseball, had vowed to sue the New York Yankees, Major League Baseball, Commissioner Bud Selig, and the MLB Players Association. He now he confesses what has been obvious. He is caught, as were the others, in a convoluted web of lies.
The ruining of those reputations is sad, but the story is much more complicated than these and the others who are known to have used PEDs. What about the countless players who did not use them but had excellent careers, albeit not of the caliber of the cheaters? Some have even been accused, perhaps falsely, perhaps not, but the question has been raised. With so much lying, how do we know who to trust? There are others, both named and unknown, who are just as guilty.
I suppose if a player receives 100 million dollars a year, the pressure to perform must be incalculable. Can you imagine the outcry if such a star player turned in average numbers each year? That cannot be an excuse for their behavior but none of us has been in that situation.
A downside of PEDs that has been rarely mentioned, given the headline-grabbing of the scandal, is what are the long term health effects of their use? Should it be proven that the consistent use of such agents shortens life by, say, ten years, would the temptation to use them be lessened? Probably not.
Seen from another angle supreme athletes in any sport will do everything possible to maximize their performance. Look at any talented football player; how many thousands of hours have been spent in the weight room to develop those muscles? For marathoners, how many thousands of miles have been run to break the three-hour mark? Legitimate and brutal training are required for stellar performance in any sport.
Maybe PEDs should be allowed. If the athlete is willing to assume the unknown risks to his/her health, then how is that different from all the training to achieve championship form? Most of us would have real questions about the ethics of such a view and rightly so. Owners who pay these fortunes to the players could demand the athletes take PED, to hell with the consequences. No one doubts what their position would be; profits would go up and that’s what counts, literally. Should the 400 pound sumo wrestler not be allowed to ingest 10,000 calories a day and shorten his life by a significant amount? Why not ingest pills that will give you muscle of a magnitude the body was never intended to carry?
The answer is that the rules should be followed by everybody. Far better not to have drugs enter the fray but technology will provide drugs that are untraceable; they are already out there. They will be used, rules or no rules.
As trite as it is, Armstrong was right: everyone was doing it; it just levels the playing field. That may be true but it is also true that deception defiles not only the sport and the players; it removes the public’s trust in praising what may be a tainted performance and robs us of the joy in cheering an athlete who has excelled with just God-given talent and determination.
– Hayden Hollingsworth
