Sunday, November 20, 2005

Drugs in Sports

Let me be perfectly clear, I do not condone the use of drugs for the purpose of enhancing one's athletic performance. Let me also be perfectly clear that I believe that we, as sports fans, put too much pressure on athletes to perform. Sport is about achievement, not just winning. It's natural to focus on winning, but not at the expense of sporting integrity.

I know that there are people who don't care if an athletic feat is enhanced by drugs but I believe that they are in a very small minority. Most of the people that I know want our athletes to be "clean" and we disdain those who are discovered to be cheating. So I can only imagine the immense pressure that is on an athlete to perform when he or she knows that their fan base will be destroyed when (and I use that word purposefully) they get caught.

So tomorrow (Nov. 21, 2005) the drug testers will test the "B" sample from Roberto Heras to see if it confirms the positive result of his "A" sample from this year's Vuelta a Espana. Could the testing protocol be flawed? Perhaps, yet without it how many drugs would athletes be pumping into their bodies? I really hope that the result will be negative as most people have viewed Roberto as one of the good guys.

More importantly, let's try to figure out how to eliminate the current incentives to use drugs.

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