It appears that Tour de France winner, USA's Landis, has tested positive for excess testosterone, putting his victory at risk if the requested second test provides the same results pointing to doping.
Add this to the ongoing issues in baseball and other professional sports, and why don't we just simply agree that "professional sports" means "athletes who take steroids." Why do we even kid ourselves that true competition is going on? Why do we time and time again choose to believe--and have our kids believe--that these people are athletic icons because of hard work, determination, skill and talent? Let's just rip the scab off this wound and say what needs to be said: the bloom is off the rose, and has been for a long time. Money is the lingua franca of professional athletics, not honor or skill or talent or competition. Those days are gone. I don't want to follow someone's quest for victory, root for him, feel impressed by his heroic feats of physical valor, only to find out he's been getting some injectable assistance that his competitors have not.
Can't we make the penalty for this type of fraud something a little more in the Eliot Spitzer range? Milli Vanilli fans were compensated for their purchase of the fake CDs "sung" by that duo. Can't we demand, the Outdoor Living Network demand, the US Cycling Team demand some compensation from the cyclist for the fraud? After all, if money is what sports are all about now, why don't we hit these cheaters where it hurts: not their honor, not their national pride, but in their fat, doped-up wallets?
1 comment:
I just wish someone's arm or leg will come off a la SNL's "All Drug Olympics" skit.
Jokes aside, if Landis is guilty it won't have been due to injection. No pesky vials, needle sticks or syringes to worry about as evidence. Oh, no, he will have adhered a testosterone patch beneath his private area for absorbtion in the bloodstream (it works like the birth control patch on a woman's abdomen).
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