Drugs in sport

[JonnyBGood]

For a while now, probably since I first bothered thinking about, I've found it hard to have any concrete objections to the use of drugs in sport. Obviously some people say there are health concerns but surely those are up to the atheletes in question to decide upon. They may be breaking the rules but should those rules be there in the first place? We'd get improved performance, a more entertaining spectacle and probably a more level playing field. Well maybe not, but is there a reason to object to them in the first place?

[queball]

What if a female player took testosterone? You are sexist.

[JonnyBGood]

Go attend a feminist rally please.

[1-X]

if drug-taking was legal, those who prefer to compete cleanly would have to choose between losing or joining them.

ps you've both got the same hat on

[SeanG]

Personally I believe there should be the 'normal' olympics for those who just train hard, eat healthy food and basicaly just try and become good at their sport. Then there should be a separate olympics for those who want to run 100m in 5 seconds and pump themselves full of performance enhancing drugs.

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by 1-X

if drug-taking was legal, those who prefer to compete cleanly would have to choose between losing or joining them.

ps you've both got the same hat on

Ideally there'd be many sporting organisations with many different rules, none of who received government funding. If people wish to compete in a drugs free competition they should be free to do so, as should those wishing to compete where drugs are legal.

[queball]

Would you pay to see people on steroids run 100m?

[JonnyBGood]

Why would I pay to see anyone run 100m when I can just get a gun and chase a homeless man?

[pyirt]

Originally Posted by SeanG

Personally I believe there should be the 'normal' olympics for those who just train hard, eat healthy food and basicaly just try and become good at their sport. Then there should be a separate olympics for those who want to run 100m in 5 seconds and pump themselves full of performance enhancing drugs.

We have para-olymipics; why not drug-olymipics? There is good ancient history to support these ideals.

[1-X]

how about 'who wants to be a millionaire?' but with contestants allowed to use laptops?

[JonnyBGood]

How about every entrant in the olympics has to live in a compound since their birth to ensure no advantages due to circumstances?

[Boogster]

I think we should pump cats full of drugs and see if they can beat human athletes (without drugs) at 100m.

It would be great to watch, let's be honest.

[Tactitus]

Ultimately, I think drug use in sport is basically a rules question. People decide what rules a sport is going to have and then enforce them. If people want to have sport(s) where drug use is allowed, then so be it.

Also, detection of performance enhancing drugs and other performance enhancing technology (e.g., blood doping) can be problematic, however. Obviously, it doesn't make sense to have a rule if you can't detect the violation of that rule.

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by Boogster

I think we should pump cats full of drugs and see if they can beat human athletes (without drugs) at 100m.

It would be great to watch, let's be honest.

If by cats you mean tigers and if by beat you mean chase and if by 100m you mean five miles I'm with you.

Originally Posted by Tactitus

Ultimately, I think drug use in sport is basically a rules question. People decide what rules a sport is going to have and then enforce them. If people want to have sport(s) where drug use is allowed, then so be it.

Yeah that's fair enough, the rules are obviously fairly arbitrary. I'm probably more concerned with the way sport is run concerning government funding and so on (I hear you've even got problems over in the US with that joke of a sport baseball!)

[Sunday8pm]

The majority will not be knowingly entertained if they are certain that their sports entertainment is based around who does the most and best drugs... hence it can't possibly take off as a feasible idea. Take for example the steroid scandal in WWF (as it was then, now WWE) back in the 80's.

I mean to the non-interested eye, it was pretty ****ing certain these guys were doing enough steroids and growth hormones to kill several elephants, but to the interested eye it was easy to disbelieve this and see what you wanted to see, as soon as the fans got word of the fact that hey they are doing drugs etc etc, it effectively almost killed their audience and the sport itself, they cleaned up their image etc etc.

In the end, you can't knowingly introduce a drug culture as acceptable to sport, you could try doing it insidiously but someone would expose it anyway, that and we'd all know China would win everything if we allowed it (with the dutch in second place for everything) cause well they don't give a shit about human rights and don't have much common sense.

p.s. As an analogy refer to Formula 1 and other motorsports, they effectively endorsed anything you wanted to do and have had to backwards engineer in a retarded fashion over the years, putting more restraints on the cars with each passing year to retain crowds and create advertising demands, they banned superfuels(drugs lawl) amongst other things to make the sport more competitive and entertaining, in the end no-one wants to see people 'buy' the win outright cause that's what ultimately happens, they'd like to imagine that money is only a partially mitigating factor behind success. History of sport seems to have already dictated that your idea will fall flat on it's arse.

p.p.s. It's heavily evident that probably most of the cyclists on the Tour De France for many years were taking all sorts of things, no-one cared and everyone was entertained cause no-one knew for sure, I mean if reflecting on the sheer physical feats involved in accomplishing that tour you'd have to be doing something, in the end though someone will come along in the sport be it a journalist or a disgruntled sportsman and start giving it a disreputable name by outting the drug users... I've been a long time observer of the sport and what certainly seemed like the best and most entertaining years always preceded a big outting of a drug problem in the following years.

