Drugs in sports

[BitBuster]

...what's the big deal? It's all about money and cut-throat actions anyway, so why not? Let 'em do whatever they want to get to the top, so long as they're not taking out hits on their opponents.

[AdrenalinDragon]

Everyone has to be treated equally though, otherwise it's cheating because one player has an advantage over the others. Again, it depends on the type of sports though.

[BitBuster]

...hey, ideally it would be a free country and players could choose to use drugs or not.



Just as a player can choose to train heavily or he/she can choose to sit around all day and watch telly, they can choose to use drugs or not.

[rockdet]

I half-agree with that, I just don't know why yet

[BigOto2]

In my opinion, sports should be about using one's own pure ability, and plus we don't want drugs to become the standard (VERY unhealthy). It's just like in chess, the top grandmasters don't use cheat engines to take down their opponents, do they?

[BitBuster]

...well, you had Topalov accusing Kramnik of going to the bathroom and consulting computers. Not to mention Korchnoi showing up completely hammered at tournaments. And then there's the accusations that Karpov used amphetamines...



Seriously, though, "pure ability" is a somewhat grey area. You don't fault athletes for eating a certain diet or performing a certain exercise regime; why harp on drugs?

[rockdet]

Kinda true, but what if you're not ready to do such a sacrifice, yet having the potential to be in the elite...

Edit: Oh man, 400 posts. That's pretty great.

[BitBuster]

Kinda true, but what if you're not ready to do such a sacrifice, yet having the potential to be in the elite...

...ok, think of it this way (back to chess, 'cause that's the only sport I'm halfway conversant with). Capablanca had an AMAZING talent. The guy barely studied the game, and yet he demolished most of his opposition.

Imagine, now, that he was born in 1990. He would have NO CHANCE against Magnus Carlsen, etc. Why? Because Carlsen and his peers study openings, etc. Capablanca wouldn't do that, and in 2012, his enormous talent wouldn't make up for his laziness, the way it did in 1921.



All sports/arts/etc. involve some sort of sacrifice. For some, it's putting in more hours of practice than you'd like to. For others, it's the decision to indulge in performance-enhancing drugs...

[BigOto2]

Things like a certain food or diet don't matter, it's things like drugs that *directly* affect your performance that matter. While I may improve my CC performance by practicing beforehand or playing when I'm in a good mood, I certainly don't use computers or memory hacks to alter the path of the blobs.

Studying chess based on certain openings is using the game itself to improve and play better, just like if one were to use certain techniques and maneuvers in sports that they learned and are perfectly within the rules, it isn't cheating.

[BitBuster]

...cheating is something of a grey area. I'm talking about "sacrifices" one is willing to make. For some, that "sacrifice" might be the time it takes to practice; for others, it might be the health risk involved in substance abuse.



Food and diet CERTAINLY matter; they are perhaps less glamorous than other aspects of sport training, but they are still very important.