Editorial
Cheaters Render Sports Meaningless
Tommy Boone, PhD, MPH,
FASEP, EPC
Professor and Chair
Director, Exercise
Physiology Laboratories
The College of St. Scholastica
Duluth, MN 55811
Cheating in sports undermines the reason we're watching in
the first place.... Most of us came to sports when we were younger and more
innocent. Adult cheating in sport defiles those memories.
– Michael Bamberger, SI.com Senior Writer
The
epidemic of cheating in sports is a big deal, regardless of what others may
say. It is the ultimate failure of
sports and everyone associated with it.
Athletes, coaches, and all others associated with sports should have said
by now, "Enough is enough."
But, they haven't and they aren't likely to do so anytime soon. Frankly, though, I'm tired of it. I don't know how much more I can take,
whether it is cyborg athletes, bionic Olympics, genetic engineering, or the
run-of-the-mill performance-enhancing drugs.
"Winning at
all costs" is the wrong message. It
should be about athleticism, character, and determination. But, it isn’t and, moreover, it isn't
fanciful thinking to believe that it is important that athletes embrace ethical
principles. It should be important, but
it isn’t. After all, sports shouldn’t be
just about winning, however important. It
should also be about the courage to try as well as the dignity of accepting
defeat.
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Remember that it is just a game. Yes, all sports are
games! Games, I tell you. Games.
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Obviously, cheating
in sports is nothing new. Many athletes
are willing to take an unfair advantage over other athletes if it means “winning.” That is the incredible conclusion I've come
to and, frankly, it is a sad one for sports.
Whether it is super-shoes for running faster, super-poles for vaulting
higher, or super-drugs for boosting muscular power, athletes are willing to
cheat.
They are willing
to betray trust and honor that the ethical athletes have made to sports and to
each other. The commitment made between athletes and their coaches and among
athletes themselves is a commitment to honor each other's mental and physical
abilities. This is a commitment about
respect for each other, given that it is clear what the rules are for sports.
So what is the
reason for cheating? Well, although
there isn't just one answer for cheating, it is obvious that everyone wants to
be a winner! There is no other
explanation. This is why a baseball
player would consider having surgery to move tendons from one place to another
place to pitch faster. This is why another
athlete sleeps or lives in hypoxic chambers to boost red blood cells to enhance
the cardiovascular system. For certain,
it isn't all about running slower.
The end result is
that cheating always harms athletes and their sports. It is a selfish desire on the part of the
athletes to have what they want without working for it, given whatever their
abilities may be. Cheating keeps
athletes from taking responsibility for their actions. They cheat to win, and they cheat to survive
in their sport. In short, they cheat to
keep in the game itself and, yes, it is also all about cheating to be accepted
by others.
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Coaches have an excellent opportunity
to direct kids in the way of high morals and ethical behavior. I think they
have a responsibility to, and what we find is that is what the best coaches
do and it pays off.
-- James Millhouse, PhD,
psychologist
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Somebody has to
say, "Enough is enough."
Honestly, the line must be drawn in the sand today not tomorrow. Cheating is about winning, and it should be
about disrespecting the sport and what it means to participate as an
athlete. But, let me be serious: No one is listening, and no one cares. The fans don't even care. Someone should care though. Sports shouldn't be just about money and fame. It shouldn't be about athletes sticking
themselves with needles. It shouldn't be
about athletes willing to do anything to win, even if it means altering the
lower limbs to wear elastic blades and/or bionic feet.
There is a danger
in believing it is okay to do "whatever" if it means winning. This thinking bears repeating: Is anyone
listening? There is an unbelievable
danger in thinking it is okay to do whatever to win. There, I said it again. Yet, everyday, a person can read where
another athlete becomes susceptible to doing anything to win. It is scary, and it is down right wrong when
athletes will do anything to win. In
fact, as SI senior writer Michael Bamberger claims, "...cheating undermines
the reason fans are watching in the first place. If the competition isn't
legit -- if the outcome is influenced by factors we can't see -- we're just
wasting our time and emotion. Why care if the games are decided by something we
can't see?"
