What if Steroids were Allowed in Sports

August 3, 2016

How many athletes would use them if they were allowed? Steroids will never be unbanned, but we already have seen what happens when prominent athletes use them.   One doesn't have to look very long ago to see the athletes from the Russian 2014 Winter Olympics team. This well-publicized and documented scheme of doping was orchestrated at the highest levels in their sporting hierarchy.  They used sophisticated methods to mask their testing and achieved great success at the Games. I cannot wrap my mind around why they felt they would get away with this crime when almost all others in the past have gone down in a blaze of glory. For those who decide to partake in the usage, it comes down to risk and reward.

Steroids, growth hormones, blood doping, and all other ways to enhance performance are not ever going away. The only way to slow it down is to make the punishment for getting caught harsh enough to deter.  Lifetime bans on incrimination may be the last step to rid the majority of the cheating. Even then, some fools will take the risk, especially if it means a chance at a big paycheck.  Most athletes know when they will get tested, so they cycle their schemes around those test dates.  Random testing catches a few, but I don't think it has deterred usage with results that most sports entities are looking for.

A solution with a Libertarian bend would be to lift all bans on usage and doping and let the forces have their way. Does it sound like madness? Records and statistics would go away because guys would probably smack 90 home runs a year unless the pitchers are so much better than fewer home runs are hit. The usage would shorten the lives of many of the users, all statistics would have an asterisk placed next to them, and children would get their hands on them. Bad idea, can't happen, won't happen.

Now we're back to punishment as the only deterrent. Public shaming has already been used as a way of ridiculing the guilty, but as you know, it has its limits. The professional sports leagues need to get tougher to combat the usage, but they get pushback from player's unions. The middle ground may be to have mandates placed in contracts that if you get caught using, then you will have your contract revoked matter what is guaranteed. Let's face it, people go down the enhancement path because of big paydays and that they are reinstated after serving a suspension.

It will come down to the players agreeing to harsher punishments, not the owners.   The owners like the results that enhanced players bring, but they hate it more when they get caught; it reflects on their brand and franchises to allow cheating. The battle still needs to be fought over the stricter rules, which will involve a lot of litigation and negotiating.  In the end, the players should want a level playing field, but somehow the change is coming slow.  Because the process is slow, newer methods are being discovered, and ways of cheating are evolving faster than the rule makers can keep up with.

The Olympics are almost here, so don't be surprised to hear more and more about cheaters taking the risk. Unfortunately, we will have to question if a world record is set in track and field races or Russian victories and some of the most innocent appearing participants being skeptically examined. The whole Olympic doping scheming goes back over 30 years, and who knows how many world records were set with juiced athletes.  I will watch and enjoy the Games for what they are and never mind the suspicious activity. Otherwise, why have them at all?