growing genatalia in the name of Australia!
Unbelievable amounts of pressure are being placed on athletes to perform at the Athens 2004 Olympics. When it comes to World Championship sporting events, the pressure has always been on to perform.
We all know who Ben Johnson is – the infamous Canadian athlete who was banned for using prohibited performance enhancing drugs… he wasn’t the first, and he certainly won’t be the last – the Chinese female swim team that has bigger shoulders than half the men I their gymnastics team… We currently have a saga taking place with one of our Australian medal prospects – a cyclist, Mark French has been suspected of abusing a horse growth hormone to increase his level of performance.
Not being an ‘elite’ athlete, I find it hard to empathise as to why anyone would do this. Isn’t the honour of representing your country at world championship level enough? Not only do they risk ostracism from their sporting body if caught, but the side effects of performance enhancing drugs are nothing short of notorious. Horse growth hormone might have the opposite effect to steroids in some areas; however, it is much more lethal and irresponsible!
Winning a gold medal at an Olympic games is an enticing prospect indeed – but what price do you put on success? Have you really won a gold medal if you have utilised any performance enhancing drugs at any time during your preparation?
Being an athlete is all about discipline. It’s about testing and pushing the endurance of the human physique, and doing the best you can. The best you can do does not involve performance enhancing drugs. The drive to win comes from within. It is not unusual for a rogue athlete to claim abuse is rampant within their field of sport, standing from the outside looking in; it’s a little alarming that these athletes feel as though they need to be better than they obviously already are…
The message of the Olympic Games, or any sporting event, should be that winning is not the be all and end all… You should be proud you made it that far… The children sitting in their lounge rooms all over the world watching the Olympic Games will idolise athletes just for wearing the national colours on the tracksuit, it does not need to be on the medal dais… The Olympics are about competition, in a friendly and challenging fashion… The questions need to be asked as to what would drive an athlete to inject themselves with a life threatening substance such as Horse growth hormones, the pressure to win needs to be relieved, and the spirit of competition needs to be encouraged.
Olympic athletes are already winners in my eyes…
BAM!!!