Malcolm Gladwell highlights two instances in last week’s Sports Illustrated of athletes (legally) using other tools to enhance their performance, and concludes:
It’s such a relief “performance enhancing drugs” are banned from professional sports, isn’t it? We have no idea what their long-term health consequences are, and there’s a real possibility they offer users an “unfair” advantage.
Oh, dang! You’ve got us all nailed, Mr. Gladwell. We’re all just hypocrites who drummed up the steroids controversy because we really were out to get Fernando Vina.
There will always be athletes looking for an edge, and they will always probably be a half step ahead of the rules and enforcement.
I don’t think that implies, as Gladwell seems to be suggesting, that we must just throw our hands up in the air and say everything goes. There will likely always be poverty, racism, homophobia, violence, and abuse in the world. That doesn’t mean we don’t try to stop what we can out of fear of being inconsistent because we didn’t get rid of it all.
UPDATE: Gladwell has a new post up in which he says he is not advocating legalizing steroids, but pointing out the incoherence of the current culture around it. Fine, but not terribly interesting.
