Athletes: Our
Role Models, Right?
Larry Birnbaum
Associate Professor
Board Certified Exercise
Physiologist
The College of St. Scholastica
Duluth, MN 55811
WHEN I WAS in grade school
back in the 60s (1960s, not 1860s as some of my students might assert),
I looked up to the athletes in high school. They were not only good
at sports, they also performed well in academics. They had to.
You see, back then, an athlete had to maintain a certain GPA to remain
eligible to play sports. If an athlete got anything less than a “C”
in any class, he/she was ineligible until the next grading period.
Athletes were also ineligible if they were caught smoking (cigarettes;
marijuana was unheard of, for the most part) or drinking, but such occasions
were rare.
Athletes also had a good
work ethic. They worked hard in practice, in games, and at jobs.
A number of high school athletes from my home town lived on farms.
They had to balance sports and academics with daily chores. These
athletes were well respected throughout the community. They were
also perceived to be ideal role models for younger kids, like me.
They were developing not only knowledge and skills necessary for responsible
citizenry, but also a strong set of morals that would guide them throughout
their lives. One of the morals that athletes learned was that cheating
is wrong! It destroys character rather than building it. While
cheating was heard of in some circles, no one respected cheaters.
In those days, a very important goal of athletics was to build character.
While the athletes, coaches and fans wanted to win, winning was not all
that mattered. It was more important to play fair. If one had
to cheat to win, then winning just was not worth it. The athlete
who worked the hardest and was the most talented usually won (everyone
has off days).
Now, it seems all athletics
is about is winning at all costs, particularly at the professional level,
Olympics and Division I Collegiate sports programs. I want to believe
that at least most high school and Division III Collegiate athletes still
play fair, but according to a 1988 study, 7 per cent of high school seniors
reported that they had used steroids (1). That was 15 years ago.
Since then, the ergogenic aid regimen has grown. McArdle, Katch and
Katch (2) list 54 ingredients in nutritional supplements that are purported
to be ergogenic aids, and that list does not include anabolic steroids,
caffeine, ephedra, EPO, amphetamines, cocaine or other narcotics.
Wadler and Hainline (3) provide a rather extensive list of professional,
Olympic and collegiate athletes associated with drug use, including several
who have died. The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports posts short
stories on drug use by athletes in its Daily Sports News (4) (http://www.cces.ca).
Given that drug use by athletes is apparently commonplace and has been
for some time, it is difficult to not suspect most (all?) record holders
of the past 20-30 years of cheating.
I realize this is unfair
for clean athletes, but even if clean athletes win, the public cannot help
but suspect they had help (i.e., drugs) I apologize to those athletes
who have stayed clean and have won titles and medals through hard work
and talent, but it is too easy to suspect athletes who have broken all-time
records over the past couple of decades or more because cheating has become
so accepted. Taking drugs, whether they be anabolic steroids or something
as seemingly harmless as creatine, to gain an advantage is cheating.
Although cheaters may win titles, they are not winners in eyes of others.
I do not respect athletes who cheat, and I do not want my children to emulate
them. I do respect the athletes who stay clean, train hard, and simply
enjoy playing their chosen sport(s). While they may not always win,
they represent what we should all aspire to – hard work, honest living,
and success as measured by how honorably we live our lives.
And what about having fun.
The word ‘sport’ implies fun. I coached youth soccer for a few years.
During that time, I attended a number of coaches’ clinics. A common
theme in every clinic I attended was to be sure the kids had fun playing
soccer. Presenters emphasized that if kids did not have fun playing
the game, they would lose interest. Are athletes who are so driven
to win that they use drugs to gain an advantage having fun? What
about all the athletes who have died using drugs? Obviously, I have
not yet experienced death, but I think I can safely assume that dying is
not fun. My heart is warmed when I hear athletes say they play because
they just love the game. Sure, winning is fun, but losing is relatively
easy to accept for athletes who simply love to play the game. Even
when athletes lose an event, they still gain. They have improved
physically and mentally (and spiritually?) because they have worked hard
to prepare to meet their challengers. Winning is not everything.
Hard work, fair play and having fun are what sports should be about.
And the attributes developed by athletes extend to most, if not all, aspects
of their lives. Thank God for Michael Jordon, a true athlete who
has demonstrated what hard work and fair play can do. He is a role
model I wish all athletes would strive to be.
The ‘win at all costs’ attitude
is far too prevalent in our society. It has led to the acceptance
of cheating by a large segment of our citizenry. And why is winning
so important? Partly because of the status associated with winning,
but money is also a major factor. Indeed, the social fabric of this
county has been and continues to be assaulted, tattered, torn, even unwoven
by powers that only care about money, lots of money, and the faster they
can make it, the better. Unfortunately, it seems that success in
athletics and life in general is now measured by how much money one makes
(winning = money). Even more unfortunate is that it does not seem
to matter how that money is made. The popular attitude seems to be
‘cheating is ok as long as you don’t get caught’. Even a recent past
president of the United States blatantly professed this mind-set.
But cheating is not ok; it never has been and it never will be. Cheating
hurts the individual and the society. It destroys character.
It is not only unethical, but even immoral when one considers the far-reaching
consequences of cheating.
Indeed, many of our social
ills are directly or indirectly a consequence of cheating. The recent
rash of CEOs caught cheating in order to pocket millions for themselves
has seriously damaged the nation’s economy, not to mention the loss of
retirement accounts of thousands of their employees. Cheaters only
hurt society, whether they be athletes, CEOs, politicians, or average citizens.
We all need good role models to help us strive to be the best we can be.
Most of us are not great athletes, but we can be great citizens by living
our daily lives honorably. Hard work, fair play, and honest living
are the ingredients for the success of individuals and society as a whole.
I implore all athletes and all those associated with athletics at all levels
to embrace these qualities. The world will be better place.
References
1. Yesalis CE, Cowart VS.
The Steroids Game. Human Kinetics, 1998.
2. McArdle WD, Katch FI,
Katch VL. Sports and Exercise Nutrition. Lippincott, Williams
and Wilkins, 1999.
3. Wadler GI, Hainline B.
Drugs and the Athlete. F.A. Davis Company, 1989.
4. Centre for Ethics in
Sports (www.cces.ca).
