Believe in what you see? (sporting performance)

Despite what the media would have you believe, unlike many in the country /around the world, I was not glued to the TV during the Rio Olympics 2016. I did watch the highlights and marveled at what we human beings are capable of from sheer determination, talent, and training and for some the simple ability to defy the laws of physics.

However, the unpleasant theme that ran throughout Rio 2016, the very large elephant in the room; no make that a herd of elephants, was – the use of ‘performance enhancing drugs’ or what most of us would call cheating. One by one, individual sporting heroes have been toppling like dominoes and, in some cases, whole countries like Russia have been banned from competing.

Does it matter? – did we enjoy it less knowing that potentially some of the athletes may have taken drugs? For me the answer is an emphatic YES – it matters; it matters that someone has an unfair advantage, it matters that the retesting of drug samples from 2008 -2012 found 45 positive for drugs; it matters that we doubt what we are seeing.

How long do we hold the applause and the congratulations? Cheating is not inevitable; we can still do something in time for Tokyo 2020. For the competitors it’s the pride in knowing they have done their best competing against the best, drug free. And for those of us watching, we can get back to – seeing is believing and believing in what we see.