Athletes as role models
Tonight in Britain the BBC will host
a veritable orgy of UK sport self-aggrandizement as it celebrates its Sports
Personality of the Year Award. And why not? 2012 has been a year like no other.
The short list has been extended from ten to twelve [1] and includes eleven
Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists (many with more than one gold) the Tour
de France winner, US open tennis champion and the US PGA golf champion who
heads the current money list in both Europe and the USA. The complete short
list is: Nicola Adams, Ben Ainslie, Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, Katherine
Grainger, Sir Chris Hoy, Rory McIlroy, Andy Murray, Ellie Simmonds, Sarah
Storey, David Weir and Bradley Wiggins. Double Olympic gold medallists
Charlotte Dujardin and Laura Trott didn’t even make this top 12.
So there is no doubt we have an
elite set of athletes who are role models for being single minded in achieving
success. And I should add coaches as the UK cycling supremo David Brailsford
could walk into a top job in any FTSE 100 company given his organizational and
motivational skills.
But should these athletes be role
models in life as well as in sport? During the summer here was much grumbling
about the lifestyle and uncouth nature of premiership footballers compared to
our Olympic heroes. Indeed even the crowds were different as I noted when I
watched Team GB playing football at Wembley compared to England. Watching
football at the Olympics was an altogether more wholesome experience, not least
because of the much higher proportion of women and children in the crowd. The
feeling was more good-natured and less tribal – much more like watching an
“American” football or baseball match [2].
We should be careful not to view
this all through middle class rose-tinted spectacles. Some of my best
experiences of watching football have been standing in the terraces at a lower
league English football match when your side scores the winning goal and the
stadium literally rocks. And UK Olympic gold medallists are far more likely to
come from privileged private school backgrounds than their premiership football
counterparts [3].
Yet the question remains should we
look up to our elite sports people as role models for life as well as sports
performance? I have always thought we should take athletes on their own terms,
warts and all. If they play or run fast, I don’t care about their personal life
or habits. Ryan Giggs may have an unsavoury love life but, even though he plays
football for Manchester United, I can still admire him as an athlete.
How does this relate to drugs in
sport? Well in order to be banned a doping agent or method needs to fail two
out of three tests. The three tests are that it is: performance enhancing;
harmful to health; and against the “spirit of sport”. The latter is defined by
the World Anti Doping Agency” as the celebration of the human spirit, body and
mind, characterized by values such as: Ethics, fair play and honesty; Health;
Excellence in performance; Character and education; Fun and joy; Teamwork;
Dedication and commitment; Respect for rules and laws; Respect for self and
other Participants; Courage; Community and solidarity. Motherhood and apple pie
were surprisingly left of this list, but you can get the drift of this message.
Recreational drugs are banned in
many sports even though there is no good data that they are performance
enhancing (cocaine springs to mind). But they are still harmful to health and
against the spirit of sport. Two strikes means you are out. Giving evidence to
the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee in 2006 the then UK
Minister of Sport Richard Caborn said that he would wish to “look very
seriously” at the Prohibited List with a view to removing what he believes are
“social drugs”. The Minister felt that WADA’s role was to root out cheats in
sport and to stop athletes using drugs which enhance performance, rather than
to be in the “business of policing society” [4].
What do people think today? I
assumed that Richard Caborn’s views would be commonplace. I was therefore
surprised when I asked the question of to my University of Essex undergraduate
students. They were strongly of the opinion that elite athletes are role models
and therefore if they are caught taking recreational drugs they should be
banned from sport. Of course it is possible that those who spoke up in the
lecture were the most anti-drug, but I didn’t get that impression. It seems the
youth of today do really care about their sportspeople as more than just
athletic machines. They want them to be great people as well as great athletes.
Not for the first time in my 50th decade, I felt a bit out-of-touch
with young people and somewhat humbled by their idealism.
Notes
[2] I should note in passing that
there was nothing quite so wholesome about some of the football. Senegal were
one of the dirtiest teams I have ever watched. It was a bit like watching
Holland play Spain in the last world cup final - the most brutal tackles you
would see in a Sunday pub league intermixed with the silky skills of a top
premiership club.