[JonnyBGood]

Personally I find a lot of people's objections to be based on the idea that drugs are unquestionably bad, so a lot of people just freak out when they're hear anyone's taken drugs. As for motorsports, the situation is slightly different wouldn't you say. It's hardly like the sport's competitive anyways. O look schumacher won and ferrari are a zillion points clear, wasn't expecting that one.

Originally Posted by Sunday8pm

In the end, you can't knowingly introduce a drug culture as acceptable to sport, you could try doing it insidiously but someone would expose it anyway, that and we'd all know China would win everything if we allowed it (with the dutch in second place for everything) cause well they don't give a shit about human rights and don't have much common sense.

This seems to be just randomly concluded. Nobody's really tried allowing drugs in a sport. Frankly if it improves the viewing spectacle I wouldn't object.

[Dante Hicks]

Profesional or quasi-professional sports all seem to be freak shows. NBA players or shotput entrants are not like "normal" people in the everyday sense (either through genetics or training). I don't see the difference between watching freaks play basketball and watching druggies run or whatever.

It'd make something like boxing a lot more interesting to know both fighters were on amphetamines & PCP as well being built of steroids.

[mist]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

Frankly if it improves the viewing spectacle I wouldn't object.

taking uk football as an example, chelsea vs norwich. obviously norwich are going to get caned, however were drug taking allowed it would further increase the difference between the two teams (chelsea being able to afford whatever's best, while norwich... well...) and therefore imo make it less interesting to watch as the result would be even more of a foregone conclusion.

while this is a rather specific case, i'd have thought it could be generalised, and therefore i'm doubtful as to whether it would improve the viewing experience

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by mist

taking uk football as an example, chelsea vs norwich. obviously norwich are going to get caned, however were drug taking allowed it would further increase the difference between the two teams (chelsea being able to afford whatever's best, while norwich... well...) and therefore imo make it less interesting to watch as the result would be even more of a foregone conclusion.

while this is a rather specific case, i'd have thought it could be generalised, and therefore i'm doubtful as to whether it would improve the viewing experience

I don't think there's a direct correlation between viewing spectacle and the level of competetiveness. I'm sure division 2 football is competitive but I'm not going to watch it because it's incredibly shit. I enjoyed watching chelsea play and despite the fact the match was a foregone conclusion I'd still rate that ahead of a 0-0 draw between Blackburn vs Southampton. Also I think we might be overstating the expensiveness of performance enhancing drugs. I mean even gary doherty gets 10 grand a week. I doubt there'd be that much extra expense on the clubs.

[Sunday8pm]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

Personally I find a lot of people's objections to be based on the idea that drugs are unquestionably bad, so a lot of people just freak out when they're hear anyone's taken drugs. As for motorsports, the situation is slightly different wouldn't you say. It's hardly like the sport's competitive anyways. O look schumacher won and ferrari are a zillion points clear, wasn't expecting that one.

This seems to be just randomly concluded. Nobody's really tried allowing drugs in a sport. Frankly if it improves the viewing spectacle I wouldn't object.

You wouldn't object, but would you become a spectator of the sport that invests the money needed into it to keep the drug usage up to date ? :P

Doubt it.

p.s. I was referring back to the years when it was Senna/Prost and cars looked funny and they used superfuels, they kinda suffered a crisis then and duly brought back the race fans by nerfing some abilities of what teams could and couldn't do.. much like in the way you can imagine how drugs are banned from sport to make it more entertaining.

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by Sunday8pm

You wouldn't object, but would you become a spectator of the sport that invests the money needed into it to keep the drug usage up to date ? :P

Doubt it.

p.s. I was referring back to the years when it was Senna/Prost and cars looked funny and they used superfuels, they kinda suffered a crisis then and duly brought back the race fans by nerfing some abilities of what teams could and couldn't do.. much like in the way you can imagine how drugs are banned from sport to make it more entertaining.

I don't invest money in any sport. I suppose I still go and see irish football or rugby internationals which I would attend even if drugs were used by the competitors (yay nationalism!)

If there isn't demand for sports which allow drugs then fair enough. I don't think it's been tried widely enough (or at all) for anyone to offer a definite conclusion though.

[Sunday8pm]

Well I just think that the people that bankroll these spectator sports have got the running cold feeling to ever allowing it, given how sports that have had no limit on restrictions of what you can do to get an advantage have ultimately had to be vastly restricted to make it a profitable entertainment revenue, Nascar, Cycling, Formula 1, TOCA... Ultimately I don't know of any limits to WRC but that's cause the cars get effectively wrecked there anyway, it's not like on an analogy basis that American Football isn't loaded up with every painkilling drug that's available anyway (not like every american sport atm isn't involved in drugging their players actually).

[Vaio]

I think there is some serious shit being passed round Red Bull Racing if they think David Coulthard will do anything next F1 season

~Vaio~

[Dace]

genmod* is the way things are going anyways














*genetic modification ... i just made the term sound snazzier to make me look cool

[Kurashima]

Dace already uses drugs in sport*






*though Rhyponol doesnt count as a banned substance, does it?