Predictable really:The International Olympic Committee has stripped sprinter Marion Jones of her five 2000 Olympic medals after she admitted taking banned substances.
Looking at the issue more broadly, remember this?
1988: Johnson stripped of Olympic gold Sprinter Ben Johnson has been sent home from the Seoul Olympic Games in disgrace. The Canadian has also been stripped of his 100m gold medal after testing positive for drugs.
He ran the 100 in 9.79 seconds. Now it's held by Asafa Powell, of Jamaica, in 9.74 seconds. Who's to say the latter's not on an undetectable drug? Who's to say Carl Lewis wasn't? I'm not saying anything, for fear of libel laws nor am i intimating anything. But I am asking how we can know.
Does it matter? Probably yes, for a whole lot of moral and pragmatic reasons. Does it mean Johnson didn't run that time? Of course not. Johnson ran 9.79 - he was timed. The only vague question then was whether he was a human being or a cheetah, perhaps.He looked pretty human to me when he ran that time. Sad but he ran it. He was therefore the fastest in the world. Lewis was not.
[Comment on photo policy on this blog: Photos are either linked or not. If not, then assume they are iether from my own collection or else from Wikipedia, under the name of the subject in the photo.]
In times when the second would (often) only be mentioned as the "first loser", even the fairest winner has to live with not only getting money and medal (in this order) for being the fastest, strongest etc., but with people rather than acknowledging his performance suspecting he did just win, because he luckily happened to have the best yogurt in his fridge.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad.
Well even though he was on drugs Ben Johnson winning that race was one of the greatest sporting moments on TV.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Marion Jones confessing after all this time? Did she get religion?
While there is so much money at stake in "sport" there will always be drug use. Why don't they all just stay at home and read the paper?
ReplyDelete