IF you have not seen ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary ‘9.79’ by Daniel Gordon, then you HAVE to watch same. The documentary tells the story of the 1988 Mens 100m final at the Seoul Olympics. The infamous Ben Johnson race.
That 1988 final lives long in the memory of those who witnessed it. I, being eight years old, remember it being the biggest story of the time. Reading reports in the newspapers back then, I remember questioning at the time, why would someone cheat?
The innocence of my eight years had lead me to believe that people who trained the hardest always won. It was a young age to have your sporting bubble burst.
Since then there have been millions of stories about drugs and sport. The two are now inextricably linked. Forever to be bedfellows. The last controversy is in baseball. I know, not everyone’s cup of tea, but a massive sport none the less and the national sport of the US of A.
The man at the centre of this latest story is Alex Rodriguez. Good looking, rich, big hitting third baseman. Now, arguably the most hated man in American sports. In what is his second time being banned for performance enhancing activities, A-Rod, as he is better known, is being banned for 200 plus games of baseball. A season and a half to you and me. Why no lifetime ban, you ask? Well, you can only get banned for life in baseball if you are guilty of betting on the game. (Google Pete Rose for more).
Gambling carries a lifetime ban, while cheating with the aid of illegal substances is considered as a misdeamour. Go figure.
My gripe is not with baseball, nor with athletics. It is with coaches and athletes who lose sight of what sport really is. Competing. Train to compete with your peers. Isn’t that the Olympic and Corinthian spirit? Am I just an ageing romantic?
It seems now, that there is a direct correlation between the increased money in sport and the increase in doping cheats.
Bigger prize funds and sponsorship deals mean that coaches and athletes will stop at nothing to win. (Again, watch that documentary)
Without shouting, ‘Will someone please think of the children’, we do need to look at ourselves as a society and ask ourselves are we prepared to watch sport which we know to be dirty. Finally, if you think this problem is exclusive to the USA and does not happen here, you are as naive as I was at eight.
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