Winning is everything
because that is exactly what society has encouraged athletes to think is
important. Participants in amateur sports believe it and, worse yet, many
children believe it. Just look at the
drugs and supplement used now by high school and college-aged athletes. It is crazy.
Perhaps, it was best said by George Dvorsky, a Toronto-based futurist,
"Will able-bodied athletes mutilate themselves to attach a more efficient
mechanical limb?" Sadly, I believe
the answer is "yes" and, frankly, they should be held accountable for
their actions. Regardless of whether
athletes are put on a pedestal or not, they are to blame when they succumb to
the pressures to cheat. That's the
bottom line, and anyone who thinks otherwise is not a hypocrite but a caring
person.
Cheating comes
from deep inside the athlete's state of mind.
Is the world ready for this stupidity to continue to get worse? Is the world truly interested in nothing but
bigger and faster athletes, regardless of how they get to that point? If so, then, the problem doesn't exist just
with athletes. It also exists with those
who live to watch sports and athletic events.
It seems to me that the fans want to see more, and this is probably as a
big a problem as the athletes who do whatever to please them.
Americans love to win, and while we
tell ourselves that we'll do it fair and square (and most people do), there is
more than enough evidence to suggest that we and our sports heroes are not
above "loading the dice" to get an advantage.
– Tom
Regan, NPR, Blog of the Nation
Ultimately, the
problem of performance-enhancing supplements can only be controlled when the
fans stand up and say, "Enough is enough.
If you are going to use drugs and supplements to win, we don't want to
waste our time with you." The
problem of course is that the fans aren't outraged at all, which is most
unfortunately a precursor to future problems that will only end up with dead
athletes in locker rooms. This is also
why someone has to draw the line when it comes to cheating, game fixing, blood
doping, creatine monohydrate, and human growth hormone.
The bottom line
is that sports as we knew it yesterday and years ago will be gone forever. Forget about placing your children in a youth
sports program. That is, unless you are
willing to put him or her on a list of sports supplements. Just think about it. Creatine monohydrate is promoted as the most
effective ergogenic nutritional supplement available for athletes. It is believed to increase the athlete's
capacity for high-intensity exercise. In
other words, supplementing with creatine is okay! Is it okay?
If it isn’t illegal, is it ethical?
Come on parents, get serious.
These are your children I’m talking about.
Unfortunately,
though, many parents will go to the store to buy their children baseballs,
bats, and gloves, and, you have it. They
will also buy without thinking about it, creatine for their children to increase
high-intensity exercise capacity. Here are the simple facts. Is anyone listening? If creatine increases high-intensity exercise
capacity which otherwise would not exist without its use, then, its use is
unfair and unethical. It really isn't
complicated. Perhaps, I should
illustrate my point somewhat differently.
If creatine monohydrate increases the availability of phosphocreatine in
the muscle of athletes, thus allowing for an accelerated rate of resynthesis of
adenosine triphosphate (ATP) for muscle contraction, then the enhanced amount
of ATP is available to lead to a greater performance is unfair to other
athletes and, therefore, it is cheating!
Forget about the
young athlete's need to understand character development, discipline, or even
teamwork. Here son, here is a supplement
to increase your muscle stores of creatine that correlates with performances
changes. "But, Dad isn't this
cheating?" "You want to win
don't you son. My sons are
winners." Son, the father says,
"Nearly 70% of the research has reported a significant improvement in
exercise capacity." Sounds like
cheating to me the Son said, and the son is right. Even very young children get the
picture.
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So, why do we do it? Is it because
of our search for truth, or a desire for goodness in our world? No. The
answer is one word: money....Indeed, money is the cause of cheating in
professional sports. To enhance one’s physical ability is to enhance one’s
paycheck.
