Kelly

This steroids thing is getting out of hand. We've always heard about steroids in athletics for years especially our good friend Ben Johnson who was running 9.79 and other such times when Asafa was a bwoy. I recall the East German steroid stories and there is the continuing controversy over the current Tour de France.

As the years have passed, we've seen various sports getting dragged into this doping business. Weightlifting, bodybuilding, football, (the American version too) and even cricket. But recently, one of the veteran golfers Gary Player (great last name to be a sportsman by the way), said he knew of doping in golf. Golf? So they take steroids to help them hit the ball harder when they're teeing off? Or they take nerve tablets to keep their hands steady while they putt? Or maybe they take some sedative to keep themselves calm after shanking a shot?

I know golf is not as easy as it looks. In fact, it's quite a precise game. Choosing the right club, gauging the wind conditions, keeping your posture right as you swing and having a cool head under pressure are all par for the course (no pun intended). But steroids? For golf? What next? Growth hormones to help you play chess? Or, how about increased enamel to strengthen your teeth for a bun-eating contest?

Of course there is always a serious and jocular side to the things I write. The comical side of it just went. Seriously, if Player's allegations are true, then one of the sports which I have come toappreciate over the years is just as tainted. It would mean that one of the world's oldest sports has become marred by some of the world's newest ways to cheat.

The stakes in professional sports, regardless of what that sport is, have become incredibly high. Endorsement deals, broadcast rights and of course the gamblers, all mean that the impetus to win has increased tenfold. Now when an athlete says he/she has to win, it might be because he/she really has to maybe to pay off some bad debts with even worse people. So they do all they can, legally or otherwise, to give themselves a better chance than every other competitor. Somehow, when I heard the allegations on drugs in golf, I think that's when I truly felt that the purity in sports was indeed gone.

Whether these reports are true or not, who knows where steroids will show up next in the world of sports. Don't be surprised if parents start giving their children brain stimulants for the Spelling Bee. Hey, it could happen!

Stay clean with me at daviot.kelly@gleanerjm.com