Wednesday, 06 August 2008
Homer Simpson coined the phrase "professional athletes, always wantin more" and little did old Homer know that he might have been right. The Olympics brings into sharp focus the fact that athletes will misbehave and the paparazzi will be there to record it all for our guilty pleasure. Professional athletes will play up there is no doubt but there are varying degrees in which these indiscretions are catergorised. But unfortunately for the professional in any sports behaving badly is amplified because of the public profile. This is a double edged sword. The fame gives athletes money and status but as the cameras are there to record the rise they are there to see the fall. And the public consumes this like nothing else. One act of behaving badly must be Tamsyn Lewis for example, Australia's 800m hope in Beijing, came out and said that she would be racing drug cheats at the Games. "I have got to the point where this is just farcical and simply unfair on the athletes who are clean and get there on their own merit," Lewis said. Pretty powerful stuff there's no doubt. The answer to that came from marathon legend Steve Moneghetti who said on radio that Lewis was searching for an excuse so that if she underachieves she is 'covered'. Surely Athletics Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee must be punching the air listening to this exchange. Lewis' singlehandedly casting shadows over the entire sport of athletics, but not herself of course. The media jumped all over the spat and I guess someone got what they wanted out of it and that is some more exposure. Although as far as behaving badly goes this was little lightweight. Then there was the local case of two AFL footballers getting into a car and crashing it while the driver was under the influence. They lied about who was in the car and sent the local scribes and talk back shows into a tailspin. These guys have been suspended for the rest of the season (4 games) and there is talk that one of them will be traded at season's end. In the Southern states of Australia this was a huge story. If these two were average Joes then nothing would have been mentioned. The price of fame. The three cyclists caught out at this year's Tour were the prime example of the Homer Simpson comment. These guys gave no thought to the consequences as they wanted it all. Unfortunately so did the testers! Just like any good media scrum there was the usual carnage. But the wheel will turn and those who transgress will come and go. In the mean time we hope that those indiscretions will be kept on ice for the next two weeks in China. Not likely given the recent events with the Russian team. But in some macabre way it will be interesting watching!
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