-- Joe Skurzewski
The Daily Cardinal
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Cheating is cheating. When children and adolescents
take a creatine supplement to optimize their training, they are cheating. Under no circumstances is it the same
thinking as ingesting a high-carbohydrate diet or drinking a sports drink. Such thinking is little more than a simple
and inaccurate justification to try an promote performance enhancing
substances. After all, they are not
called "performance-non-enhancing" substances, are they?
Just imagine the
number of high school football players taking sports supplements. Guess what? They think it is okay to do so,
and I can tell you that many students think it is okay to cheat on exams,
too. Everyone is cheating. It seems to be the thing to do and,
therefore, no one seems to get bent out of shape when CEOs steal their
employees' money or when politicians sell out for a bigger and more powerful
position or simply sell out for money.
It seems like it is all about politics, power, and greed!
What it is not
about is simply this: Integrity. Why should it be since no one seems to care
about integrity. They care about
winning! Yes, it is all about winning
and doing so at whatever the cost may be, mentally and/or physically. Frankly, this is a scary conclusion at this
point, especially when experts promote creatine as a nutritional supplement and
not as a performance-enhancing supplement to improve anaerobic capacity. It should be obvious to the reader why the
creatine industry is paying exercise physiologists high consulting fees to sell
their product. Frankly, in my opinion,
they are pushers of drugs and/or products for the industry and nothing more.
Cheating is wrong. Yet, it appears that no one really cares, not
even exercise physiologists. Parents
don't seem to care either. Rather, they
are interested in their children being winners, so "whatever" works –
do it, buy it, inject, and do more next week is the motto of many parents; all
of which creates ethical and medical problems.
That is the reality of sports today.
Hence, the conclusion is this: The lack of integrity in sports renders participation
meaningless. You can have it. You can have the black market exercise
physiologists who promote and support it.
You can have the athletes who cheat.
Collectively, they render sports meaningless. I prefer healthy athletes who are not
cheaters. Others do, too.
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.
-- Larry
Birnbaum, PhD, MA, FASEP, EPC
"Athletes:
Our Role Models, Right?"
PEPonline, 6:7:2003
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Tempted by these rewards, some
people climbing the ladder may do almost anything to get to the top, and some
who already have made it there will do almost anything to stay. Athletes turn
to performance enhancers to remain superstars as they age; corporate executives
falsify the books to retain their regal perks and immense pay.
-- Kirk O. Hanson
University
Professor
and
Executive Director
Markkula Center for
Applied Ethics
Santa Clara University
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To my way of thinking, participating in sports is
something very special in life. I participated
in high school football, track, baseball, and I was a college gymnast. I'm not interested in throwing the first
stone at anyone, just concerned about sports and what it should mean to
athletes. I guess that is partly why I
wrote the book, Is Sports Nutrition for Sale? There are too many exercise physiologists who
promote (if not, push) sports supplements like doing so isn't an ethical
concern. Frankly, it is time to face up
to this problem even if the whole world has gone mad. The idea that it is okay to whatever it takes
to walk away a winner is insane. The key
point here is that there should be no respect for men and women coaches who
turn a blind eye to their athletes using performance enhancers.
Parents need to
think about their role, too. They
shouldn't put unreal pressure on their children to win. How about just letting them participate? Kids don't have to be superstars to play
sports. After all, "to play"
is the key, and "to learn" especially about discipline, character,
and hard work are always more important than "winning at all
costs." Parents should stop
worshiping winners and start loving their children. Once again, Kirk Hanson said it best:
"How can you build friendships with other parents when they are helping
their kids cheat in Little League baseball?" He gets it.
Why don't parents get it as well?
