Dwain Chambers and David Millar have been selected by Team GB to represent us at the London Olympics in a few weeks time. Both men chose to take banned performance enhancing drugs- blatantly cheating by any definition of the word.
When they were caught, they both initially denied any wrongdoing, but later expressed regret for their actions. There is no evidence however, that either would have stopped had they not been found out
There has been cheating in the Olympics for decades and you can be assured that several athletes will be doing so in London. However, the selectors of Team GB had a golden opportunity to at least try and do something.
They did not have to pick either athlete- they could have issued a statement along the lines of:
Whatever the cost to us, even if it diminishes our medal count and we know perfectly well that other countries will send drug cheats to compete against us- we are going to take a stand and send out a clear message to our children who watch these Games and may grow up to be competitors themselves. We want to show them that we really do believe that cheating is wrong and we will not support those who put their own selfish personal gain in front of basic sportsmanship and honesty.
They could have said this, but sadly they didn't and it diminishes us as a result.
8 comments:
This is totally unrelated, but may I give a hearty three cheers for this piece of news:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9350934/Race-to-open-first-new-grammar-school-in-50-years.html
Grammar schools are to face a long-overdue renaissance! Oh, how the trendy lefties will howl in anger!!
You've never done anything wrong in your life? I hope others show more forgiveness toward your mistakes when you show you are turning your errors around and working for good. Millar has done more for cycling since returning than almost any other, supposedly "clean" pro.
Incidentally Millar was taken into custody and confessed - you imply there was a long history of accusation and denial, but I am not sure where you find that. I understand he was somewhat relieved the ordeal was over.
Many will cheer him on - he's now one of the best examples British cycling has. Read his book - you may surprise yourself.
Mistakes? Deliberate cheating is NOT a mistake. A mistake is something done by accident. Saying 'sorry' when caught out doesn't count either. Neither 'athlete' should be allowed to compete at all.
Did you also hear that Wayne Rooney is being investigated... for using a performance enhancing rug?
I think it was Jacques Anquetil (5 times winner of the Tour) who when asked after his retirement, had he ever taken drugs during the race? said something along the lines of, "I rode it once without. It hurt too much. I never made the same mistake again."
The British Olympic Authority actually had no authority at all once the cheats appealed to sport's formal arbitration body and won:
http://tinyurl.com/ckvpp3z
I would very much like to hear from the athletes who have had to be displaced from the team so that the druggies may compete.
I know that if I had given years of blood, sweat and tears to make the grade (without using drugs) and then been put out of the team so that convicted cheats could participate I'd be wanting someone's head on a pike - preferably theirs.
CT, hear hear!
If your recently convicted but now clean athlete is still one of the best athletes in his generation and also now passionate about anti drugs then why is anyone complaining about losing out - the requirement is simply to be the best ... and clean.
Not a surprise when you remember that the Olympics is now all about money and the sponsors want to see as many medals as possible to boost their advertising revenue/performance of their adverts post-Olympics.
The profit to be made by the sponsors is the only real Olympic legacy.
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