Australia is two weeks removed from what’s been described as a scandal of monumental proportion– one with the potential to unravel the fabric of society. The allegation performance enhancing substances, organised crime, and match fixing are prominent in professional Australian sport has shocked, surprised, and disgusted many. The question I ask, is are these reactions legitimate or the faux outrage of fans and administrators content to look past the obvious?
Nothing in Project Aperio and the ACC’s glorified information pamphlet should surprise. Professional sport (in Australia) generates upward of 10 billion dollars in annual revenue. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that’s more than the nominal GDP (2012) of the Bahamas and Grenada–both Gold Medal winning countries in London 2012. Oscar Wilde’s immortal quote summarises the lust for money best; “When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.” With billions circulating in and through professional sport, it shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to solve this puzzle.
When concerning sport, unrealised potential is poisonous–contaminating whatever pleasant memories and/or accomplishments one achieves. Direct Athlete Support government funding, an Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) scholarship, 2 Open National Decathlon titles, 1 Under 23 National Decathlon title, and B Qualifying marks for the 2006 Commonwealth Games and 2007 IAAF World Championships–my four-year domestic time in the sun provided cause for optimism. Sadly, fate had other designs. On one fateful Beijing day in 2008, the Bird’s Nest ended my career. My prize for years of dedicated suffering was an exploded tibia and shattered fibula–a High Jumping mishap the culprit. Identified and funded as one of Australia’s bright young gold medal hopes for the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, $18,000 (2005) was poured into me by the Federal Government–paid in 2 lump sums. Across my three-years as an AIS scholarship holder, earnings totalled $70,000 or $1,400 a month. Sure, generous benefits came with signing but a paltry amount for a full-time professional athlete, wouldn’t you agree? To put it in perspective, my brother earned more in his rookie AFL season than I did in my entire Track & Field career. Luckily for him, the Port Adelaide Football Club paid for his surgeries–I covered all bar 1 of the 6 of mine.
I have no quarrel with those who suggest the Federal Government’s investment in me was a calamitous sunk cost. Moreover, it’s reasonable to suppose had the injury scourge abated and results followed, my earnings potential would have skyrocketed–sponsorships and competing on the lucrative European circuit on offer. As part of a pre-race routine, social media sensations seductively jiggling hips and catching the eyes of sponsors is the exception not the norm. Earning power is directly linked with performance (marketability is another discussion), a recipe mixed with talent, dedication, hard work, access to resources, and competition. To the victor, go the spoils.
A touch of masochism infects professional athletes. To forge greatness, inordinate amounts of pain must be suffered and hardships endured just to glimpse success. Attached below is a typical competition preparation training week (JUL-AUG 2006) schedule. Not all training cycles are equal, with stages of preparation requiring schedule and load tweaking. The shared low volume-high intensity infographic was designed to fine tune my engine–a high-powered drag car powering down the strip the desired result.
Listed, are training specific sessions shaping my week however, there are notable absences–progress meetings, nutrition, strength and conditioning, athlete-coach, biomechanics, and library/film study. Unacknowledged, are outside commitments such as attending university, frequenting charitable pursuits, and/or visiting juvenile detention centres. To those running tight schedules, yes, gaps may appear laughable but riddle me this. Irrespective of weather and personal health, simulate the most difficult training session you’ve had in your life, the one where intensity required missiles beyond belief and, your personal trainer became more poltergeist than aide–then repeat it for every one of the week’s remaining nineteen sessions. If sitting at a desk, work at your maximum capacity for the majority of your 40-hour workweek. It’s inhumanely difficult to maintain focus, cultivate motivation, and inspire intensity all week. Perhaps now you can begin to understand why athletes consider the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs).
There’s a misconception PEDs and other illegal substances are a sporting panacea, transforming every Banner into The Hulk–they don’t. I’m not going to bother with specifics, the Internet is a repository of said information, but what I will state is PEDs facilitate muscle repair, promote recovery, and improve performance. In layman’s terms, provided you’re willing to put in the work, athletes can train harder for longer and recover faster. Why the appeal? DOMS. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is an evil bastard. It kept me in a perpetual state of soreness. It wasn’t uncommon to find me sleeping on the shower floor–tired, physically shattered, and immobile–my legs sharing the coordination of a newborn Wildebeest. When analysing the training loads Grand Tour cyclists are subjected to, it came as no surprise to me a man with one testicle engaged in one of sport’s more elaborate doping programs. Truthfully, I wasn’t upset Lance admitted to doping, it was the failure to acknowledge and apologise to the people he demonised on his ascent that aggravated me.