The answer is not
in spending countless thousands of dollars to catch those who cheat, however
important. The answer lies in developing
the values that help young people appreciate the importance of character,
honesty, and integrity. Whatever
happened to the following comments: "John, you gave it your best
effort. Don't worry about it. You did a great job. So now you should start thinking about the next
game." It is the only rational way
to deal with competition. Somebody wins
and somebody must lose. Above all, it is
a game. There is no rational or ethical
thinking to support cheating. It is
wrong, and it must always be recognized as such.
Cheaters are bad
for sports and, furthermore, cheating is bad for business. They make sports meaningless and, frankly,
that can't be tolerated in business. But,
does anyone care? Not really, it seems.
Think about the following remarks by David Graham, "Students fake their
way to the top. Business leaders deceive shareholders and make millions.
Couples cheat on each other for sport. And athletes go for the inside edge by
playing fast and loose with the rules.
We are becoming a culture of cheaters and excuse-makers....We cut
ethical corners and defend ourselves by insisting that everyone's doing
it."
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I’ll make a prediction. In 30 years, give or take a
decade, sport as we know it will not exist. It will render itself pointless
unless doping is dealt with in a thoughtful and deliberate manner. With
methods such as gene doping on the horizon, sport is climbing toward a moment
of truth. More athletes and true sports fans need to get in a few words
before it’s too late.
-- Ryan Quinn
cross-country skier
University of Utah
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Cheating is
common across all aspects of life.
Whether it is passion, greed, or raw ambition, students, business
leaders, couples, and athletes cheat.
Eventually, they will have to pay the price for their actions. What if they believed that cheating was
wrong? What if they believed that life
could go on without cheating? Honestly,
think about this: Cheating is
wrong! It makes everything meaningless,
and that is a huge compromise when it comes to thinking good about yourself and
sports. It also sets a bad example for
others. Whatever happened to giving it
your best shot? Obviously, not everyone
can be a big shot athlete and, equally true, not everyone can be top dog in
physics or biochemistry. Life still goes
on. In the end, cheaters take everything
that is good from sports. They deserve
not to be winners. Have they blurred the
sense of what's right to benefit? Yes,
there isn't any question this is true of all cheaters. They don't get the reality of fair play.
Exercise physiologists should not be impressed with
self-deception that, in short, as R. Todd remarked in The Skeptics Dictionary: “…is
the process or fact of misleading ourselves to accept as true or valid what is
false or invalid.” We deceive ourselves when we think our future is in
athletics per se. Exercise physiologists are healthcare
professionals. They mislead athletes when they support performance enhancing
substances. They cannot help athletes without doing what is best for
them. If they fail to do that, they cannot win the respect of other
healthcare professions. They cannot fail Integrity 101, and they do it
big time when athletes are encouraged to use creatine and other sports
supplements, drugs and other performance enchancers (such as steroids) because
improving athletic performance is more important than improving the character
of young people. We must teach that life is not about being buffed at the
exclusion of ethical thinking and that winning is more important than character.
There are no shortcuts to achieving real success. It comes with hard
work, not stacking supplements and drugs.
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Sports should be kept clean.
Sports are part of many people and families. They create friendships
and bonds between people. They should be kept clean for the good of all
who participate in them, especially the young kids. Athletes who are
growing up see that others are using drugs and are successful. I am
afraid they are going to have the attitude "if you cannot beat them,
join them." If this happens more and more sports will be
nothing. Children will not learn what it means to work hard for
something. Sports will not be clean or fun. Sports will become a
huge joke. Kids need sports and I can only hope that they can be free
of performance enhancers so that they can learn the true value of hard
work.
-- Aaron Pergolski, MA,
EPC
"Sports and Cheating"
PEPonline
9:5:2006
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So, in summary, the final word in this Editorial goes
to Grantland Rice who published in 1917 a book of poems, Songs of the
Stalwart. Why not read and repeat daily the following
part of the poem, "Alumnus Football" to your children, friends, and
colleagues until you no longer feel it is necessary to do so?
For when the one Great Scorer comes
To write against your name,
He marks - not that you won or lost-
But how you played the game.