From the Guardian:
If sports fans really want to see achievement that they can relate to, perhaps athletes should be restricted to diets of pizza and beer, and be required to have 40-hour-a-week desk jobs. In the first half of the 20th Century, Tour de France cyclists used to puff cigarettes on the go. How’s that for a physical triumph!
If the greatest possible feat of athleticism is what spectators seek, then that is what they will get (and often are getting). And if that means 250-pound genetically enhanced behemoths dunking on 15-foot basketball rims, then never fear, the science is on the way.
I’ll admit, there’s a certain part of me that does want to see freaks of nature. Kind of like the part of me who loved comic books and superheros. But that’s also the part who ought not be trusted with kids or car keys.
So where do we go? I’m curious to hear what y’all think.
the thing about doping in sport is that when something like the landis break away in stage 17 happens, you really have a new found respect for the athlete. it’s events like that that get us excited about sport and creates sporting heroes (heroes…a whole other subject). and then when we find out that they’re superhuman due to chemical means, it’s like finding out that santa claus doesn’t exist. it’s heartbreaking. you lose faith, you get angry and you find it hard to believe in things that are amazing. it creates cynics. and the world needs more cynics like i need a hole in my head.
Wow -amen to that, brother.
I’d rather see people excel without drugs and maybe not be quite as impressive but they still strive to do their best, than to see artificial results that just kind of disillusion me.
Would you take a job with huge salary and huge health risks at a nuclear facility? Shouldn’t we all be able to compete for the best jobs out there without sactificing the last 20-50 years of our lives?
The problem with the “let them use anything they want” arguement, in my mind, is that the retirees and the kids who never make it are going to SUFFER.
On the flip side, it was never the absolute achievement that drove us in sports anyways. Is a thrilling 3-way sprint to the finish 2:01 marathon victory any less dramatic than a thrilling 3-way sprint to the finish 2:14 marathon victory? Is a guy throwing a football 80 yards in the air for the winning touchdown more awesome than a guy throwing a ball 60 yards in the air for the winning touchdown?
No.
Competition among near equals is always compelling viewing, regardless of the level of the athlete. It’s this drama, this “anyone can win” suspense that leaves us on the edges of our seat, and makes us sports fans.
That’s why the cheating drives us nuts; because maybe, just maybe, not anyone can win.
All of this conversation is fantastic — if we were in a bar, I’d buy the next round to hear more about you all have to say on this. Warren’s last two lines attached words to why I want to punch a wall when I hear about this stuff.
yeah, what jeff says. cheating is cheating – and it’s especially sad when someone can be so happy to win after they’ve cheated.