Originally Posted by
Stavros
What do we win, when we win, what do they win when they win? I was raised to believe, and when doing sport at school and in the local park, believed, that taking part was the most important thing. Because sport and exercise are good for the body and the mind, and indeed, the obsession with winning, and winning at all costs is not something I enjoy when watching sport, to which one adds the concept of 'fair play'. In football (Soccer) it means deploring so-called 'professional fouls', but is thus also part of the reason why when we find out more or less all of the Jamaican Athletics teams has tested positive for banned substances, one man is not, and the team is not suspended from competition, because he is such a major money earner.
There are other moral issues too, notably with regard to Boxing -these days, Don King would never have been released from prison for murder (was it one, or two?) let alone be given a licence to promote Boxing tournaments, yet there he is in the record books, unfit to represent anyone, and to what extent involved in fixing fights in the days when the Mafia ran the sport in the US? I just can't take Boxing seriously as a sport, so deep has its roots been in organized crime. Or, as we were reminded when Alan Minter died this past week or so, the links between Boxing in the UK and the 'far right' in political movements and the shocking scenes that attended the end of the fight between Minter and 'Marvellous' Martin Hagler. The irony being that a preserve of English Nationalists and Fascists exists because the first promoters of British Boxing in the early years of the 20th century were East End Jews.
The lack of purity is the problem, that people in sports might have a natural ability, but seem to need to enhance it. Hence the oddity of the transgendered athlete, who personally has no choice if he or she is to thrive, using the same system that others do, but is condemned for it in ways the others are not In effect, everyone is morally compromised, and we either accept that athletes are going to use substances to improve their performance, or remain passive hypocrites -or stop watching, and sponsorig sports we consider to be corrupt.