I 100% reject the notion that something can be OK because everyone else is doing it. That said, I think there is a slippery slope between usage of say aspirin, then hydrocodone, on to harder drugs and doping. Or between creatine and anabolic steroids. What exactly is the metric?The decision to make a particular substance illegal should be viewed as a complex one, and from what I've seen of the behavior of the governing bodies of most sports, they generally seem to be self-involved and often sadly undereducated. The backstage look at the judging in PUMPING IRON 2: THE WOMEN comes to mind.Ideally all competitors should have a level playing field, but it's not like the random happenstance of injury, the quality of coaching available, early developmental opportunities and sponsorships you manage to land don't create a huge imbalance in what certain athletes do and do not have.So I guess my feeling is that if you knowingly break the rules, no matter your reasoning, I think that sucks and I can't respect the athletic accomplishment thereof.However, most sports have allowed, through inefficacy or ambivalence, an atmosphere that sends the message that to win you must cheat. It's a problem, and it's a bummer.One day we'll all probably just cheer on giant mech warriors on an apocalyptic battle field anyway, so doping won't matter anymore :-)
What brought me to birthday challenge, to general surgery initially, an what keeps me pushing my boys to work hard and work completely is a sense of honesty. I still go back and read the accounts of Steve, Katra, that dude in Madison who can do a thousand pull-ups, and wonder that my failed challenge still eats up memory next to those brutal and unique throwing down of ones training on the line.This subject speaks to a disconnect in peoples heads that is costing us our future. It's no longer viewed as cheating to cheat, just like it's not viewed as cheating to scam Medicaid the way I see it scammed every day I work in the ER. The act of cheating these days never gets the press that getting caught generates, speaking to the focus of the average viewer. Why don't I like sports anymore? Too much of this BS. I'd rather get onto the Gym Jones website and watch people destroy themselves, mustering up the chutzba to get after my next training session with a little more commitment.It's late, I ramble, but good grief they should shut that whole sport down if doping is that ubiquitous.
Nice rants, guys. Yeah, sports is a tough one. Watch Bigger, Stronger, Faster, a doc about PED history in sport. It's been ugly out there for a long time. Also, if you click on doping you'll see an SI article from the 60s that sounds almost no different than an article written today. But I dunno, I just read about the Mavs comeback last night and thought it was great. I'll turn on Eurosport in a bit and catch the Giro TT today. Maybe my lineage is too deep but I still like the games, no matter all the problems.
(the Force Factor ad that came up this morning below yer last post, Steve, was a nice touch of irony)
Someone commented about that on Facebook, too. Funny. But, you know, those ads are personally generated by the habits of your computer. Someone out there must fancy you a doper!
I'll have to have a talk with our Anesthesia Dept as both computers I've used today have had that Marvel Comics-looking freak in the Force Factor ad right below the blog, and both computers have been in the hospital....
B,S,F is on Netflix and have been meaning to catch it for awhile. It definitely seems like sports history is held up as a pristine example of heroes and grit. So it creates a false impression that we're comparing two different times when the reality is that achievement in both eras is probably much more influenced by cheating than we'd like to know.I also love sports, football being my favorite and I know there's tons of PED going on there. It doesn't bother me at all while watching the games so I suppose I'm comfortable with a certain willful ignorance.It's also tough because for the most part we get mad at the cheater, but not the suspected cheater. So really it kinda comes down to wanting athletes to be good enough at hiding what they're doing to keep us from having to acknowledge that maybe we don't care so much about what they do behind the scenes as we'd like to think.And if those ads are generated by the computer, then somebody thinks I love The Situation because I keep getting Nox Edge ads featuring that overtanned idiot. That makes me more uncomfortable and sad then any doping conversation :-P
Watched B,S,F. Probably the best doc I've seen since SUPER SIZE ME. It's rare that I'm sent back to the beginning on my feelings about an issue, but the flick did such a good job of rocking my base assumptions about steroids that I did just that.Clearly steroids have lost the PR battle for whatever reason, and have been vilified, often by those same people benefiting from their use.The health worries about their use also seem seriously overblown. Certainly if those same side effects were common in a drug that made a dude's junk bigger it'd be on the market and distributed worldwide in no time.So do I think PED's should be allowed in sports now? No. And it will probably take me some time to crystallize exactly why it just feels wrong to me.I know that as a Type I diabetic I face significant challenges that a non-Type I athlete does not, but have never felt like using PED's to make up the gap. After all, much of what matters to me is what I can achieve, not what a clever drug cocktail can help me achieve. Then again, I'm chasing my personal limits, not fame, glory or riches. I might feel differently if genetics had placed me in reach of that level.And maybe that's it. Perhaps we judge sport by how we measure ourselves.This is an issue with many gray areas, but for me, anabolic steroids. misunderstood though they clearly are, still have no place in legitimate human sporting achievement. And if that means we have to raze the record books, I'm good with that.
My biggest question is if BJ Penn endorses Force Factor because it works or if he needed a trendy sponsor (he is my all-time favorite MMA fighter)?What is the word on the street on Force Factor (even if it doesn't contain creatine)?
I think Matt Withers said it best.......And maybe that's it. Perhaps we judge sport by how we measure ourselves."This is an issue with many gray areas, but for me, anabolic steroids. misunderstood though they clearly are, still have no place in legitimate human sporting achievement. And if that means we have to raze the record books, I'm good with that."
