Cheating at Sports

I do not believe that the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED’s) should be considered 'cheating’ in sports. In fact, I think that PED’s should be allowed, unrestricted, and that they would make sports more intense, and therefore much more entertaining.

Athletes who get caught, or are suspected of, using PED’s are often vilified in the media and prosecuted in court of public opinion. But, I’m not on board with all this finger-pointing, and I’ll tell you why. The popular belief is that if only everyone would just NOT use PED’s, sporting events would consist of evenly matched competitors, pitted against one another in an open and fair competition based on athletic skill. This is a nice, idealistic premise, but it is overly generalized and simplistic. It is also a misconception. It is rooted in the false notion that competitors begin with the same abilities, and if or when a player gains a perceived advantage through the use of pharmaceutical enhancements, they are able to outperform their opponents and ultimately win by this specific advantage. The truth of the matter is that in the absence of PED’s, competitors do not possess the same innate talents. Some people are faster than others; some are taller; some are stronger; and so on.

This strikes at the heart of the myth that hard work is what leads to success and/or victory, and perhaps that is why PED’s are such a controversial issue. While it is true that athletic champions work incredibly hard for their accomplishments, it is not necessarily true that they work harder than their less-than-champion counterparts. Teammates who run the same drills at the same team practices possess dramatic skill disparities between one another.

So, is it unfair for a 40-year-old baseball player to use PED’s that give them an even playing field with a youthful 20-year-old? If not, then why not? Furthermore, because it has not been proven that losers don’t also use PED’s, then judging winners and labeling them 'cheaters’ when they use PED’s is unfair, imbalanced, and absurd. For example, the cyclists that Lance Armstrong annihilated were also using PED’s, but nobody seemed to care because they were/are losers.

If we entertain the fantastical notion that all competitors begin equally, then the only way to achieve fairness is to allow all competitors to use PED’s so that ‘cheaters’ cannot gain an advantage over ‘non-cheaters' by secretly using drugs. However, if it is true (which it is) that players do not have an equal foundation of athletic abilities, then we must acknowledge that sports were never 'fair' or 'equal' from the start, and allowing disadvantaged players to use PED’s could effectively equalize competitors' strengths in some respects, and, "level the playing field".

You’re Welcome,

Leland “Lee” McKnight

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