I can assure you that EVERYONE in elite track and field is not on drugs. I don’t know exact percentages but there are more than a handful of athletes who compete at the highest level without ever doping. I’m fully aware that drugs are a big part of our sport but it bugs me when people start thinking that there aren’t people out there who can do it clean…..because I know for a fact that there are.
We really have to look hard at the messengers of the “everyone is doing it” message. In the two most prominent messengers I can think of, they have both been caught red handed. This is something we can’t overlook as they attempt to justify their reasoning for using. In both cases they both have a history of cheating and lying as do the athlete’s they’ve worked with. Are we then to believe or sympathize with the message of these people who say that they HAD to do it because everyone else was doing it.
In my opinion, the most damning evidence against the “everyone is doing it” message is that the most notable supporters of this message were athletes or people dealing with athlete’s who were:
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[*]Better than everyone else
[*]Caught doping
Well if EVERYONE is doing it, why is it that the biggest supporters of this viewpoint were the ones caught. By flipping this viewpoint it is more logical in my opinion to say that:
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[*]Doping makes you SIGNIFICANTLY better than if you were not doped. (Inarguable)
[*]Doping also makes you INFINITELY more likely to be caught doping than if you were not doped. Note that I realize that many who dope are never caught. (Inarguable)
[*]Many of the very, very best people are doped because of my first point. (Highly Likely)
[*]When caught it is easier to say that “everyone is doing it” rather than admit that you were simply a cheat, that the athlete was not as talented, the coach was not that great, etc.
ELITETRACK Founder