There's a big problem in this country, a big problem in sports. Someone needs to step up, say enough is enough, and we're going to do what we can do to combat that problem.
Jim Scherr, CEO of the United States Olympic Committee, commenting on the U.S. situation
I know I owed quite a lot to fellow athletes around me who were a model to live by. If it wasn't the inspiring endurance of runners like Todd Volk, Tony White Bull or Jeff Turning Heart, it was looking at the achievement in sports such as wrestling. Fellow South Dakota sports teammate in track & field, Jim Scherr, with his brother Bill, are examples of this.
In the statement above, Jim has framed the crux of competitive sports in plain, unequivocal language. I hope he realizes he may be the one who can step up--and put a stop to all of it. With a little help from powerful friends. The malady calls for concerted action, not just from within the sports world's governance organizations.
Sports heroes are looked up to, set an example for others to follow and plant seeds of hope in young athletes who truly believe in them. This year, I have noticed a failure on the part of professional road bicyclists to grasp their role model function. As one confession after another rolled in to the news ticker here in Germany over the past few months, there has been surprisingly and disappointingly little talk about the squandered chances to set a positive example to young people. With media focusing on the failings of certain big names, they are not providing coverage about the underlying dilemma. Through ineffective leadership and insufficient stewardship, a wonderful sport is being dragged down by blood doping and drug abuse. With each passing interview and confession, I have yet to see a role model look into the camera and frankly admit the sense of shame he must feel that he has disappointed the next generation of aspiring cyclists who are looking up to him.
Where is the "I am sorry." directed at young athletes?
Instead only one word of "Bedauern" (regret) creeps in, while looking quite unconcerned, the focus is on the embarrassment of the individual athlete and the self-centered shame of the nation affected. Accusations of complicity between athletes and organizers are passed back and forth. The sport in general and the tour in particular morphs into a farce with teams wanly protesting by refusing to start at the starting line. Credibility suffers. A general sense of unease emerges and dishonor to the establishment and community. Cyclists who admit to manipulation or doping are punished, though the penalties may not impress them, they are so oversponsored. After admitting their error, they are back on the saddle somewhere.
What needs to happen
It is certainly a tragicomic affair this year and devastating to those who love the sport. Funnily, though, I am not seeing a strong, grass-roots emotional tug anywhere, just unease. It may be too late to reschedule the tour to next year and have a blackout moratorium until the rules are rewritten so the farce can be stopped. A needed step back so the seed of hope in young cyclists is not suffocated. But it would not have been a bad move.
Maybe a gold medal 10k winner in Tokyo is in fact among the racers - one who will get up after stumbling and win people's hearts over. Someone who will speak up for the values which have to come into focus for the sport to regain its place as a great test of honest endurance. Is it possible that a fallen racer will reconsider and start a campaign for reinstating the honor and pride the sport has lost. The rules can't merely be changed, a sea-change needs to be set in motion, too.
Afterthought - but my main point.
See Bill Bradley's book Life on the Run where, significantly at the close of his popular book, we find him and his teammate at a basketball clinic, passing their knowledge and skills on to younger people. Senator Bradley's book tells of Willis Reed explaining the basic low post moves a center should have down pat for his defender, going through the motions for 50 young school kids on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. "After you drive once you've got him set up for the drop dribble. ... take one bounce away from the basket, turn, and shoot. You'll have him flat-footed." Bradley continues by relating how "Willis gives the group a little lecture about hard work, responsibility, and the need to set goals. He says practice and study go hand in hand with a clean life. He speaks with the assurance of a man whose life has been built upon moral certainties. ... The kids are enraptured. 'There isn't much these days that hasn't been done,' he says. 'There's been a man on the moon and somebody has already run a mile in 3:55. But you have a chance for a real first: One of you can be the first Indian to play in the NBA.'"
