英文阅读：Drugs and Sport
The world groaned last week as former tennis star Martina Hingis retiredamid drug use allegations. The question people were asking this time however was
whether it was performance or party enhancing drug use. It seems both are
causing officials' headaches these days.
The week earlier came the announcement that Olympic three time gold
medallist Marion Jones was up for steroid use prior to Sydney 2000. At the
center of the scandal sits the San Francisco Bay Area Laboratory Co- operative
(BALCO).
This lab was implicated in another controversy last week involving World
Series baseball pitcher Paul Byrd who admitted he had injected human growth
hormones for an arm injury. He was just one among several other top sports
stars, including record homerun slugger Barry Bonds who had apparently been
doing their shopping at BALCO.
Drugs and sport is an issue that refuses to go away whether it is their use
for performance enhancement or for post match relief.
Alongside the old "work hard, play hard" ethic now comes the "party hard"
mentality, which sees increasing numbers of athletes falling by the wayside.
Recently in Australia legendary footballer turned TV presenter Chris Mainwaring
passed away at the tender age of 41, the result of a weekend drug binge.
It couldn't have come at a worse time for the Australian Football League in
a year that has been plagued by top players and their embarrassing rock n roll
style 'party-animal' antics.
In this weekends' national newspaper, the Australian, the editorial
questioned whether perhaps it was time to put on the brakes and reassess the
national sporting ethic. Concerned citizens are now demanding that club managers
be held accountable ensuring their players are clean, before and after the
match.
The point is it is not just the players' lives and their family's that are
at stake but it is also the role modeling of young fans that is being impacted
upon by sports stars' increasingly wayward behavior.
As a child in sport loving Australia our teachers always tried to emphasize
that the most important thing was your manner when you played a game. They
called it "sportsmanship" or being a "good sport".
It was a belief that no matter if you won or lost – as long as you tried
and played by the rules – then that was all that was expected of you. No more,
no less only your best. But today if you look around at the world of sport the
phrase "nice guys finish last" may be more appropriate.
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