I feel like I have posted on this issue numerous times, and it keeps on coming back in the news. It seems that as the time for the Olympics to begin inches closer, there is more discussion on which athletes are “clean” and which ones are not. Today, it seems that no matter what sport you are in — whether it is track and field or swimming or baseball to name a few– there is a shadow on all athletes because they are “guilty by association.” Some of the current athletes that are being questioned include the 41-year-old swimmer Dara Torres and Sprinter Tyson Gay to name a few.
I have to say, that I have always had my doubts over some athletes– if you have someone that is in their late 30s beating 18 year olds in their event– of course it is going to raise some eyebrows. Or is someone comes out of nowhere and all of a sudden starts performing extremely well. Of course, it is because “they work hard.” Hmmmmmm.
Personally, I know as a track and field athlete who was clean all through my career– it was very frustrating to see athletes that were cutting corners and taking short cuts and cheating by taking steroids because it was not an even playing field. Not only was it hard in terms of what it was doing for the competition, but also what image and reputation it was bringing on all the athletes– because everyone assumed that everyone was doing the exact same thing, and that is not the case. There are a few clean athletes out there! 🙂
There is a lot of academic literature on corporate associations (how people perceive a corporation and what attributes they associate with them based on their brand and image– an area of research that I am interested in ). Sports fans and other audiences expect high athletic achievements, but they also look down on those that are labeled as “cheats.” The dilemma that is facing athletes today is that some are misrepresenting themselves by saying that they are clean, when they are not.
So basically, people are just associating all athletes today as being guilty or doing some sort of enhancement to help them perform in their sport. But this is not the case– there are athletes that are clean– they may be few in number, but they are the ones that are suffering from these negative associations. In many ways, it would be a nice change to see an athlete that representing who they are honestly to their fans, sports, and the media. Wouldn’t that be a nice change? 🙂
So, I believe that issue will continue to build, people will still have doubts over athletes, and that it will take time and effort by the various sport organizations to change the perceptions people have about athletes today. The Sports PR and Reputation managers for these organizations have a lot of work that they have to do to overcome this issue. We will have to wait and see what happens.
Hope you all are having a great day! 🙂
Best Wishes,
Karen 🙂
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