Dwayne Chambers And Mark Cavendish
Two news stories concerning British athletes dominate the news today.
There is the story of Dwayne Chambers trying to get back into the Olympics after cheating with all sorts of drugs. He did it very purposefully and knew exactly what he was doing. He cheated and if he’d done such a thing in the financial world that I inhabit, he would have gone to jail for a long time.
Think about it. Say you win a Gold medal. What is that worth in sponsorship? Say the knowledge you’ve obtained illegally makes a profit on some shares, then you go to jail. What’s the difference morally?
And then we have Mark Cavendish who has just won a fourth stage in the Tour de France.
British cyclists are now the best in the world. Some think it is because, cycling had such a bad reputation for drugs that it had to do something serious and this meant that the British who claim they use less drugs than others, were able to perform to their optimum level. Whatever the reason, we did clean up in the last World Championships.
Will we clean up in the Olympics?
I hope so! But I have this suspicion that we’ll see large numbers of Chinese athletes coming from nowhere to win all the golds.
But Mark Cavendish’s team in the Tour de France, uses external testing, so they are probably cleaner than others. But I’m still cynical about cyclists as there had already been a few found to be using drugs in this tour.
On the other hand his success could be down to the fact Mark is a Manxman and has a spare leg.
Think that is bad, don’t even get me started about American Baseball…
The Guru
Friday, July 18, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I did read something about drugs.
Does it help?
In that cricket which is a game that uses similar skills has had very few drug abuses. Usually recreation ones.
alison73
Friday, July 18, 2008 at 10:48 pm
See Barry Bonds:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_problems_of_Barry_Bonds
The Guru
Friday, July 18, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Thanks. That puts a name to my memory.
alison73
Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 7:42 am
British *track* cyclists are the best in the world, but we rarely make an impression on road racing.
Steve B.
Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I tend to watch most sports and I was enthralled at all of the success in Manchester.
I know women like me are supposed to watch soaps, but I’m never in enough to see all the episodes. So I tend to watch one-off programmes or sport. I also find that a lot of sports like horse-racing are ideal for having on whilst I’m working.
I also like to see Great Britain or England winning. Cycling does a lot of that!
alison73
Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 6:14 pm
But who is wearing yellow ? Not a brit in the frame…..
tim
Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 11:06 pm
As Steve B says, we’re not that good on the road.
alison73
Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 6:47 am