The news about Mark McGwire’s now admitted steroid use is really too bad and another major blow to professional sports. I’m not even really a baseball fan, but this is someone who was and probably still is idolized by everyone from young kids to senior citizens. And this is not just an issue of baseball, but of sport in general. Almost every major sport now has had some scandal involving performance enhancing drugs, and all that is doing is poisoning sport.
Athletes now are more concerned with money and contracts than they are about dignity and respect for sport. I wouldn’t be content to win if I knew that I cheated, but perhaps if it was the difference between a few zeros on my paycheque I could be swayed from the moral high ground. I would like to think not.
Just as the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver is about to begin and the world is preparing to celebrate great human achievement this serves only to cast a shadow over the entire institution of sport. The fact that McGwire only loses a bit of face, but somehow manages to maintain his riches and his new job as hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals doesn’t really seem adequate to me. I mean really, this guy is basically guilty of what Martha Stewart was guilty of — lying — and she went to prison for a time.
Every athletic performance is put into question by scandals like these which is really unfortunate for all athletes, but particular those who achieve amazing things honestly and will now be celebrating those achievements in the shadow of doubt.
I may be acting like a sourpuss, but I love sport and hate to see it tarnished. If it’s not possible to play honest, perhaps we need to seriously consider a “Pharma Olympics” where athletes can do whatever drugs they want in unrestricted doses. That would truly showcase what the human body is capable of.
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