Should Mark McGwire and Barry Bond’s single season home run records be marked with asterisks?
BEST ANSWER WINS PRIZE! (Click giftbox to answer)

So it seems another sports hero has fallen. I should emphasize seems, since nothing has yet been proven, but don’t expect to see beer drinking, 1.5 hipped American Floyd Landis on the front of a Wheaties box. The manly Tour de France champion may have proved a bit too manly, posting out-of-whack testosterone ratios on a doping test.

Every athlete looks for that extra edge. Steroid users put their health at risk to hit more home runs and to win Olympic medals (and to subsequently lose them). Smooth-skinned swimmers risk uncomfortable razor burn to shave milliseconds from their times. But where is the line between legitimate and illegitimate performance enhancement? Is it when drugs are involved? Or are techniques like sleeping in “altitude tents” over the line (the World Anti-Doping Agency seems to think so)?

Whatever we might think, performance enhancement is part of our world. MJD writes that “cycling is so tainted, so drug-infested, that I think you’ve just got to accept it as part of the deal.” The New York Times’ Bill Rhoden says “everything we think we see is little more than a sports mirage.” We’ve come to expect it.

But have we come to accept it:

Should Mark McGwire and Barry Bond’s single season home run records be marked with asterisks?
BEST ANSWER WINS PRIZE! (Click giftbox to answer)

This entry was posted on Friday, July 28th, 2006 @ 3:21 pm on the category Baseball, Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.