Sports is covered in many different ways in the media. Some articles focus on which team won a what game, and others look at what records were broken at a certain meet. However, there seems to be a growing trend in the media that focuses on one issue in athletics: doping.
I have posted many, many times on this issue– doping and taking steroids or other performance enhancing problems is a serious concern for many sports. In track and field especially– there have been so many athletes that were at the top of the sport and then came crashing down because they tested positive. Baseball has had its PR and image crisis with their steroid issues.
But now, it seems that someone is speaking out and saying that doping is an issue in swimming. Olympian swimmer Gary Hall Jr. said that it seems that a lot of the swimming records are falling, and that it is not just from new technology advances in swim wear for athletes. Hall Jr. had an interesting point by saying:
I thought that this was an interesting insight, and Hall Jr. does have credibility because he probably has a pretty good idea of what goes on in his sport– and I agree. I think that athletes will go to a lot of trouble to make sure that they do not test positive. Plus, there is an issue of positive tests that are not reported. Look at what happened before the 2000 Olympics with shot putter C.J. Hunter– it was reported that he had many positive tests before 2000, but he was never brought up on those until right before the Olympics. The issue of doping is not only an issue to address with athletes, but these athletic organizations.
For athletes that compete clean, it is hard to realize that you may be at a huge disadvantage because your competitors may be cheating and taking drugs. And it is hard for the fans– they want these stellar performances, but it has gotten to the point where you go– wow, you broke a record or won this game or lifted this huge amount of weight– but was it real? All sports seems to have their own PR crisis when it comes to the issue of doping, and it will take some time and clean athletes to help athletics overcome this issue.
These are just a few of my thoughts. Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen 🙂
0 Comments