Marion Jones
In case you missed it, Marion Jones, 3-time gold and 2-time silver medalist in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, has pled guilty to two counts of lying twice to federal officials about doping (steroid use). (See LA Times - Marion Jones pleads guilty to lying about steroid use.) Both these times were after she won the medals, and, apparently, after she found out that she had been doping. (She says her trainer gave her "the Clear", beginning in September 2000 to July 2001, telling her it was flax-seed oil from 1999, and she didn't find out until November 2003. (See The Guardian (online newspaper from the UK) Jones may lose Olympic medals.)
Now, while I haven't been paying attention the Barry Bonds thing, apparently, this is the same excuse that Bonds used (that his trainer told him it was flaxseed oil).
Ya know... Trainers are responsible for the atheletes they train (be it team trainers, personal trainers, whatever). They and the atheletes know what's legal and what's not legal. There have been plenty of cases (seems in the last few Olympics), where atheletes have failed their "pee test", and banned substances were found.
The majority of atheletes really want to win (they don't do it for the experience or parties or whatever). They are competitive. And they all know the rules - If caught taking banned substances they will be kicked out of the Games, most will be stripped of any medals they won, and they will serve at least a few year ban. Most atheletes, especially in the Olympics, have just a few years when they are in their "prime" to win medals. And, I choose to believe that most will NOT take anything that runs the risks listed above. I DID say MOST, because there are SOME who will, and SOME whose parents will push them to, and SOME who are just trying to "pull the wool" over people's eyes.
I have much less trust in the individuals' trainers, though. How easy would it be to train a teenager for the Olympics and, if they don't perform to their expectations, convince them that the drug you are asking them to take is NOT a banned substance, though they know it is? I recall a young girl given some kind of cold or allergy medicine that apparently had a banned steroid in it. Whether the trainer knew or not, s/he should have checked. The athelete was dismissed from the games, and accused of doping. Did the Olympic committee whose responsibility is checking for doping CARE that the girl was young? I hope so. Did they then check to find out what she was given and by whom? I believe so. Was the amount of the banned substance found in the blood/urine enough to REALLY give her a performance advantage, or a high? I doubt it very much. And there are MANY OTC medicines which contain at least ONE of the banned substances. If an athelete has a headache or muscle-ache, what can they take? Ibuprophin (Motrin)? Acetemetiphone (Tylenol)? Naproxin (Alieve)? Asperin (Asperin)? And if they ARE told that's what they're taking, why would they disbelieve the trainer who spent the last few months or years with them? What if they get an OTC from their parents? Or are they just supposed to suffer?
Now that they can test for banned substances, they need to be able to test for the LEVEL, and before a person gets banned... from the individual game, the full Games, and the sport they grew up loving. 14yo kids should NOT be BANNED for years or life because they simply had a banned substance in their systems if they didn't know. (Lie detector tests can verify this.) The Olympics committee knows how long substances remain the bloodstream and urine. THAT'S how long they should be banned. If a trainer gave an athelete something and the athelete didn't know, that trainer should be banned for LIFE from the games in which they were caught.
Ok... What does this say about Pete Rose? Bonds? McGuire? and others? - Steroids in baseball is only going to give that athelete strength. It is NOT going to improve his eyesight, eye-hand-coordination, or timeing. Ok... it might help his speed a little, but to get a home run, you still have to hit that 9 to 9-1/2 inch circumference (see rule 1.09 - BTW: That's 2.86" to 3.04" diameter), 5 to 5-1/4 ounce sphere with a "smooth, round stick not more than 23/4 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length" (see rule 1.10). Should Rose be banned from the Hall of Fame? No... I don't think so. Enhanced or not, he set records doing something that while almost everyone can play, few can do as well. (From my understanding, he even bet on the games he played, FOR HIS TEAM. If he'd bet on the other team and his lost, that would be a different story, wouldn't it?
Ok... Let's give Marion Jones (remember her?) the benefit of the doubt, and she didn't know she was taking steroids when she won. What she DID do was lie about it after she DID find out. Now, think about this: If you were an athelete, and found out after the fact that you won those medals while on performance-enhancing drugs, would YOU want to tell ANYONE?
And what about that 14yo who had a banned substance in her system, not her fault, and only because she took an OTC for a cold or aches?
I understand that we want our atheletes "clean and sober". I'm from Indiana, near Indianapolis, and any time a Pacers or Colts player is in the news, I hate it when it's something negative they did. Do I blame them? Not all the time. I try to find out what happened... What "spin" EVERYONE is putting on the story. If I believe the athelete, then I don't care. If not, get them off the team, they're only ruining it for those who are following the rules.
As for Marion... Should she lose her medals? Well, I'm not sure as far as the steroids are concerned, and the fact that they would have to give one of her gold medals to 2nd place, who I understand is coming off a two-year ban for steroid use, kinda makes it seem hypocritical, doesn't it?
Should she lose her medals because she lied to the feds about it? NO. Atheletes are just people who's job is a sport. They get in trouble in various ways, just like "regular" people do. Should she pay for lying? YES. And it shouldn't be any more than any other celebrities get for lying to the feds. But if that's the only reason for taking the medals away, she SHOULD NOT lose them.
What do you think?
-wds
1 comment:
I don't think she should lose the medals because of something the trainer did. But then lying about it, that's something different. If she was given something that was "performance enhancing" by her trainer it's the trainer that should be fired and banned not the athlete. Now for lying about it afterwards, she should be "suspended", but not for something that she didn't know she was taking. But then again whose to say she isn't lying?
As for the Barry Bonds thing. Whether he used steroids or not, as you said, he still has to hit a Two and a half inch ball with a two inch rounded stick at just the right angle to get the maximum distance off the ball. Take into the fact that the pitcher can throw it any which way, and the ball is (usually) traveling 90+ miles per hour, then he hits it at the right angle and speed to send it 300-400+ feet over a 10-whatever foot wall (and sometimes higher). (all approx. measurements). And then he did it how many times in his career? Whether or not he took drugs to do that doesn't change the fact that, that's a really hard thing to do. Most people can't do that once in their life, he did it over and over and over again.
Now do I personally believe in performance enhancing drugs? No, not beyond vitamins. But then again with all the different pills out there it's hard to tell what has the so-called performance enhancing drug, or not. Then there's (supposedly) benign thing that are in normal food that could sway the drug test. Take poppy seeds for example... (reference Mythbusters). If you eat a poppy-seed bagel in the morning before a drug test you will test confirmed for opiates. Now if we apply this to this situation, whose to say that there isn't a food out there, that Barry Bonds or who ever, likes that tests true like the performance enhancing drug? Now I'm not saying he or the other people that take those drugs are right in taking them, but he still did something not a lot of people could do.
And as for the 14 year old that had taken the cold medicine, that's ridiculous. Now again she could have lied about it, but if it WAS from a simple cold medicine that's something different. They just started making different formulas that don't have "Original Sudafed" in them which, apparently, kids use to get high. That is a popular allergy/sinus medicine, and was found in alot of different cold medicines. Therefore (possibly) making her fail the drug test.
But seeing as there are alot of people taking the "performance enhancing drugs" should only certain athletes be penalized... take Arnold Schwartzenagger he took steroids when he was a body builder.
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