Right: the drugs in sport controversy has come a long way since the first reports of steroid use appeared in the news media. Medical scientists, often researching anti-ageing and otherwise beneficial effects of substances, have added a new dimension to 21st century professional sports. (cartoon from Toon Pool ) Found a word you're not familiar with? Double-click that word to bring up a dictionary reference to it. The dictionary page includes an audio sound file with which to actually hear the word said. |
Further implications
It seems unlikely that Lance Armstrong will have his lifetime suspension from all competitions run under the WADA code lifted. For this to occur he would have to testify before either WADA or the USADA and indicate who else was involved in the systemic doping program of which he was a leading part. To this point, Armstrong has consistently refused to take such a step. Even in the interview he gave Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong did not respond to the questions she asked about those who had facilitated his doping.
However, larger questions remain. It appears true that despite Armstrong's success, his celebrity and his apparent capacity to bully others to achieve his ends, it is not reasonable to see him as the only or indeed the primary source of the doping culture that has pervaded international cycling competition. Armstrong is much more likely to have been a symptom than a cause.
The larger questions which remain to be addressed are in part questions of philosophy and definition. If performance-enhancing drugs are to be banned, the primary justification for doing so would seem to be that many have the capacity to cause physical harm to those who use them. Where this is the case, the pressure to win should not be allowed to force athletes to take substances that could injure them as well as help them succeed. The only safeguard against such pressure is to effectively prohibit their use.
Regulatory authorities should therefore ban those substances which can hurt athletes. At the same time, they should allow performance-enhancing substances which do not. This would immediately give the authorities' testing regimes and their prohibitions greater legitimacy as they would be seen to have been put in place to protect athletes. The use of performance-enhancing substances per se should not be regarded as 'cheating', for, as Armstrong noted in his interview with Oprah Winfrey, they are available to all competitors. What should be prevented is competitors being pressured to take dangerous substances. Once this becomes clearly the focus then a major strategy to prevent their use should be education rather than punishment.