Since my first love in sport is track and field, I’ve always been a little miffed at the double standard that the media and general public have against the sport with regards to drug use when compared to the more ‘prime time’ sports like football, baseball, and hockey. If you listed to the main stream media, you’d think every single athlete in track is dirty and little would ever be mentioned about the fact that in all likelihood, drug use is probably far more rampant and pervasive in those sports than it is in elite track and field. Things seem to be starting to change though with more and more information coming out about Barry Bonds’ use and now recent evidence that baseball’s golden child, Alex Rodriguez were / are steroid users. The mere fact that A-Rod and Bonds tested positive in 2003 and it’s only coming to light NOW after supra-normal government examination should be some kind of indication of just how effective baseball’s testing programs are. Hopefully, now we can stop looking down on track and realize that it’s one of the few sports that has made a long standing attempt to legitimately clean up the sport (admittedly with a few blunders along the way). And hopefully now we can stop blissfully ignoring, overlooking, or giving ‘free passes’ to those athletes in other sports who are just as dirty.
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Mike Young
Latest posts by Mike Young (see all)
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