Columns

It’s that time of the year again, when the Tour de France hits our television screens and the evening news. Of course everyone is impressed by both the athleticism of the riders and the lovely French countryside, but the major talking point will undoubtedly come back to drugs and doping.

The funny thing is that with all the talk of scandals over the past few years, the same thing has been happening since the tour started in 1903, when riders would use a little bit of ether to get them through the distance – or they would just ride blind drunk to mask the pain of riding 3600kilometres. 
Many modern sporting events have had ugly drug stains smeared across them, but what is so wrong with taking drugs to help you perform better? At a fundamental level you can see where the opposition to drugs comes from, sport after all is about the human body and what it can be trained to do, and the use of drug takes out the purity in sport. But modern sportspeople take all sorts of other things that apparently give them the edge over their fellow competitors, so banning drugs seems ridiculous. When certain substances are banned, of course it’s not right that someone would use them while others don’t, that’s called an unfair advantage. If there were no bans on any substances, though, it would be even for everyone, and we as spectators would be in for a treat as athletes became faster and stronger. Now I’m not saying that all athletes should pump in steroids and look like Arnie, but what is fundamentally wrong with performance-enhancing drugs? If you can use technology to make your shoes or Speedos better why are you not able to do the same with your body? The main reason is sponsorship – it is money from big name companies that helps keep professional sport and sportsmen afloat, and no company is going to want to be associated with an athlete that is full of growth hormones. Imagine McDonalds sponsoring Hamish Carter if he was casually injecting himself daily with steroids; it just wouldn’t happen. Not even Purina One would want a piece of him. That is why Lance Armstrong is so keen to keep his name clean: he understands that without his sponsors he wouldn’t be able to live like he does, which includes things like his charity, livestrong. Imagine how many people would be pissed to find out those little yellow bracelets were just a sham.