don't do drugs

In the last few days a story has been breaking about how a doctor in the UK has revealed to an under cover journalist that he has regularly prescribed performance enhancing drugs to a number of British athletes including (amongst others) footballers, runners and, perhaps least surprisingly, cyclists.

No big deal.  This sort of thing has been going on in sport probably since sport was invented when the world was black and white (i.e. back in the 1950’s I think).

No.  The biggest surprise for me was that the person who blew the whistle on this doctor was an amateur cyclist.  An amateur!

Surely you participate in sport as an amateur because you love it, right?  Not because it pays you a salary to furnish your bills; or because in order to carry on competing you have to continuously improve like a professional would to earn a new contract.

I competed as a racing cyclist at a modest level and enjoyed some success, but never once was I tempted to take any sort of performance enhancing drug.  But, and get this, I once went to see a prospective coach who was insistent that I should take certain drugs to improve my chances of success.  What for?  To win a trophy?  Certainly I was at no stage in my life to turn professional or anything like that.  Yet his insistence haunted me for years.  Perhaps I should have blown the whistle on him but I didn’t.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing I know.

When I was diagnosed with cancer my consultant was interested in my life story.  When I told him I was a racing cyclist he asked me straight out whether I had taken any form of performance enhancing drugs.  Why would any normal person racing on a weekend do that?

Yet some, I know, did; albeit only amphetamines.  And were caught and banned.  For the sake of winning a few quid or a silver cup.

Madness.

Winning as an amateur shouldn’t be the reason why you do something.  The joy of doing it should be enough.  And if you need drugs for that then there’s something seriously wrong with you.