Alex76 said:
so here's an interesting 'clinic' conumdrum i'd welcome your collective thoughts on...
In 2012 product ‘X’ is not on any lists of banned substances, it’s a undoubtedly a drug – indeed it’s been synthetically produced in a lab in Europe - but as it’s not been ‘discovered’ yet it’s not named and therefore banned by any of the various sporting & governmental federations & authorities. To that effect is there is also no such test for ‘X’ that can be used by any authorities. In effect; if you can get your hands on ‘X’ and use it correctly (and safely) then the chances are that you can reap the serious rewards, with very little chance of detection, or side effects. Fame and Fortune are yours.
Now i ask you all the following:
- If such a product as ‘X’ existed, would you take it – knowing it would give you that advantage, but also rationalising that as it was not ‘banned’, it was not in effect cheating?
- What do you think would happen to you if ‘X’ was discovered in you backdated test samples that had been taken when this Drug was not on the banned lists, but was subsequently banned?
Just curious what peoples answers would be to the above....
Thanks all,
A.
Let me put it like this. If the sport I'm in prizes integrity above winning, and riders pride themselves on not cheating each other, or themselves - then, no, I definitely would not do it.
If the sport I'm in prizes winning above all, and riders would run over their own grandmother if no one was looking and it meant they could win, then, yeah, I'd do it with gusto.
In our era, I think we're a lot closer to the second group than the first.
By the way, are your initials Bradley Wiggins by any chance? If not, why don't you pose this question to him and the other Sky riders on twitter? Might be funny.
MarkvW said:
If the field is full of angry little doped-up guys, why would I want to race with them?
If the field is full of angry little clean guys, why would I want to cheat them?
Good point, but things usually aren't that simple.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit
But let me add a crucial proviso I neglected to put in the first go round.
Presuming I took this magic sauce, knowing both that it would give me a turbo no one had and that i'd not get caught, I'd have enough respect for the race, and the racers, to make it look like I was barely hanging on. I might be five minutes ahead, but I'd pull faces like I was being tortured, and talk about how tough the competition is. Why? So that my foes could save face, the fans wouldn't feel like idiots, and so that the race would at least look like a true sporting event. In doing all that, despite not needing to, I'd feel I had redeemed myself somehow, if only ever so slightly.