It is my opinion that without trust there can be no belief. I trust my girlfriend and therefore believe she would not ‘cheat’ on me. I have always been brought up to trust sports men and women and believe that what they are doing is down to ability and an awful lot of dedication, that however amazing and unbelievable and individuals performance is you take it as fact and do not question it. I’m not sure that this can be said anymore and that’s what is so shocking about all these stories not the fact that the individual who has cheated will never be respected again but that the sports have been tarnished and people will inevitably question every good performance we see.
‘Everyone is doing it so actually by me taking drugs it means I am performing on a level playing field.’ These are the sort of quotes that someone who has been found guilty of taking performance enhancing drugs instantly turn to. It is the go to sentence when you have run out of poor excuses. I’m not sure what is worse actually, the negative effect it has on a sport when an individual tests positive or the way a short sentence such as the one above can shape people’s opinions about every sports person performing in the world. It’s not just good sportsmen, such as Dwain Chambers, saying this but it has been legends of their field like the shamed Lannce Armstrong who turn to it. After many years and law suits denying the fact he ever took drugs, within months of the extent of his cheating becoming public knowledge he did an interview suggesting that he was just trying to be equal with all the other cyclists who took the drugs and that ‘it is impossible to win Le Tour De France without taking drugs.’ The negative effect this interview has on the way that cycling as a whole is viewed by fans around the world simply cannot be measured but I have no doubt that it has led to many people either losing interest or just not believing in the current crop of performers.
Michael Johnson was just before my time and as a child I loved watching Maurice Green but nothing would prepare the world for what we would see at Bejing in 2008 the greatest sprinter of all time burst onto the scene running world records to win the Olympic Golds all this whilst seemingly jogging over the line. A hero was born and the face to take athletics to a whole new level was found. He had to beat 2 other people that day that had previously held the world record, Gay of the USA and fellow countryman Powell. Bolt came in and smashed them out the park making it look easy, I never once thought this can’t be real he must be taking drugs, I don’t ever want to think that Bolt would do that and dread to thing how bad it would be if he did. It’s not in my nature to question such a talent but there were people who did and that scrutiny will only increase with the shocking day the world of athletics had on the 14th July 2013. Powell and Gay both testing positive for banned substances would be big news if it happened in the same year let alone the same day. Two of the fastest men of all time forced to turn to drugs to try and perform at the very top, how can we trust any of them now?
