What are you on?
The video below serves as a nice follow up to our last discussion. There were some excellent points raised within the comments section. Yet despite all the questions that were raised, there are still plenty of honest, hard working athletes who stay busy busting their ass, day after day after day.
Ross
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This entry pretty much sums it all up.
Also - a GREAT commercial. As much as I hate commercials I could watch Nike’s sport-related ones all the time.
That commercial always annoyed me a little. The logic anyway. Just because Lance says he is “on his bike 6 hours a day” does not logically prove that he was not “on” something else also:
Example:
Did you eat Oreos today?
I rode my bike six hours today.
But did you eat Oreos today?
I said I rode my bike six hours today.
It always bothered me that I never heard Lance say that he never took performannce enhancing drugs. He always seemed to be very careful to say “I have never failed a drug test.” And there is a subtle difference.
Bob - You may wish to read through some of the discussion from the previous blog entry (and comments).
I know the guilt assumption should not come up first and I totally agree to that. But once the hints and conclusions are drawn together, there’s nothing wrong with being suspicious about an athlete. And well, I’m not the one to say an athlete is guilty of doping, but with Lance Armstrong I still have my doubts.
But I emphasize that my opinion takes nothing away from his work ethics and achievements, especially when it comes to the Tour de France.
Just me thinking aloud.
Faust
But my point is this, why do you have your doubts? What makes you look at Lance Armstrong and say, “Yes, I have doubts.” Is is something that you can see in his eyes? Is it how he walks? Is it the shoes he wears? Or is it simply because he was that good?
Is that the criteria? Have we all been brainwashed to associate success with guilt? Is that where we stand today? If an athlete is dominant, he must be enhanced?
It’s a damn shame that there are honest, hard working athletes who have been falsely accused. It is almost as if you can’t be too good in today’s era without being automatically associated with illegal drugs. Once you hit a certain level of success, you must be enhanced, right?
Wrong!
Sure, there are athletes who have cheated, but there are still as many or more who have not.
Ross
I agree to it being a shame dragging innocent athletes through the mud. It’s also not about associating success with guilt, but when I see Armstrong’s connection with Michele Ferrari, for instance, then I start to question myself why would he do so and what for. Wouldn’t you?
Faust
Lance did bust his ass training, no question. The relevant points are: So did everyone else riding in the Tour de France during the Lance years, and yet Lance beat them all seven times. Possible? Certainly. And yet, Riis (former winner) later confesses, Uhrich is tested, banned and retires, Landis is tested and banned and his win is foreitted, and last year an entire team, including the race leader, quits in the middle of the race. And we can assume Lance and Postal/Discovery team had nothing to do with all this? Possible, not likely. We always assume “our guys” are different and would NEVER do the stuff those bad boys do. And when Floyd Landis or Marion Jones do, we are, to use a cliche, “Shocked and appalled”.
Lance was the best cyclist ever. No questions there. You have to decide for yourself as to the legitimacy of cycling (and track & field) as a sport in a drugged era.
this advert has been posted on the site previously (general discussion i think).
Its a great advert & its message is loud and clear. He works hard.
There was an article about athletics on bbc, within which carl lewis stated that dwain chambers had to use drugs because he had less talent. Dwain himself had previously made statements about the prevelancy of drugs in athletics… the old ‘everyone does it’…
I think that disgraced athletes try to drag their entire sport through the mud to settle their conscience is a large part of the perception of drugs problem.
Darren cambell had also said about how ppl who take drugs are in sprt for the wrong reasons, that for him it was about competing against, & pushing, yourself. I have to agree with that.
Maybe if someone is in sport for the wrong reasons then they are easily turned to drugs, after all there can only be one ‘world camp’ at any one time, so to speak…. so if every1 else isnt happy with doing their best, then they may be driven to drugs to make up for their (self percieved) deficiencies.
We need to get back to the good old mantra of ‘its the taking part that counts’ or rather, i prefer, ‘its the effort that counts’.
