Anyone watched Bigger, Faster, Stronger? It is a documentary done by a first-time film maker about himself, his two brothers (who take steroids) and their family. It has a lot of interviews with doctors and scientists about the health risks and benefits of these drugs.
It is worth watching if your interest goes beyond this thread.
My problem with allowing doping is...if people are allowed to dope, I have to dope to be competitive.
If people don't follow the rules, I can not be competitive unless I don't follow the rules.
I have never judged Lance because he was convicted by a group who is biased and it is certainly not a court of law.
I am not saying Lance is guilty, I am not saying he is innocent. He may perhaps be doing what others are doing and they pinned the whole thing on him as the fall guy. He may be unwilling to testify to do to others what they are doing to him.
It just seems like driving. The speedlimit is 55, so you drive 60, 2 cars get together you drive 65, you get on a bypass of a major city and EVERYONE is doing 80+. You end up in the lead and you get pulled over but no one else does....but you family and friends are behind you. You say nothing so you are the only who it gets pinned on.
That is all together different the 10 people driving 55 and one person driving 80+.
One of the car clubs had a dedicated event at a gocart club. We divided up into teems and were swapping drivers. It was a competition.
The team who won, the lead driver, the fastest most aggressive driver was passing on yellow and making everyone else go short runs so they would get him in the cart more.
Is that a sport? Is that winning? At that point it was a meaningless event.
If you tolerate doping, doping is required to be competitive.
If you only occasionally enforce doping you have to cheat to be competitive.
If neither is an option because you have character, what is left in the sport to care about?
If people don't follow the rules, I can not be competitive unless I don't follow the rules.
I have never judged Lance because he was convicted by a group who is biased and it is certainly not a court of law.
I am not saying Lance is guilty, I am not saying he is innocent. He may perhaps be doing what others are doing and they pinned the whole thing on him as the fall guy. He may be unwilling to testify to do to others what they are doing to him.
It just seems like driving. The speedlimit is 55, so you drive 60, 2 cars get together you drive 65, you get on a bypass of a major city and EVERYONE is doing 80+. You end up in the lead and you get pulled over but no one else does....but you family and friends are behind you. You say nothing so you are the only who it gets pinned on.
That is all together different the 10 people driving 55 and one person driving 80+.
One of the car clubs had a dedicated event at a gocart club. We divided up into teems and were swapping drivers. It was a competition.
The team who won, the lead driver, the fastest most aggressive driver was passing on yellow and making everyone else go short runs so they would get him in the cart more.
Is that a sport? Is that winning? At that point it was a meaningless event.
If you tolerate doping, doping is required to be competitive.
If you only occasionally enforce doping you have to cheat to be competitive.
If neither is an option because you have character, what is left in the sport to care about?
Great film, Robert. Thanks for that. I highly recommend it. On youtube in 11 parts. Bigger. Faster. Stronger.
Amen.
Amen.