Happy New Year! We wish you a clean one!

This is the holiday season. A time of year where, without fail, during a family dinner ou a gathering among friends, a topic of discussion will end up catching your attention. Personally, that topic that puts my patience to the test usually comes to the forefront around the month of July, during the Tour de France. Exceptionally this year, it will come up during the holiday period because Russia recently made the headlines, for reasons you already know. We are of course talking about doping in sports. In hopes it will make for good reading ! Unless you’ve been far, far away these past few weeks, you have probably read about or heard of Russia being disqualified from the Olympic movement for the next four years, having been accused of falsifying findings stemming from drug testing. When you heard about the news, you may have had one of the following reactions :

1. ‘This is no surprise. They all take drugs anyway.’

or

1. ‘Why bother, why not let them all take drugs ? May the best (drugged) athlete win !’

When I hear the first affirmation, I never know how to react. Because they don’t all take drugs. And when one says ‘they all take drugs’, who are we talking about exactly ? The Russians ? Athletes from a specific sport ? Or, even worse, about everyone who has taken part in the Olympics, all sports and countries combined ? But I prefer to assume that people say that sort of thing without thinking. I’ve surely said such gratuitous things about topics that aren’t as close to my heart, without thinking as well. So all things being equal, I know it sounds judgmental but that it wasn’t really meant to be mean, that it doesn’t really reflect one’s thinking. To think that everyone takes drugs is like thinking that no one pays taxes. It is true that some do not, but if you really think that no one pays them, your head needs to be adjusted. The truth is, there are a whole lot of athletes who think that winning clean, at the price of all the sacrifices one must make as an athlete, brings a level of satisfaction that cannot be bought – be it with money, through corruption or with doping. And just like people who pay their taxes do, we sleep well at night. I recommend it to everyone. To those who are more enclined to think like what is in the second affirmation : what follows is addressed to you. Why not let all athletes take drugs ? I’ve even heard someone say the following : ‘I want to see how far the human body can go.’ Well… Where should I begin ?

I would begin by saying that an athlete’s health is something that is important. Especially because once an athlete retires, he or she will still have at least 40 to 50 years to live, and will want to be in good health at that time. The rest of one’s life can be a long time. Because if you’ve become sterile at age 30, that podium you won as a doped athlete will weigh heavy on your heart. Because if your tendons have become so worn out that you aren’t even able to play ball hockey in the alley, who’s the champion now ? Because if you have to live with cardiovascular disease the rest of your life, that isn’t exactly the perfect picture of glory that you had drawn in your head. Athletes are not circus animals. They will have a life after putting on their show. Have you ever considered that ? A clean athlete who trains year-long will deal with painful training sessions, with exhaustion, with muscle soreness, with doubt and tons of advice on the best ratio of proteins versus carbohydrates to put in his ‘bio-shakes’. And should always remember to drink enough water ! Every morning, he or she will feel the weight from the previous day’s training session. A little tired, but feeling the satisfaction of having improved a little. One step back, two steps forward. It’s all in the dosing. It’s an endless stream of finetuning. The doped athlete will also have to deal with painful training sessions. That’s it. Nothing else. No cycle of fatigue to manage, no overtraining and so on. Every morning, the body will have recovered and will be ready to move on to the next level. Two steps forward… none back. No need to count how many grams of protein. Over a few months, the athlete will have made enormous strides. But we must not put our head in the sand. Doping is more prevalent than ever in the world of sports and Russia’s disqualification is entirely justified if the allegations turn out to be true. Doping robs clean athletes not only of the exposure that a win gives them, but also of the moment of glory that they’ve always dreamed of, but never will get to experience. Feeling the roar of an ecstatic crowd expressing joy when you cross the finish line cannot be compared at all to receiving a medal by mail 8 years later because the 6 athletes who finished ahead of you ended up testing positive. That is a moment you will never get back. Financially, the sponsors will not contact you like they would have done had you initially stepped on that podium like you should have had. The vehicle that the local car dealer would have given you as part of a sponsorship deal, you’ve ended up having to pay for. The lucrative lectures that you could have given will never come to be. The athlete who has benefitted from doping for years, even if they catch him later, will still have invested his money in the meantime. And when the controversy will have died down, he or she will be able to write a book on the hard times he/she has had to go through (while avoiding the topic of the dollars he/she has in the bank and how financially set for life he/she is), and will go on the talk-show circuit – and collect the money that comes with it – to explain why he/she regrets making those life choices. As for the pride you feel when you have won as a clean athlete, it’s worth more than anything you get from winning while cheating. The power of being able to look anyone in the eye and tell them, ‘I won clean’ only belongs to those who have had the heart to take the longer road. And even if it turns out that you don’t win that gold medal, ask yourself this question : that drug-tainted gold medal, that undeserved promotion, that stolen money… would you be proud to tell your story to your children ? Or, to put it quite simply, would you even tell the truth ? That’s what I thought. Happy New Year, everyone. We wish you a clean one !