USA Opinion on Doping Scandals
 

No, I'm not going to talk about Baseball... It's been thoroughly discussed in other threads.

But let's face it, more than one source has come forth saying Marion Jones was on performance enhancing drugs during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where she won five (FIVE!) medals for the USA.

I pick on Jones simply for the fact she's one of the figureheads of the USA Track & Field team.

How do you guys feel about the scandal? Are you even aware of it? Or is your media sweeping it under the rug?

I've heard that this could do to Track & Field in the USA what Ben Johnson's doping did for Canada. IE: Stricter rules governing testing; a different philosophy that doping ISN'T acceptable.

I think she should be stripped of her medals as soon as possible ... preferrably yesterday. It saddens me to realize that we spent all kinds of time crying about the uneven playing field in the Olympics back when the East Germans and, allegedly, others were busy creating better athletes through science ... only now we've become them.

I don't think the media is "sweeping it under the rug" as you say. I think it's more about the fact that track and field has fallen behind even soccer on the list of sports America cares about. It has had a little bit of play, but not as much as the baseball problems.

If something comes out more then Victor Conti saying she did it, then there will probably be more media coverage.

I think it's stupid to think it's JUST Marion Jones

You wonder why Jones didn't qualify outright in the 100m for Athens, it's because she was off her designer steroids and everyone else was still on them... It's ludicrous.

Also, djtestudo, Marion's ex husband C.J. Hunter testified that she used steroids, so it's not just Conte

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5491548/

ah yes former trainer and a ex husband ....give me a break those are not good sorces on information.

they should just have an all steroid olympics, 100m ran in 6sec...etc!

Didn't Saturday Night Live do something like this already? I vaguely remember a Russian powerlifter played by Phil Hartman ripping his own arms off when trying to lift 2000 lbs. or something.

... are you serious?

Let's not create a conspiracy theory where the people closest to her while she was on the drugs suddenly want to tarnish her name.

Why not?

They are well on their way to going down in flames...you don't think that by naming names, correct or incorrect, they might believe they have a better chance of getting a deal?

Was Hunter indicted on any offenses? Or was he just a witness?

What reason would he have to lie if he wasn't... I must do more research....

Until I see proof, MJ has never used steroids.

I believe the allegations, but that means squat. The media is covering the scandal very well, both in sports news and general news. The media is too profit driven to do otherwise.

I think that it is very unfortunate that there are athletes competing against other athletes who have an unfair advantage. I wish steroids weren't a part of athletics, but that is a fantasy. I don't really pass serious judgment on those accused (even in they are guilty). I would only do that if they were physically endangering other people, not just themselves. I am not just shrugging it off as ok, it is not. It is the worst possible situation in sports. However, it is entertainment, and none of these athletes are really significant otherwise.

If found guilty, I hope that severe punishment (equal to that seen in Olympic competition) is levied.

well sports isn't really my department. I know we've covered this, but I couldn't tell you what our coverage said - - -can someone update me? Has she been proven to have taken steroids, or is it just someone (or some people) saying she did.

Because if we can't prove it, we have to give her the benefit of the doubt.

1) I find the fact that people are doing it, and I don't know that she did at this point or not, only that she stands accused. As others have pointed out, accused and guilty are NOT the same thing and should not be confused. This is not to say that someone who IS guilty and accused can not wrangle out of it.

2) I find the phrase about the media "sweeping it under the rug interesting in and of itself, as it does show a certain bias on your part, in that you are certainly implying either that Americans are not smart enough to read sources that are non-American, or that Americans ignore things around them.

Do understand that the current sport in America, at the moment, is Football. Baseball just passed, and Track and Field is really only a popular interest in Summer Olympic years, therefore not that many people are paying attention. In addition, Baseball's current scandal is far overshadowing.

Well, to use another well-known story to compare it to, there is on concrete evidence that Jones is guilty. Of course, there was no concrete evidence that Scott Peterson offed his wife, either.

If anyone can read up on this story and come to the conclusion that Jones is anything but 100 percent guilty, I'd be stunned.

I'm going to address JaySpencer first:

If you're going to say that I'm making broad generalizations, don't say that I'm "certainly implying either that Americans are not smart enough to read sources that are non-American, or that Americans ignore things around them."

You can't say CERTAINLY that I'm doing anything, because you don't know the original context in which I said it, and I didn't mean what you're implying by any stretch of the imagination.

I don't live in the USA, and can have no idea what their media is like. The only place I see it covered is on TSN.

As for the comment, I realize it may have come off as harsh... I'll edit my original post to avoid further confusion

thrsn0730:

I don't know about 100% guilty... Certainly something is going on... But time will tell if Conte and Hunter, or Jones is the bald faced liar(s).

quite serious Ace ....it would not be the first time some one with money and fame was set up to bring peopel that use to be in there life into the spot light.

It's a conundrum to be sure, we have testimony from her trainer and corroborating evidence in the form of her training calendar that yes, Marion Jones has used performance enhancing drugs. These drugs are not only available in the U.S. though, and apparently at the olympics in almost every sport there is universal use of illegal/banned substances. So in a sense it's a level playing field of doped atheletes across the board. Jone's trainer said that if they started taking away medals and reseting world records that you'd have to go back 20+ years. There's no way to know now which (if any) medals and records were earned by clean atheletes.

I think everyone can agree that there needs to be more stringent drug testing that starts well before the start of competition (Jones and others are able to stop taking the drugs allowing all traces to disappear from their system before the test). So the only way to catch doped atheletes would be to require them being tested monthly for 18-24 months prior to competition. The problem w/r/t the Olympics however is that this would be a logistical nightmare in application. Imagine requiring every member of "country X's" water polo team to be tested this frequently.

So the alternatives seem to be to penalize countries that can afford stringent drug testing or stick with the status quo--"may the best drugs win." Anyone else got ideas about this?

As long as coaches and players are raised under the impression that it is alright to use drugs, then they will do it.

It starts at a very young age, socialization with respect to how you train.

Thats the only way it will ever change.