!!! YEAH !!! That’s what i’m talking about Ross. Man You never fail to keep the good shit coming. That video was something direct right to those faggots that i was talking about. It’s your boy Chuck and man what i have to say to all this is Ross your 100% correct why is it that everytime an athlete is great they have have to be enhanced. We act like hard work don’t exsist anymore. Just because these lazy ass critics ain’t doing nothing with there lives don’t mean everbody’s following there lead. People look at a sane homeless man’s strategy each and everyday he’s picking trash cans for food sleeping in boxes in alley ways. To get through that each and everyday do you’s think he’s using steroids??? HELLO!!!! people there’s still a thing called mental strength that some of us brave warriors with a pair of balls still test on a regular basis. For all the doubters out there that doubt the hard work of these athletes. Get a timer right now set it to 10mins put on a weighted vest and see if you could reach 100 burpee’s before the time is up if you really wanna reach 100 your MIND HENCE MENTAL STRENGTH will take over and make you acheieve it not steroids!!! When you start feeling that exscruciating pain and that voice comes on in your head saying give up, then right at that moment i want you’s to realize that’s where people like Dara & Lance say !!!FUCK NO!!! and they go pass where pussy’s wouldn’t dare to go. And that’s why there where there at today and you haters are at where you’s are at. The only streroid i ever known and can say i take on a daily basis is a substance called !!! HEART & BALLS !!! and can be purchased in your local warriors market in the don’t be a pussy aisle. Oh the price? ABSOLUETLY FREE WITH YOUR CRAVE THE PAIN DISCOUNT CARD!!!
There’s nothing wrong with using performance enhancing drugs if they’re not specifically banned in your sport.
Creatine is a performance enhancing drug. Most organizations do not test for it. Anabolic steroids are performance enhancing, some organizations test for them, some don’t. EPO is performance enhancing, most organizations don’t test for it, the Olympics do.
The IOC does not set up the moral standards of right and wrong. They’re not philosopher-kings. What’s wrong is engaging in deceit, NOT the use of drugs in themselves.
So if you have your doubts about Lance, then do you doubt Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Joe Namath, Jack Lambert, Ali, Marciano ??? … what you have to realize is there is so many people in these sports that someone will be better than everyone else, someone will be the best…then when they retire, someone else will be better than everyone else.
I just wanted to add to chezza’s line of reasoning that taking performance enhancing drugs does not guarantee that an athlete will become a champion.
It can aid physical and/or mental development, but will never be a substitute for hard work.
You cannot simply dismiss the hard work and desire ALL exceptional athletes have put in - “cheaters” included.
Therefore, I feel that ALL exceptional athletes need to be given the benefit of the doubt.
The “cheaters” may or may not get caught. Whatever the outcome, the “cheater” needs to live with the knowledge that he/she never had the heart of a true champion.
In the meantime, we as fans must cherish all great achievements and continue to use these as an inspiration for ourselves. If our favorite athlete(s) would disappoint us by using performance enhancing drugs, we should move on and get our inspiration elsewhere.
Life is full of potential disappointments but that should never stop us from being inspired by others. So forget about the hating and the bad apples and continue to enjoy sports and its heroes (like Dara Torres).
Frank
cheaters are just cheating themselves. i remember in high school (many many years ago) i had a friend who was just raw talent. he never went out for sports, but when we went to the park a played pick up games of hoops, he was a driving force. when we played football in the park we would go out for a pass and he would wave for us to go out further. we were already further out than anyone could reach with a throw, and he would throw the ball another 10-20 yards over our heads. what was he on? natural talent, we didn’t even know about that stuff back then. man, if the coaches back then knew about him, they would have never left him alone. and if he came on the scene nowadays, the HATERS would all be screaming cheat, HA! He was the REAL DEAL.
“Lance was the best cyclist ever. No questions there.”
Lance was the best Tour de France rider ever. Eddy M. was, by a long margin, the best *cyclist* ever.
creatine is not a performance enhancing drug, bryan. its made naturally in the body (as well as supplemented) from 3 separate amino acids - arginine, glycine, and methionine - found primarily in animal protein.
People,
Everyone who comes around here, admires athletic performance, I suppose.
It’s not about that or envy or so. It’s not about accusing the best of the best for no reason. The whole thing is about drug use where no drug use is allowed due to the rules to give chance to any competitor (I agree to bryans statement above). IF one takes them, because he thinks they enhance his performance, he is to be detected and banned. It’s not about being the first or second or tenth in the race. It’s about cheating on the other competitors. That is wrong and must be sentenced. And if someone connects with italian sports physicians who are well known in the doping business or so, then at least further inquiry and questions must be allowed and are imperative. It’s got nothing to with being haters, that is way off.
Faust
I heard (discovery channel) that Lances body flushes away lactic acid faster than any other athlete in his sport and has a greater o2 uptake. He has gifts that others dont, so sorry. I dont even like cycling but I respectt that man for his accomplishments and his talents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO8_N4YkEns
Better one, same thing almost.
Feed the monster 20 pounds!