Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

Many of the most recent drug busts and accusations have been to those who most vehemently denied, AND EVEN SPOKE OUT AGAINST, the use of PEDs in sport: Marion Jones? Justin Gatlin?  Mo Greene?Were these athletes just trying to clear a guilty conscience? Were they forced in to the PR work by their managers or national governing bodies? Perhaps they were trying to keep their future / potential rival
 
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What else can they say? They are trying to live up to a utopian ideal, societal expectations and role modelling. Even more interesting is contrast in treatment of “honest” athletes such as Andy Pettite Vs. Clemens, Jones, Bonds,..etc. For Pettite for all intensive purposes this incident is over and he will continue playing professional baseball…whereas for all the latter characters the consequences of denial have been devastating.

We all have cheated or lied somewhere in our lives. However, it is against our human nature to admit those failures in public. This question more than about just doping?

Novice - 06 June 2008 04:02 AM

What else can they say?

They could just say nothing or at the very least not take positions that make them anti-doping ambassadors.

We all have cheated or lied somewhere in our lives. However, it is against our human nature to admit those failures in public. This question more than about just doping?

This is the equivalent of the hypocritical politicians who do the very same thing they denounce.

It is a attribution error, more an act of self deception rather than attempt at deception of other people.

Not sure I follow. These guys, particularly Gatlin and Jones put themselves on a pedestal by being the most vocal ambassadors against doping. The same could be said for Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson (not implying that they used but they were similarly very vocal).