The fans bay for blood. He did it last time and he should do better this time. If he doesn’t then the advertising space becomes free again. So he is left with a choice. Working within the limitations of his body or pop that pill that promises to make him 30% better and cannot be tracked by the system.

There has been a lot of noise in the news of late about drugs and how they are supposedly ruining it for everyone. Now let it be said right from the start that I am not into the use of drugs for any reason other than medicinal and I will support any cause that works against it. On the other hand, we live in this world where we are of the shockingly misguided belief that sport is generally clean.

It has been proven that in the ancient Olympics, the men and women involved back then used performance enhancing drugs to improve in the execution of any discipline that they were involved in. The Olympians became prized assets all over the old world and legend grew of them. The playing ground was even.

'We live in this world where we are of the shockingly misguided belief that sport is generally clean'


Now we are not so sure because there are many of our favourite household names who have not been so clean and happened to get away with. I am not about to suggest any by name because then I could get slapped with a libel suit faster than I can think hobnobbing, which would not exactly be any good for my financial performance.

The argument that players before were honest is at best poor. They will tell you that they used something or the other and if we are to be fair about it, what is to be said of the drugs that were only made illegal in the last couple of years? Do we invalidate the performances of those who may have used EPO before and got away with it? What about those who have to perform in the same conditions as those of yesteryear now but aren’t allowed to use the same things that were used to achieve those levels?

And as for the moments, the Sydney Olympics efforts of the now-disgraced Marion Jones. Minus the drugs she took, would we have had such an effect? Would we have had the machinery around her that put a little excitement into our otherwise tedious lives?

The playing field would be evened by a regulated drug-use system. We accept that most athletes in every discipline are using something. It is declared and a health system is used to make sure that the subjects are not endangered. Then we know that what we are watching is prime breeds and not some version that lives in the fantasy of a purity that does not exist.

The risks are great but not any greater than we have now. We will have athletes who are open about it and if there is a risk of addiction it is treated without the risk of a penalty if it is found out by the authorities. That will get rid of the paranoia and it might put Dick Pound and his boys out of work, but it will give sport back to the masses.

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