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These days, everyone is trying to keep up with the Joneses. A few days ago, we learned the real reason why nobody could ever quite catch up. By now, nearly everyone that pays attention to the world of sports has heard of the latest steroid scandal. Track phenom Marion Jones finally admitted to taking steroids after numerous claims of adamant innocence.
I just have to wonder when the powers that be are going to bite the bullet and target the real issue: flaxseed oil. Seriously, ban this stuff, and I guarantee on my expertise as a track and field enthusiast that steroid use in all of sports will decrease by 50-65%.
But let's be honest. We all know what's going on here. Your ambitious, over-achieving prodigy approaches a trainer and expresses their undying desire to succeed at the highest level of competition. The trainer hands over an unmarked bottle, smiles, and says something to the effect of, "Here, take this. Its flaxseed oil (wink-wink), it will give you the edge you're looking for." Let's look at what's at stake here: The trainer gains the favor of a rising star, with obvious promise of future business. The athlete tells him or herself that what they don't know can't hurt them and take the stuff in blissful ignorance.
We know this happens all the time, and probably with more athletes than we're willing to admit to ourselves. But the question
has to be asked:
Do we
really care? We, a society that giggles in self-justification of illegal music downloads. We, a culture that willingly rationalizes academic collaboration with a wink and a grin. We, a community that openly glorifies the "do whatever you want, as long as you don't get caught" mantra that shows itself in countless ways in the world we have created. Do
we care that someone that we pay to entertain us, whose job is to wow us with spectacular physical feat, takes a few illegal measures that, for all practical purposes, does nothing but increase the quality of that which we look to entertain?
If your answer to that question is yes, than you are either in the vast majority of self-righteous finger-pointers or the extreme minority of people that see this as a matter of integrity and character. If your answer is no, than this whole circus needs to be packed up and sent out of town. Cheating is cheating. If it doesn't matter to us in the classroom, in the workplace, or when we're filing our taxes, it shouldn't matter to us on the field.
Labels: cheating, drugs, Marion Jones, steroids