The cynic in me suggests it would be tempting to just deregulate the various advantages available to sports people, both individual and team.
We could just relax, dismantle WADA, ADF and every other well intentioned acronym established in the name of level playing fields across the world.
Imagine, along with an EPL ladder, a ladder for drug labs (Go Team Bayer anyone?), and even a ladder cataloguing the nefarious and corrupt bookies, stand over merchants and organised crime syndicates so they can measure their own risk/reward KPIs.
A reality show featuring sports people who start a season clean before they dose up. They sweat as those detected are sent packing to a soundtrack of humiliation and derision. Let’s call ‘So You Think You Can Lance’.
But at the risk of sounding like a 21st century puritan, no.
We don’t aspire to great heights just to have a competitor win because of enhanced blood profile, VO2 max or muscular recovery. But our human profile is to compete with people of similar physiological base, and to see who can prevail, naturally.
If athletes such as Lothar Matheus and Miguel Indurain have a naturally high VO2 max and a resting pulse of 35-40, then we are defeated by natural advantage.
Recent events such the Lance Armstrong fiasco, confirmed rumours of illegal betting activity in the EPL and other UEFA leagues and the local drug scandal at Essendon (which will radiate more than people realise) have reached a tipping point.
The Australian Crime Commission (ACA) has announced as recently as today that they have been investigating the use of drugs from peptides backwards and match fixing for 12 months, with Sports Minister Kate Lundy demanding that all sports’ official bodies cooperate to get to the bottom of the rot.
The twin problems of match fixing and performance enhancing drugs are clearly not unrelated. They are like fraternal twins.
They originate from the same parent; the aim of gaining performance and therefore financial advantage from an elite activity that started decades and centuries ago with humble and altruistic ambitions to be the best.
What’s at risk here? The decay in sport’s collective image diminishes the motivation of fit and motivated young people who see and understand the rot that characterises elite levels.
Ironically, the public and private financial support sports depend upon will diminish as both sectors refuse to reward the above behaviours.
May their acts be swift, uncompromising and rid sport os much of the cancer as possible, even at the risk of revered figures within sport losing their positions. As we have seen with Lance Armstrong, the fall from reverence to contempt is a hard and fast one.
Pot Stirrer
Guest
The ironic implication if you deregulate it for me is i think it would hurt a players endorsement earnings. If its accepted that players can take peds, apart from a whole new industry that would be developed what companys would want thier brands associated with drug takers. Also i could imagine clubs looking at athletes differently. Instead of seeing playing potential they would be looking for body types that will transform the most with thier drug program. Its a horrid idea.
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
Nice bit jorginho.... If you cant beat 'em join 'em. Drugs in sport is like prostitution, it will never go away, so why not deregulate it so it can be managed, and importantly every one plays on a level playing playing field. It is hard to get excited about the Olympics and the Tour de France.any more.