Sports cheaters in denial

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I still have very faint hopes that it will turn out Landis did not use drugs, but the hopes grow dimmer all the time.

It got me thinking about all the other athletes who have denied wrongdoing and been proven wrong. Then I remembered the notorious Rosie Ruiz who jumped into the Boston Marathon a half-mile from the finish and claimed to be the women’s winner back in 1980.

Having run Boston twice myself, I know what people look like at the finish, and she was far too fresh to have even run a 10K.

As she was not even sweating and did not have a hair out of place, it became pretty obvious what had happened. Further investigation proved than no pictures at all showed her running, none of the spectators or other runners had seen her (pretty odd if she was a front runner) and some spectators eventually came forward saying they saw her jump in.

On top of that, she evidently did the same thing in the NYC Marathon that qualified her for Boston. Later on she was arrested twice for stealing money and selling coke.

To this day she still insists that she ran the entire race and refuses to admit any cheating.

Thinking of all the denials of proven wrongdoing by athletes, it makes me wonder what the psychology is. Do they come to really believe they are innocent, or are they just good liars?

2

I think that motives vary as widely as those of most cheaters, liars and petty criminals.

A sense of entitlement. A cry for attention. To justify suffering past wrongs (actual or imagined).

Why persist in the lie?

Sometimes mental illness. Sometimes not being able to face the music. A lie, if told often enough, sometimes becomes the easier course of action than having to explain why one persisted in the lie for that long. It steamrolls.

3

“I have never knowingly used any banned substances.”

I think that quite often that statement is likely to be true. They say “Doc, I want to win, but don’t tell me what you’re giving me so that I can deny having taken it.”

4

If they couldn’t justify it to their own conscience in the first place, they wouldn’t do it. I don’t see much reason why the justification should change just because they got caught. If they’ve convinced themselves that it was okay to do, then they can just keep believing that reasoning. And I think we all know how easy it is to deceive ourselves when we need to. Besides, if you just keep lying about it, you don’t have to face up to it. Always better to the one in the right when everybody else is wrong.

5

Actually, that’s very close to what happens. A several years ago (late 90’s), a young rider I know raced for a summer in Europe and caught the eye of a lower level professional team. They offered him a contract for a season. That’s what everyone dreams about. The contract required him to take whatever the team doctor gave him, no questions asked. He returned to the States and quit riding. I think that some riders may never know if they are doping, at least at some point in their career.

6

Now THAT is very interesting and may explain a lot!

7

This Landis scandal has been the last straw for me. I’ve had it up to here with the drugging and hormones in professional sports. In addition, I’m disgusted with the taking of dives and faking of injuries in soccer. I vow that I’m not watching any more sports on television and financing these greedy, cheating crybabies.

Wow, that must mean I’d have to give up hockey. I don’t know if I can extend the ban to cover hockey.

8

Maybe we should all start watching professional wrestling? At least they don’t try to pretend it’s not fake. :smiley:

9

Landis was tested eight times during the Tour and only after the 17th stage did he test positive. It’s my understanding that steriod use must start “weeks” before an event to have any ‘beneficial’ affects. My question is – why would Landis take steriods during the Tour when it couldn’t have had a positive affect on his performance?

10

I’ve had some pretty serious talks with a rider that once considered trying to dope in Belgium.

He went to Belgium in the early 1990’s when EPO had basically just exploded onto the pro and semi-pro scene. Things had gotten hella fast (and have never really slowed down, to be honest). You could pick it up at any pharmacy, it wasn’t horribly expensive, and it was used extensively.

Basically, finishing races was almost impossible, he felt. He was down to the last of his money, he was feeling depressed, and he desperately wanted just a few results to take back home with him. If he had decided to use it, it would have been to equal the playing field and he didn’t really consider it cheating. In the end he decided that he would rather come back home without using EPO and at least have that going for him no matter what else happened.

He came back to America, said the racing wasn’t quite as fast but almost entirely clean and I guess he got his passion for the sport back. He retired from riding really seriously in the late 1990’s to start up his coaching business and he’s been doing really well ever since. But anyway, I think that the reason that people dope or at least start to dope is because they feel that it’s necessary to be in the game.

Why do they lie about it?

For rational reasons including to maintain some of their market value and hope that eventually they’ll be cleared.

Also, they might actually be innocent.

It’s complex and varies by the test, but dope tests *are * falliable.

At any rate, when athletes are posed with incontrovertible evidence to their doping they hardly ever lie about it. It’s really only with plausible deniability, frankly. When David Millar’s name came up circumstancially in a doping ring in early 2004, he called the accusers, “nutters,” got back into the peleton, and everything died down. When David Millar’s apartment was searched and they found EPO later that same year, he didn’t bother with any cockamany excuses or conspiracy theories; he just said, “sorry, I promise never to do it again,” and served a two year ban and then saddled up again for this year’s Tour.

Basically, they lie for the same reasons that other rational people lie: because they think they can get away with it. I think that the personalities of Landis and the naerdowell that claimed to have won the Boston Marathon by jumping in at the very end are worlds apart.