The Athletes -v- The Cheats

This site - in content, at least - will be a drug-free zone over the next few weeks. The following is a brief explanation as to why the stories of doping and cheating will not be clogging The 'Lympic Log.

Well, it was really only a matter of time. The issue of doping never really goes away, but it certainly hits headlines around this time, and the positive test of World Indoor silver medallist Mariem Alaoui Selsouli (pictured left) is perhaps the first high profile case of the London Games. Only a misguided optimist – or a fool – would believe that it will be the last, either.

So what to make of the Olympic drug scandals? Well, nothing really. Don’t get me wrong, I have my opinions – on Chambers and Gatlin lining up, on the policing by WADA and the IOC, and even on our own Rob Heffernan associating with banned athletes. But far more detrimental to sport and its integrity is not the doping, or the testing, but the talking.

See, the blanket coverage of drug offences serves little purpose other than to take the spotlight from the clean athletes, and instead celebrate – and make celebrities of – those who choose to break the rules. Sure, a bit of naming and shaming is fine, but the simple fact is the focus should be on the athletes, not the chemists. But in the modern era of sensationalism and hyperbole, of access and exposure, that just does not happen.

The result is a level of cynicism and doubt which permeates every achievement on the tracks, fields and courts of the world. Wins the race? Probably on drugs. Breaks the record? Probably on drugs. Lifts the weight, scores the goal, makes the shot? Drugs, drugs, drugs.

That isn’t to say that it doesn’t matter – vigilance in catching drug cheats, deterring future incidents and protecting clean athletes is of paramount importance. It’s also vital that we exercise a level of realism when evaluating achievements – to believe that Florence Griffith Joyner’s dramatic change in 1988 from bit-part player to setting records that no-one has come close to since? Sorry, folks, but I’m not buying it. That the men’s 100m record could change on no less than 15 occasions while Flo-Jo’s mark remains almost 25 years later? Please. But if we opt not to celebrate these achievements, then let’s actually do that: let’s not celebrate them at all.

We can only hope that athletes don’t choose to break the rules, but it is just as much about how we choose to view their rule breaking. Let’s not allow the scourge of modern competition to claim further victims in this Olympics. Let’s not allow the focus to shift from the true excellence on show at these Games. And let’s not allow the shadow of drugs to further darken the sporting landscape.