This is really a new case for ethics and performance. It seems that as soon as there is competition and measurement, people will cheat. Human nature perhaps ? In sports the two main thrust of cheating seem to be at the judging level, and at the athlete level, with the taking of performance enhancing drugs. Luckily, the Olympic games in Torino, Italy, seem to be free of judging scandals, but the case of the Austrian skiers is beginning to look bizarre. Details are in this article from the New York Times. The testing results came back negative, for the substances checked. But apparently a lot of incriminating material was found. So will the enforcement authorities always be one drug late in the testing ? Or will peer pressure be a factor with the athletes community excluding people who are suspected of cheating. Or can public opinion, through their purchasing power, influence the athletes by pressure on their sponsors ? And in this particular test, if they can prove blood transfusions - will other people beyond the athletes be charged ? If guilt is proven in this case, I sincerely hope so, because it is the only way of keeping the spirit of athletic competition pure.
More worrying, is the fact that so many amateur athletes, who do sports on weekends, like cycling, are taking performance enhancing drugs. And there is no control or testing in these cases. Somehow we need to educate people that participating in competitions or just practicing sports is not ethically compatible with taking drugs to enhance performance. It defeats the whole spirit of the exercise. It would be a good thing if some of the respected athletes came out publicly on these subjects, and helped set standards of acceptable behaviour.
