Usain Bolt thinks athletics will die if drug doping isn't effectively dealt with. The all-time best Jamaican sprinter is correct to identify doper-cheaters as a bane for sports - but is wrong to think that sports will die. Those casual observers that tune in every four years to the Winter or Summer Olympics will, mainly, not be up to date on the degree to which non-allowed drug taking has corrupted various events and disciplines. And, on the other hand, those keen sports fans will have by now grudgingly accepted that their favorite sports have doping - because they know the cheaters are seemingly always one step ahead of the testers - so what are they going to do, stop watching? Despite invidious drug cheating only the sports fan purist will turn away, and there aren't too many purists around...
In fact for the sprints, many fans believe cheating is rife - and they aren't disgusted. They figure those cheaters are going to have better times, yes, which ironically will lead to more thrills and chills, but they accept the perniciousness because they know the runner still has to run the distance. Drugs are not a magic carpet ride: the steps have to be put in from start to finish.
While fair-minded folks wish doping in sports did not exist, or was a thing of the past, or was lessening - they are realists. They know that cheats will always be with us, in sports and in life. And while it may bug their ass that this is so, they will not quit watching or participating in their sport of choice.
True, the Tour de France has suffered in the wake of Lance Armstrong's sordid story - but this guy was a serial liar who blatantly lied so often that nobody, but nobody, will ever have the balls to BS right to your face like this unlikeable Texan did. He made the whole sport of elite cyclist road racing appear to be made up of 100% A1-jerks. For those cheating now, or in the future, their deeds to mislead will still be deplorable, but in a classier, more refined way - and their sport won't be impugned as being completely filled with dickweeds and deniers.
And let's face it - there are some of us who enjoy the spectacle of dopers in sports because we love to hear the reasons as to why they were found out. We can even put the dopey excuses into categories. From the boring, "Oh, I didn't know this wasn't allowed" to the buck passing "Geez, my medical team said all was ok" to the mind numbing "Really? I thought what I was taking was flax seed oil, not steroids!" to the romancing and heart rendering "I did it for love" to the, chew on this excuse for a bit, fanciful lie...based on feasting "Blame it on the Veal!"
We get the idea: the extent to which athletes, found out as short-circuiters, will prevaricate for their prevarications, is a laugh-riot. Worthy of water cooler talk. And don't we all know any publicity is good publicity?
Now watching sports on TV or via the PC is basically free (not including pay per view.) Perhaps what Bolt is worried about is that sports will lose the lucre, the loot, the dough from the paid consumer to either attend, fund, or sponsor people or events. And that could prove to be a problem, for sure. But has a sport disappeared because of this, to date?
Sports, even quite recently, have survived rotten and rampant institutionalized and mandated drug doping. Do you remember the Sochi Olympics? What a fiasco this fun-and-games show turned out to be. But haven't more than a few of us shrugged this Sochi off our shoulder, rationalizing that such over-the-top skirting of the rules is a hangover from the good old days of bad-old communism - and that things would have been worse if East Germany had run that show, and besides, that's just Vlad being mad - and oh, by the way, have you seen his ludicrous face job? Winter sports will survive Putin's putting one over on us...
In fact, down the road, if sport drug doping continues to increase, the authorities may have to throw up their hands in surrender and pass the baton - saying: do whatever you want competitors - and you the buyer - you the fan - beware.
And many of us will accept that drug doping in sports will be here to stay and some of us - the nerdish and scientific - will marvel at the ability of drug technicians and specialists from the dark side to find some new drugs, with names and ingredients no one can understand let alone pronounce - concocted to super-charge performance or at least stymie looming father time.
Usain Bolt is a great sportsman. One of the best. He could be right. Only the Lord knows how insightful he is about sprinting in particular, and sports in general, when he publicly warns us that drug doping equals the death of sports - but a mortal lad or lass has to think - and Usain - perhaps this is where you should focus on giving us teachable moments - there is a worse form of cheating in sports that threatened to turn at least one of them into nothing more than an effete form of professional wrestling -
figure skating-in-sequins-wrestling let's call it - through its judges cheating, or its teams colluding, or both happening at the same time - f'ing fixing results. That kind of rule breaking IS beyond the pale.
In fact for the sprints, many fans believe cheating is rife - and they aren't disgusted. They figure those cheaters are going to have better times, yes, which ironically will lead to more thrills and chills, but they accept the perniciousness because they know the runner still has to run the distance. Drugs are not a magic carpet ride: the steps have to be put in from start to finish.
While fair-minded folks wish doping in sports did not exist, or was a thing of the past, or was lessening - they are realists. They know that cheats will always be with us, in sports and in life. And while it may bug their ass that this is so, they will not quit watching or participating in their sport of choice.
True, the Tour de France has suffered in the wake of Lance Armstrong's sordid story - but this guy was a serial liar who blatantly lied so often that nobody, but nobody, will ever have the balls to BS right to your face like this unlikeable Texan did. He made the whole sport of elite cyclist road racing appear to be made up of 100% A1-jerks. For those cheating now, or in the future, their deeds to mislead will still be deplorable, but in a classier, more refined way - and their sport won't be impugned as being completely filled with dickweeds and deniers.
And let's face it - there are some of us who enjoy the spectacle of dopers in sports because we love to hear the reasons as to why they were found out. We can even put the dopey excuses into categories. From the boring, "Oh, I didn't know this wasn't allowed" to the buck passing "Geez, my medical team said all was ok" to the mind numbing "Really? I thought what I was taking was flax seed oil, not steroids!" to the romancing and heart rendering "I did it for love" to the, chew on this excuse for a bit, fanciful lie...based on feasting "Blame it on the Veal!"
We get the idea: the extent to which athletes, found out as short-circuiters, will prevaricate for their prevarications, is a laugh-riot. Worthy of water cooler talk. And don't we all know any publicity is good publicity?
Now watching sports on TV or via the PC is basically free (not including pay per view.) Perhaps what Bolt is worried about is that sports will lose the lucre, the loot, the dough from the paid consumer to either attend, fund, or sponsor people or events. And that could prove to be a problem, for sure. But has a sport disappeared because of this, to date?
Sports, even quite recently, have survived rotten and rampant institutionalized and mandated drug doping. Do you remember the Sochi Olympics? What a fiasco this fun-and-games show turned out to be. But haven't more than a few of us shrugged this Sochi off our shoulder, rationalizing that such over-the-top skirting of the rules is a hangover from the good old days of bad-old communism - and that things would have been worse if East Germany had run that show, and besides, that's just Vlad being mad - and oh, by the way, have you seen his ludicrous face job? Winter sports will survive Putin's putting one over on us...
In fact, down the road, if sport drug doping continues to increase, the authorities may have to throw up their hands in surrender and pass the baton - saying: do whatever you want competitors - and you the buyer - you the fan - beware.
And many of us will accept that drug doping in sports will be here to stay and some of us - the nerdish and scientific - will marvel at the ability of drug technicians and specialists from the dark side to find some new drugs, with names and ingredients no one can understand let alone pronounce - concocted to super-charge performance or at least stymie looming father time.
Usain Bolt is a great sportsman. One of the best. He could be right. Only the Lord knows how insightful he is about sprinting in particular, and sports in general, when he publicly warns us that drug doping equals the death of sports - but a mortal lad or lass has to think - and Usain - perhaps this is where you should focus on giving us teachable moments - there is a worse form of cheating in sports that threatened to turn at least one of them into nothing more than an effete form of professional wrestling -
figure skating-in-sequins-wrestling let's call it - through its judges cheating, or its teams colluding, or both happening at the same time - f'ing fixing results. That kind of rule breaking IS beyond the pale.