SHUHEI MATSUO
Sports Editor
Let’s say you read the most recent ‘Us Weekly’ and found out your favorite celebrity has fake breasts, noses, lips or calves. Would you be disappointed that she or he is a cop-out? Or would you think cosmetic surgery is necessary to succeed in the business?
Plastic surgeries in Hollywood can be compared to performance-enhancing drugs in the sports world, except there are strict prohibitions about drugs in almost every sport these days.
MLB’s historical sluggers like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds have brought much excitement back to the pro baseball league, but they are also taking away a lot of respect and credibility out of their impressive records because they allegedly used performance-enhancing drugs.
Marion Jones also disappointed U.S. fans in October when she admitted to using steroids before the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics, in which she won gold medals.
American cyclist Floyd Landis was found guilty in September by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for doping during the 2006 Tour de France. Since doping is very popular in this sport, many fans worry Lance Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner, has done drugs as well. Personally, I’m more worried about his possible future with Ashley Olson. Live strong, Lance.
You may agree that these are such active sports that some athletes try to sneak the strict doping rules with the newest, non-detectable drugs. But thanks to South African golf legend, Gary Player, who said this summer that he knows some golfers on the tours are using dope, the PGA, LPGA and European Tours will start drug testing policy as early as January 2008.
Who would have thought about drug testing in golf? This means pro sports are becoming competitive in a different way, and they are not authentic test of athleticism anymore.
But the professionals are not the only ones with doping issues. NCAA, of course, has tough regulations on drugs as well.
Once a year, every college athlete is required to sign contracts that allow NCAA to drug test him or her. However, it seems NCAA targets certain sports, especially baseball.
Pepperdine senior pitcher Nick Gaudi says there are about two or three drug tests every year for the baseball team. NCAA picks a few random players from a team and tests them for drugs a day after the announcement, he says.
“I’m sure none of our guys [are using drugs],” Gaudi says. “But whenever we see a really huge guy on some other team, we are like, ‘That guys is definitely doing it.’”
However, another Pepperdine athlete Taylor Watson from the men’s water polo team says drugs are “surprisingly uncommon in water polo.” The junior attacker also says that NCAA rarely conducts drug testing in this sport.
“[NCAA] tested Jesse [Smith] (who currently plays on the U.S. Olympics team) when I was a freshman,” he says. “Just because you are really good, it doesn’t mean you should automatically be a target of drug testing.”
While the drug testing policy is highly strict in college baseball, it seems somewhat unfair and random in less mainstream sports like water polo. Perhaps that’s because baseball players have the hope of becoming the next A-Rod and making millions of dollars in the Major League, while there is no professional water polo league in the United State to make a living out of their highly athletic skills.
The issue comes down to which sport is more entertaining to more people. Right, it’s all about the business: If you can’t make money, you fail. And if you don’t do steroids, you can’t make money or so it seems.
U.S. society has such high demands that people always want to see the strongest, fastest, longest and toughest performances. And if you don’t meet those expectations, you are out of the business.
Does that mean you can use steroids to satisfy society’s needs? Sure. At least until you see yourself on ESPN and realize that you’ve disappointed all of your fans.
11-15-2007