When I was at the University of Florida, I had a few friends on the swim team. I went to a few of the meets and I watched the swimming events during the 2004 Olympics. One of the swimmers I remember watching compete was Ian Thorpe from Australia. Thorpe is back in the news, but it isn’t for being part of the Swimming World Championships. Thorpe recently tested positive for a couple of banned substances and has recently retired from the sport. He made a few statements in a press conference addressing the issue in the Yahoo! News article:
“There’s not going to be an ideal outcome to this, but it will finish and I will win.”
Thorpe also made a bold statement in saying that he has “never cheated.” But– what happens if Thorpe does test positive– what will his word mean then to his fans, sponsors, and his country? It’s definitely a PR dilemma for Thorpe. It also mentioned in the Yahoo! News article that Thorpe had been tested many times during his athletic career and that this crisis will really impact his reputation. It seems that every time that you open a newspaper or look online– someone is going to jail, getting busted for performance enhancing drugs, and then there are just a few stories about athletes achieving.
Thorpe has retired from swimming, but the article is right– his reputation is going to be seriously impacted by this. Everyone will ask– were all of his Olympic medals and titles based on “real” performance or “enhanced” performance? I would suggest that Thorpe move on and explore new options outside athletics.
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