Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Tour De France
Why is it that everytime an American wins the Tour De France, they are accused of taking drugs to help them win? Lance Armstrong won seven tours in a row so of course they are going to question him. He cleared the drug tests, proving that he is just a sick cyclist with a abnormally large heart. Now Landis is being accused of using steroids. What's the deal?
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4 comments:
Armstrong was accused out of jealousy. Landis was accused because he failed two tests.
I am having a really hard time believing all of the excuses that Floyd Landis has come up with. Let's count them:
1. His natural metabolism caused the excessive amount of testosterone.
2. He drank some Jack Daniels the night before this leg of the race.
3. A massage therapist rubbed it into his body.
4. The people leading the investigation are out to get him.
5. A positive "A" sample doesn't prove anything. Well he failed the "B" sample too so that one is out of the picture.
6. Dehydration
Those are the ones I can remember. There is no question in my mind that he cheated. It's not like Landis had a just a good ride on this day; he made up an incredible amount of time (over 11 minutes I think) and jumped from something like 17th place all the way to 2nd, which is unheard of in the sport. Everytime he talks about it he further convinces me of my belief in his guilt.
99%? That's quite a number. Steroids are a major problem in sports; they cause harm to your body and give you an advantage over the competition. How can you say that the people who get caught shouldn't be called out? No matter how many people are taking them, the ones who do get caught need to be SEVERELY punished to try to slow this problem down. Just because a lot of people are doing it doesn't make it right. Major League Baseball has a horrible policy; three strikes and you're out. That's such a load of crap. That may encourage guys to use steroids if they know they can get twice and still have the chance to play again. One strike and you're out would almost definitely cut down the number of guys using these drugs. I also played a D1 sport and can tell you that nobody on the team had ever touched a performance enhancing drug. I played basketball, however, and I think basketball has much less of a problem with it than sports like football and baseball. But I also know plenty of guys on football and baseball teams who say that very few players, if any, use steroids. The overwhelming majority of athletes have not used performance enhancing drugs, not the other way around. Nick I agree with you that testing is a joke but it's hard for the testing committee to be at so many different schools multiple times during the year and it is a problem that needs to be solved.
It's dudes like me who need to realize how common it is? I know that it's common enough for it to be a serious problem, that's why I think there should be a one strike and you're out rule. I don't respect cheaters at all, and that's what these guys are. I do realize that it's not something guys openly talk about with teammates but you can usually tell when a guy's on roids. If I knew that the guy who was playing in front of me was juicing, there is no way that I would rat him out. I may lose all respect for him but I wouldn't snitch on a teammate. You use the example of the NFL and said that more guys are probably using than I think, which may be true, but I could use the example of the NBA, where there is, I'm guessing, a very very small percentage of guys who are juicing. The bottom line is that no matter how many guys are using, it doesn't make it right. Whether nobody in the NFL or everybody in the NFL is on steroids, steroids are rightfully illegal. They ruin the integrity of sports; baseball has taken a huge blow because of guys like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, etc.
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