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I 100% reject the notion that something can be OK because everyone else is doing it. That said, I think there is a slippery slope between usage of say aspirin, then hydrocodone, on to harder drugs and doping. Or between creatine and anabolic steroids. What exactly is the metric?
The decision to make a particular substance illegal should be viewed as a complex one, and from what I've seen of the behavior of the governing bodies of most sports, they generally seem to be self-involved and often sadly undereducated. The backstage look at the judging in PUMPING IRON 2: THE WOMEN comes to mind.
Ideally all competitors should have a level playing field, but it's not like the random happenstance of injury, the quality of coaching available, early developmental opportunities and sponsorships you manage to land don't create a huge imbalance in what certain athletes do and do not have.
So I guess my feeling is that if you knowingly break the rules, no matter your reasoning, I think that sucks and I can't respect the athletic accomplishment thereof.
However, most sports have allowed, through inefficacy or ambivalence, an atmosphere that sends the message that to win you must cheat. It's a problem, and it's a bummer.
One day we'll all probably just cheer on giant mech warriors on an apocalyptic battle field anyway, so doping won't matter anymore :-)
What brought me to birthday challenge, to general surgery initially, an what keeps me pushing my boys to work hard and work completely is a sense of honesty. I still go back and read the accounts of Steve, Katra, that dude in Madison who can do a thousand pull-ups, and wonder that my failed challenge still eats up memory next to those brutal and unique throwing down of ones training on the line.
This subject speaks to a disconnect in peoples heads that is costing us our future. It's no longer viewed as cheating to cheat, just like it's not viewed as cheating to scam Medicaid the way I see it scammed every day I work in the ER. The act of cheating these days never gets the press that getting caught generates, speaking to the focus of the average viewer.
Why don't I like sports anymore? Too much of this BS. I'd rather get onto the Gym Jones website and watch people destroy themselves, mustering up the chutzba to get after my next training session with a little more commitment.
It's late, I ramble, but good grief they should shut that whole sport down if doping is that ubiquitous.
Nice rants, guys. Yeah, sports is a tough one. Watch Bigger, Stronger, Faster, a doc about PED history in sport. It's been ugly out there for a long time. Also, if you click on doping you'll see an SI article from the 60s that sounds almost no different than an article written today.
But I dunno, I just read about the Mavs comeback last night and thought it was great. I'll turn on Eurosport in a bit and catch the Giro TT today. Maybe my lineage is too deep but I still like the games, no matter all the problems.
(the Force Factor ad that came up this morning below yer last post, Steve, was a nice touch of irony)
Someone commented about that on Facebook, too. Funny. But, you know, those ads are personally generated by the habits of your computer. Someone out there must fancy you a doper!
I'll have to have a talk with our Anesthesia Dept as both computers I've used today have had that Marvel Comics-looking freak in the Force Factor ad right below the blog, and both computers have been in the hospital....
B,S,F is on Netflix and have been meaning to catch it for awhile. It definitely seems like sports history is held up as a pristine example of heroes and grit. So it creates a false impression that we're comparing two different times when the reality is that achievement in both eras is probably much more influenced by cheating than we'd like to know.
I also love sports, football being my favorite and I know there's tons of PED going on there. It doesn't bother me at all while watching the games so I suppose I'm comfortable with a certain willful ignorance.
It's also tough because for the most part we get mad at the cheater, but not the suspected cheater. So really it kinda comes down to wanting athletes to be good enough at hiding what they're doing to keep us from having to acknowledge that maybe we don't care so much about what they do behind the scenes as we'd like to think.
And if those ads are generated by the computer, then somebody thinks I love The Situation because I keep getting Nox Edge ads featuring that overtanned idiot. That makes me more uncomfortable and sad then any doping conversation :-P
Watched B,S,F. Probably the best doc I've seen since SUPER SIZE ME. It's rare that I'm sent back to the beginning on my feelings about an issue, but the flick did such a good job of rocking my base assumptions about steroids that I did just that.
Clearly steroids have lost the PR battle for whatever reason, and have been vilified, often by those same people benefiting from their use.
The health worries about their use also seem seriously overblown. Certainly if those same side effects were common in a drug that made a dude's junk bigger it'd be on the market and distributed worldwide in no time.
So do I think PED's should be allowed in sports now? No. And it will probably take me some time to crystallize exactly why it just feels wrong to me.
I know that as a Type I diabetic I face significant challenges that a non-Type I athlete does not, but have never felt like using PED's to make up the gap. After all, much of what matters to me is what I can achieve, not what a clever drug cocktail can help me achieve. Then again, I'm chasing my personal limits, not fame, glory or riches. I might feel differently if genetics had placed me in reach of that level.
And maybe that's it. Perhaps we judge sport by how we measure ourselves.
This is an issue with many gray areas, but for me, anabolic steroids. misunderstood though they clearly are, still have no place in legitimate human sporting achievement. And if that means we have to raze the record books, I'm good with that.
My biggest question is if BJ Penn endorses Force Factor because it works or if he needed a trendy sponsor (he is my all-time favorite MMA fighter)?
What is the word on the street on Force Factor (even if it doesn't contain creatine)?
I think Matt Withers said it best.......
And maybe that's it. Perhaps we judge sport by how we measure ourselves.
"This is an issue with many gray areas, but for me, anabolic steroids. misunderstood though they clearly are, still have no place in legitimate human sporting achievement. And if that means we have to raze the record books, I'm good with that."
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