Say it ain't so

As Americans, we have a tendency to “romanticize” certain aspects of our daily lives. This includes, but is not limited to, sports.  The average American has at least some interaction with sport on a day to day basis and being seen as “athletic” is considered a compliment for most people.  Because of this, we Americans tend to place those with exceptional athletic skills on a pedestal.  As a result of this, and the constant media storm that surrounds them, the average person tends to regard elite athletes as being “superhuman,” whether it is on a conscious level or not.  So, why is it that when an athlete actually takes measures to physically become a “superhuman,” he or she is regarded as a fraud.  Oft repeated philosophy states that records are made to be broken and that boundaries are made to be crossed.  So why do we draw lines for sports?  And where exactly does this line fall?  As consumers of sport, we demand excellence. We demand dazzling displays of athletic talent on a consistent basis and athletes have responded to this demand.  Why then should we complain about their methods for meeting them?  Personally, I can’t really answer these questions.  I cannot honestly say that I view athletes who are on steroids as being on the same level as those who do not.  However, I can’t pinpoint exactly why.  After close examination of training practices over the years, steroids and other performance enhancing drugs just seem like a natural progression of training programs for athletes. Over time, improvements in equipment, medical care, uniforms, etc. have greatly increased the level of play.  It seems to me that enhancing bodily performance is not all that different.  So maybe I just learn to accept steroids as a part of sports.  We don’t have to like it, but maybe we’ll just have to deal with it.

Moral and ethical dilemmas come up often in sports.  Perhaps this is because so much is riding on the outcomes of sporting events.  However, making ethical decisions looks and means different things at different levels of competition.  We’ve all heard the stories of pro golfers who have called penalty strokes on themselves when they might otherwise not have been caught. While this is certainly admirable, is calling yourself out with 10,000 dollars on the line more important than not cheating to win a 10 dollar bet with your friend on the golf course? I personally don’t think so.  The average sports viewer is usually caught up in making sure that elite athletes are maintaining the “integrity” of their sport.  Whenever a professional athlete is caught cheating, they are immediately vilified and labeled as being unworthy of any further accolades.  But somehow cheating during a community league basketball game or on the golf course with your friends is a little bit more “acceptable.” General ethical principles are theoretically the same in all levels of sport.  But we, myself included, tend to think that the usual rules don’t apply to us.  Therein lies the problem.  If no one thinks that the rules apply to them, why do we have rules and standards in the first place?  To fix the problem of cheating to get ahead in sports, we must start educating kids at a young age on what playing fair really means.  Because if athletes aren’t taught ethical principles at a young age, why should we expect them to carry them out when they begin participating in higher levels of sport?