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drugs in sport
At age 91 it's a long time since I've competed against drug enhanced competitors but I recall a conversation about 40-50 years ago with a friend who was then close to the top of the Olympic movement. We were discussing pay for performance and he prophesied that eventually evey Olympic sport would be professional, unthinkable at the time but it has more or less come to pass. The same argument is being used for drugs: since so many people use them why not level the playing field by allowing everyone to use them. There's a big difference: drugs can kill you, paying you money can't. There are many people in sport who want to win so badly that they'll do anything. We don't need hypothetical situations. The main world women's running records up to 800m are all held by known drug cheats. The powers that be just haven't had the courage to strike them off. They are all at least 35 years old, since when inspections have tightened up. Undrugged competitors simply can't get there, although they are closing in. The best known of them was dead at age 38.
There is an issue we're talking about more these days, particularly in contact sport. It is duty of care. It is simply not true that we can do anything we like with our own bodies. Society has a duty of care to protect us from our own stupidity.
