Coming on the heels of several Major League Baseball suspensions, Lance Armstrong’s tacit admission to use of performance enhancing drugs during his spectacular cycling career has led to a massive media condemnation of cheaters.
Use of terms like “cheaters” and “cheating” appears to be favored by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which probably hired the same marketing experts who train our political candidates—experts in the use of inflammatory words to frame issues in a certain light in the public consciousness.
It’s hard to argue against the effort by professional sports organizations to do what they can to eliminate use of these steroids and hormones, which have serious health implications for the athletes later in life. But the bitterness and acrimony towards these “cheaters” who are trying to get ahead at risk of their health strikes me as over the top.
In baseball, many of the players who have tested positive are young men from extremely poor families in Latin America who are risking everything for a chance to make enough money to help their families achieve some security. And, it’s not as if these athletes haven’t continued to work hard to improve their natural talent.
The idea of a level playing field is a fantasy. Most exceptional athletes had the good luck to be born with physical capabilities that permit them to excel at sports, probably including naturally high levels of testosterone. We don’t penalize basketball players, after all, for their unfair advantage of being born tall. Or the son of a professional athlete whose dad can afford to buy a batting cage for the backyard when the boy turns six.
What if we decided to level the playing field for college admission by prohibiting wealthy families from sending their kids to SAT prep classes or hiring consultants to work with them on their essays?
I’m not arguing against better and more frequent drug testing. But I just don’t go along with subjecting these guys to public humiliation and shame for their bad judgment.
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