In my opinion, the concept that underwrites the ACC’s report “Fair Play” is a load of wank. FIFA pretends to enforce a notion of financial fair play with slim to no success. At the time of writing, Manchester United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain were leading their respective leagues in Europe. In the AFL, last year’s top 4: Hawthorn, Adelaide, Sydney and Collingwood are financial juggernauts. The reality is, in professional sport, there is a clear divide between the have and have nots. There is another divide–the difference between those doing what it takes to win and those who won’t/don’t. The infamous (former) Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson articulated this mentality perfectly: “I’m not a cheat – I do what I am supposed to do to win.” With millions similarly minded, what domestic and international sporting bodies legislate becomes moot. Smart people find a way around it.
The Essence of Sport is a nice document–its aspirations admirable, but as Australian Olympic results crater, will anyone care about cleanliness or does the public want results? There’s money, fame, and glory in medals. The reality of elite sport is there’s no participation award at this level–you win or you lose. This drives people to find a thousandth of a second advantage–the difference between first and second a cosmic chasm.
In a sobering thought, it’s entirely likely domestic standards met and international agreements honoured are pointless, mainly because the competition will reject and discard the rules. Australia chooses to respect fairness. Unfortunately for us, our competitors bring a nuclear arsenal to a knife fight. It’s not my position to judge the morality of PEDs or those who use them. In fact, my career may have been very different had I been capable, willing or able to juice. I won’t lie. Had I been in a position to be involved in a program where negative tests weren’t possible, they were guaranteed, the temptation would be tantalising. People hope they would summit the virtuous path but until thrust in a situation, you can’t be sure of the outcome. Complicating further, is knowledge you know others have breached that frontier. Winning is the ultimate seductress. Returning disheartened to Australia, a close friend was thrust into an uncommon Australian situation–sharing a post-competition room filled with international calibre athletes being administered intravenous injections by suspiciously scrupled sports scientists. I will never advertise names or nationalities but it happens–more than the public knows. This begs the question: if a clear and clean Olympic Gold medal favourite suffers an injury in the lead up to the event, if an illegal product or substance promotes recovery, returning them to health in an agreeable time, would and should this be permitted? Four years is a long time in professional sport.
As spectators, we’re partly responsible for the behaviour of those associated with professional sport. Who doesn’t love seeing Usain Bolt destroy world records, Michael Phelps submarine opponents and Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer engage in 5 set epics? I’m not suggested these men partake, more I’m asking the question do our entertainment wants and needs push aspiring athletes over the edge of PED reason? Given society’s current direction, it doesn’t seem fanciful to believe one day, we’ll see Ben Richards running through the gamezone pursued by ICS stalkers.
In 2012, Forbes journalist Chris Smith put forward the following: “A huge part of watching sports is witnessing the very peak of human athletic ability, and legalizing performance enhancing drugs would only help athletes climb even higher.” In Volume 38, Issue 6 (2004) of the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Savulescu, Foddy and Clayton propose that, “we define the rules of sport.” If PEDs are legalised and freely available to all, then it’s not cheating, right? If you believe religious fundamentalists, homosexuality is/was a sin. In today’s society today, we’re considering and passing legislation conferring on same sex couples the right to marry. Society isn’t stagnant nor are standards eternal; they represent legislated values at a point in time–nothing more. Why does this line of enquiry interest? Regardless of the actions of legislators and authorities, doping programs will survive and the divide between the haves and have nots will lengthen. Sporting bodies are delusional reactionaries fighting battles long gone–programmers are well into the next iteration.
Something interesting Savulescu, Foddy and Clayton raise is the notion of fairness. Life isn’t fair nor is the genetic lottery. Some people are born with uncommon gifts–characteristics the masses could only dream of. Extended to its natural conclusion, what if PEDs level the field, conferring on others the ability compete? Savulescu et al. propose, “by allowing everyone to take performance enhancing drugs, we level the playing field.” While I may not agree with this position, it’s an interesting point–one I never considered prior to researching this piece. Is it unfair some are born into poverty and others royalty? There may be no difference in aptitude or ability, but circumstance influences both. Is fairness a matter of position and perspective? Its definition appears pliable.
I accepted long ago when money, fame, and glory are present, people will push the boundaries of impropriety. Do I think doping programs exist inside Australia? Yes. Will I allow it to negatively impact my viewing enjoyment? No. Sure, the aspirational qualities of clean sport are desirable but I’m a realist–the economics of sport will always win. Spectators will fanatically support, stars will shine, sacrificial lambs will be slaughtered, and the wheels on this billion dollar behemoth will keep turning. Enjoy your time in the sun Kate Lundy and ASADA, for it will be short-lived; there’s always another scandal.
I leave you with a final thought: if it can’t be tested or detected, it’s not illegal. Keep that in mind, the dopers are.
*Updated June 26, 2023