Should doping be allowed? This was the question raised to the Sports Working Group members shortly after Lance Armstrong, America’s former professional road racing cyclist, confessed his use of doping to media mogul Oprah Winfrey not so long ago.
The first response was not surprising: a member asking if it was a joke asking to allow doping? If you cheat, you do not play fair. However, not everybody agrees. Some believe that if everybody uses doping in cases such as cycling then why not allowing it? The sport fanatics of AEGEE disagree loudly. Zoi from AEGEE-Athina says “First of all doping is bad for the athletes’ health. We have many examples of deaths at a young age most probably because of doping and that’s really sad. And then I believe that everybody should compete with their own natural abilities and show what they are capable of. If I take the “right” medicine maybe even I could win the marathon, is that the point? Not for me, and I am totally against doping.”
It is curious that fair play is not promoted much at all levels. FIFA does it in football, but what about the other sports? Though not having much relevance of doping it is interesting to mention a big sportive gesture that took place in Spain in December. The 2nd of December an athlete from Kenya, Abel Mutai, who won the bronze medal in 3000 m. steeplechase in the London Olympics last year, was close to win in Spain as when he entered last step of the race he thought he had won so he took the pace down, relaxed and started saluting the audience. Behind him came Iván Fernández Anaya, a 24 year old Spanish athlete who had the opportunity to win but instead of accelerating for the win, stayed behind Mutai, making gestures to make him understand (and almost pushed him forward) that he was letting him finish in the first place. Fernández is considered to be an athlete with a bright future and former Spanish champion says about the episode: “Even if they had told me that had I won I would secure a spot on the Spanish national team, I wouldn’t have taken advantage of the situation. I think that my action was better than if I had won. This means a lot, because today with how things are in all environments, in football, in the society, in politics where it appears that everything matters, a gesture of honesty goes well.” Unfortunately, this is a gesture that very few people know about. (The story has been retrieved from here)
It is important to promote fair play and actions like the one mentioned above together with promotion of how it is possible to be physical active without consuming products dangerous to your body, and the European Union agrees “The problems caused by doping are obvious – it undermines the principle of fair competition, discourages people from taking part in or following sports and poses a real risk to health. The EU is funding research projects in this area and is also in regular contact with relevant bodies, including the World Anti-Doping Agency.” (http://europa.eu/pol/spo/index_en.htm)
And this discussion has made the Sports Working Group start working on a ”Europe on Bike” project taking participants of a potential event from AEGEE local to another promoting fair play, sports, health and combating physical inactivity amongst other topics. The discussion about doping is not new, but the confessions from Armstrongs are and hopefully many people will support and take part in building an interesting project such as “Europe on Bike”.
Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København