Doping Olympic Curler Shows Something Is Wrong With Us
I have managed to get through the Olympics without seeing any of it broadcast, but the constant flow of headlines at general-interest web sites makes a total news blackout impossible. That’s how I found out about the big doping scandal in that quintessential Winter Olympics sport, curling.
Yes, a curler competing as an Athlete From Russia, which isn’t competing as a nation because it’s been banned for doping, was tossed out of the Olympics for taking a banned substance. In other words, doping. The story is actually more complicated, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
Why, I wondered, would a curler bother taking performance-enhancing drugs? What would they enhance? The sport is basically shuffleboard on ice. Players slide a thick stone disk toward a target. That’s it. It requires no more physical force than pushing the dog off the sofa. I’m sure that like other forms of shuffleboard, including the kind old-school barrooms have, players have to develop some touch, but how would bigger muscles help that?
So I checked with a sportswriter friend of mine, who opened my eyes to how far competitive sports have gone down the road to pharmacopia.
Curlers, it seems, are no longer paunchy, cigarette-puffing codgers. They want to be athletes, and they have the buffed-up, swimsuit-calendar bodies to prove it. Archers take beta blockers to lower their heart rates, helping steady their hands. And of course looming in the background is Russia, where the national anti-doping agency was actually in charge of doping the nation’s athletes.
Which brings us to the irony of the curler’s ejection: Nobody is sure the drug he took does anything to enhance performance. It’s banned because the if the Russians were using it, they must have had a reason, and it can’t be a good one. Trust, but verify. And don’t trust, either.
“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.” That’s the Olympic creed, and it never appeared more outdated than it does today.
The USOC is pretty corrupt according to my failed news blackout. Maybe allowing the athletes to represent companies rather than states would bring some transparency? Then they could add Rollerball as a sport and my the dystopian visions of my childhood would be complete.
And what you missed was first-time Olympian German Madrazo, who had never worn a pair of skis until last year when he try to make it as a cross-country skier coming in dead last and being cheered by fellow athletes and proudly carry his country’s flag or Red Gerard who apparently overslept watching Netflix, losing his coat and still going out to win gold in snowboarding at age 17.
I am fascinated by the Olympics (especially winter) because there are so many stories of sacrifice by young people to reach an objective that it makes me optimistic for the future. Yeah, there is the other side of the coin, but that doesn’t detract from the side that raises one spirits. What were you doing at 17? I know I wasn’t doing anything close to Olympian. In fact I’m embarrassed about my misspent youth and sometimes my misspent life compared to some of these young people.
Look, I get that cynicism is so easy these days. As a human race, we seem to have failed at every turn, but there are bright lights out there. There are people saving lives, helping the downtrodden, feeding the hungry, risking their lives for world peace. So I try to look into the light and not the dark,
along with my logical self that seeks pragmatic solutions. heh, heh.
Sorry, not buying it. I see nothing inspiring about any of it. None of these people overcame great odds to help others. They overcame great odds so they could achieve personal glory or, even worse, glory for their nation.
I was inspired, though, by those Florida kids who walked out of their high school yesterday and walked 11 miles to the shooting site.
Basically, I don’t get patriotism or nationalism or any of that monkey-brain gang-oriented bullshit. I don’t get why the Olympics, or golf and tennis, for that matter, see fit to categorize athletes by what country they come from.
All is vanity. I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
Sometimes you have to celebrate the little things; the individuals who persevere, who are driven not necessarily to achieve, but to strive.
Sometimes you have to look on the bright side, even when it’s hard to find.
Not me. I can’t see the bright side with all these stupid Republicans blocking the light.
Look at Tony Robbins over here. Sentiments like this drive me further into darkness.
I wonder which will die first, the olympics or football
The Olympics. It’s an extravagance many countries can ill afford, and it faces a huge problem with the Russian doping scandal, which they’ve postponed confronting until this year’s events are over.
Football will stumble along for years, only with fewer people than today watching.