Ben johnson hero or Villain

Most runners are not so foolish as to get caught. When Johnson did try to regain his honor he was tested again and this time was found loaded with human growth hormone. Of he had only stopped taking the drug 3 weeks before the urine test he would have been home free.

Neither nor, rather a victim
Practically all professional sports are tainted with performance enhancing drugs. In many branches it has become impossible to achieve success without doping and the athletes who see themselves forced by ambition and peer pressure to use the illegal substances run very serious health risks.

The quasi legality of it in some branches of sports (like body building) and the prevailing ideal of impossibly toned bodies is leading kids as young as 11 to ingest hormones and steroids in a quest for success and the status that comes with it.

This is not a problem that can be easily solved. Very frequent and strict testing and subsequent life bans are the best we can do, but there will always be those who slip through. I think jail time and restraining orders for the producers of the stuff and the trainers and coaches delivering it to the athletes should be enforced as well.

Ben Johnson was unlucky to have been found out, whereas the number two, who most likely also had taken drugs was lucky enough to escape detection, so one is a hero and the other a despised cheater. Katrin Krabbe, the German sprint wonder revealed, after retiring, that she had won all her races with the aid of doping, but she was never caught in the act so she got to keep all her medals and listings in the record books.

If all sport were still an amateur passtime, like in the days when the modern Olympics started, the problem wouldn't be this big. Money spoils a lot of good things.

Welcome to A2K Paaskynen

First of all, Hans, I don't really understand title of this thread. While I agree that most or all of them used doping, I don't see how would that fact make Ben Johnson a hero.

However, I do have serious problem with doping issue. On Sydney Olympics Romanian gymnast was disqualified and her silver medal was taken because, by her story, she used regular average nose-spray for her mild cold.
Now, of course there is pretty good possibility that it was lie and that those substances entered her body in a shape of something different.
BUT, according to IOC themselves, her story can be true. So, where does it leads us if you can be disqualified for using a nose-spray?
And on the other hand, in many sports, you can use a lot of drugs, you just have to report it before competition. It's well known "fact" that most of competitors on Tour de France (world's toughest cycling race) are poor guys that in their 20's and 30's are so terribly sick that they need a lot of medication - most of them have asthma, serious lung problems, etc...It turns out that Tour de France is actually race for seriously ill people.

I am totally against doping, but there are lot of completely wrong things involved in fight against it. On one side of the story you have nose-spray that is forbidden (I mean, when you have cold, and you use it, do you suddenly feel like you are faster, stronger and more flexible?) and on the other side many medications that actually do have such effect are okay, only if your team doctor signs that you, world's top class athlete, have asthma.

When caught, Johnson said "I could have run faster on grass"

If we are to believe their word, no athlete has ever used performance enhancing drugs and if they get caught it is due to inadvertent ingestion or flawed procedures or foul play.

The fact remains that, for example, all athletes on the podium of the world women athletics championship: Kelli White, Anastasiya Kapachinskaya and Torri Edwards have since tested positive for doping. Isn't it sad: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics_2004/athletics/3895607.stm

It soils the image we have of our sports stars, who instead of standing ot as examples of dedication to hard work, come accross as pitiful cheats and junkies.

One of our UK comedians probably got it right when he said that performance enhancement was fine - next time he was in the 100m, he would use a motorbike. It is all becoming rather pointless - but reflects the impact of money. In a different way, look at Formula One the cash has guaranteed success for one team, two have gone bust and the race is just a procession.