August 21, 2006
OPINIONSLandis: another illustration of what is wrong with sports
It looked as though America wasn’t going to have to wait long for a cycling successor to the legendary Lance Armstrong.
After an amazing comeback in the French Alps during the 17th stage of last month’s Tour de France, Floyd Landis seemed poised to win the first tour title during the post-Lance era. He did just that, as he road into Paris and took the yellow jersey, winning by just under a minute.
However, the celebration would be very short-lived as suspicion quickly arose over how far and how fast Landis had closed the gap on the rest of the field.
Sure enough, results from a test taken after the 17th stage were released and showed that Landis had elevated levels of testosterone.
Landis immediately claimed that his levels were natural and that he would be proved innocent with follow-up tests.
However, the results of the tests he was counting on showed that Landis’ levels were synthetic.
Though Landis says there are numerous explanations as to why the tests came back the way they did, it is doubtful he will ever remove the haze that now covers his accomplishment as a tour champion.
It is also just the most recent in an all too common plague over sport.
Somewhere along the line, “doing whatever it takes to win” has meant just that, and sadly it is ruing the purity of sport.
The most unfortunate thing that arises from ongoing allegations of doping and drug enhancement, is there are no longer championship performances that don’t draw up at least some cloud of suspicion.
It seems now that every time there is a performance that is too good to be true, it is.
With Barry Bonds just 30 home runs short of Hammerin’ Hank Aaron’s elusive career home-run record, it is just hard to even be excited amidst constant allegations of drug use.
The cases are endless and they are happening in all sports at nearly every level of the game.
It would be nice to go back to the days of youth where playing the game the way it was meant to be played is all that mattered.
Is it really too idealistic or naive to think the game should be played without cheating?
Sports for so long have represented a place to get away. To take a step back from the scandals and disappointments in the world around us.
Sadly, all too many of those scandals have now polluted the sacred landscape of sport.
With all this damage done we can only hope that the slate can somehow be wiped clean and a pure integrity can be returned to the games we love.
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Nick Kosmider
Mesa Legend