Steroids and Doping in Sports: A different Angle

Steve Victorson, EdD

steve@swymfit.com

The past six months have been heartbreaking for sports fans and cancer
patients who have hitched their loyalty, aspirations and hopes to one of
the greatest sportsmen this country has ever known - seven-time Tour de
France champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. The recent
whistle-blowing comments of disgraced tour champion Floyd Landis
have cast a shadow on a career that has literally helped thousands, if not
millions of cancer patients through funding, greater public awareness,
and, most of all hope.

This piece is not an easy one for me to write. For while I will never
promote the virtues of doping or steroid use in sports, I also have to ask
myself and the sports world at large: Why are we so focused on
disgracing individuals after their careers are over and what is the cost?
Especially when the vast majority in their sport - particularly cycling,
which in the late 1990s had an estimated 90% performance enhancing
use rate, according to the French newspaper Sud Ouest - was using
performance enhancing drugs at the same time?

We all watch sporting events hoping that every athlete is playing on even
ground. We assume that the rules of sport are being followed, allowing
us to enjoy the competition and cheer for our favorite athlete. The
accusations that came and continue to come from Floyd Landis, if true,
implicate the entire top tier of the cycling world. If true, one could say
they all knew the game, they chose to compete under those conditions,
they all chose the potential consequences and, most importantly from a
competitive perspective, they were all racing on equal ground. (Which
the Sud Ouest estimate from the late 1990s makes abundantly clear).

However, as fans, we remained in the dark. We just saw great cyclists

working very hard doing what appeared to be superhuman feats of
endurance and strength. Climbing Category 1 inclines in the Pyrenees
Mountains after having already raced 1,500 to 1,700 miles is the height
of superhuman performance, in my opinion. We marveled at their
perseverance and painful push towards victory. We were all inspired or
left in awe.

Now Floyd Landis is coming clean. He is letting the world know that
everyone was doping, most prominently the king of the modern cycling
world, Lance Armstrong. My question to Floyd: Why? Even if everyone
is guilty as charged, what is the reason for Landis' continued push to
implicate the entire upper echelon of the sport? Is it so that he can feel
better about himself, or is it for the "greater good" of cycling? As easily
as it is to argue the latter - and, from this, cycling will certainly become
cleaner - one must remember that, in 2009, Landis threatened Armstrong
by email with this very "outing" if Armstrong didn't pay him what
Landis claimed were back wages. That, in my mind, is blackmail.

An admitted cheater wanting to clear his name by bringing down the rest
of his competitors is either committing the ultimate act of selfishness or
falling on the sword to do what he considers best for the fans and the
sport of cycling. While Landis might feel good now about his
admissions, how do the fans of cycling feel? What about the fans of
Lance Armstrong, who are not only sports fans, but also cancer
survivors?

It is easy to be either realistic or cynical when watching all of our heroes

or those we look to for leadership or inspiration tumble down the harsh
slope of their own crushed reputation. Let's remember that everyone
seems to have a skeleton in the closet, the 800-pound gorilla sitting in
the room. That's the reality. We're cynical because we have become used
to and almost expectant that anyone and everyone in the limelight will
be accused of illicit or immoral behavior.

When a sport's generation of future Hall of Famers gets nailed - as did

baseball with Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mark
McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Jason Giambi, Jose Canseco, et. al., the
cynicism only increases. Look at the constant skepticism about Albert
Pujols. He must have put up 10 years of hitting numbers akin to Lou
Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams because he's juiced, a lot of people
say and Sports Illustrated investigated in an infamous Spring 2010 cover
story - yet he's been clean as a whistle.

Perhaps the realism or cynicism is our problem. As fans, maybe it is our

unreal expectation and desire for athletic stars to perform superhuman
feats that is the cause for the problems of sport? Sporting events are
merely games and entertainment. Yet, we continue to put sports heroes
on the highest of pedestals. Show me any human being worthy of such
praise and adulation and I will show you a chink in the armor.

What troubles me more than whether or not Lance Armstrong doped,

along with what appears to be the entire cycling world, is the affect of
these accusations on the thousands of people around the world fighting
cancer. For these people, the Tour was not merely about a bunch of
people trying to be the fastest to the finish line, but life and the
inspiration to live. This is not a game for the individual who is fighting
cancer.

Lance Armstrong has become bigger than the Tour. His victory over
cancer, the inspiration he has provided those fighting cancer along with
the millions of dollars donated by his foundation, trumps any Floyd
Landis catharsis or attempt at cleaning up the sport. If every Landis
accusation is true, then all the cyclists at the top were competing on the
same playing field and Lance was still the best. He still won.

The fans and the purists might shake the hand of Landis and say "thank
you" for cleaning up the sport that we all love. All of us as fans, might
look forward to the day we are guaranteed a "clean" competition.

But what about the people who do not care just about entertainment and
games? What about those looking for any and every bit of inspiration
and energy to persevere and live another day?
"On their behalf, I would ask Floyd Landis and any other disgraced
whistleblower, Jose Canseco included, "What motivated you? A pure
desire to clean up the sport in which you competed, excelled, loved and
lost because of your mistake? Or clearing your name and making
money?"

It's a fair question that demands a fair response.