Nov

25

Winning At Any Cost

Posted by maureen

November 25, 2007 |

I have always been a big sports fan. Perhaps a better way of saying it is that I can admire anyone who does anything really well. The power and grace, endurance and tenacities of the best sportsman and women leave me in awe. I remember watching athletes on Saturday afternoons with my mom who was a big fan and would get so excited that she would cheer her favorites all the way to the finish line. She remembered and adored Wilma Rudolph who, against the odds, became an Olympic champion. We watched Roger Bannister complete the first four minute mile and Ann Packer win the Olympic gold. If she had been alive she would have watched and cheered as Marion Jones showed the world her brilliance on the track at the 2000 Olympics, where she won five medals in track and field, three of them gold. I cheered enough for me and mom during those events.

Marion Jones retired last month after pleading guilty to lying to federal agents in 2003. Jones admitted she had unknowingly used anabolic steroids. To say that I am disappointed is an understatement. What motives someone who has such great natural talent to cheat? I guess, deep down we all want to be the best at something but cannot imagine taking the risks that go with lying and /or taking performance enhancing drugs? It’s possible that money is a factor too and Jones obviously made plenty after her Olympic successes. After her admission that she used performance-enhancing drugs, track and field’s international governing body not only annulled all of Jones’ marks and medals dating to Sept. 1, 2000, but also asked her return about $700,000 in prize money. Unbelievable, Jones has said she is broke. Jones agreed to return her Olympic medals but that can’t correct the wrong done to the athletes whose true medal standing were taken from them, whose day to prove that they were the best was taken from them by someone who cheated.

Unfortunately, Jones isn’t the only casualty who has made news recently. Floyd Landis lost his doping case when arbitrators upheld the results of a test that showed the 2006 Tour de France champion used synthetic testosterone to fuel his spectacular comeback victory.

Baseball home run king Barry Bonds have been associated with drug-taking for years was finally indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges stemming from a year-long federal probe that examined his alleged use of steroids. His massive doping regiment has been documented in the book Game of Shadows. Ironically, he could go to prison instead of the Hall of Fame for telling a federal grand jury he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs.

Of course, it the few shouldn’t overshadow the many that truly embody the meaning of sportsmanship; to all those athletes who give we pleasure with their performances and who are gracious in defeat as well as in victory. So I’ll give a cheer for me and mom to the likes of Carl Lewis, Mia Hamm, Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan and Oscar de la Hoya, Tiger Woods and Eddie The Eagle who soared but didn’t win any medals. Thank-you!


Comments

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind

<< Post Navigation >>

« « Medical debt | Polio » »