In response to this post:
No one's asking her to "be a fan" or line up for Efimova autographs. Look at Bolt after beating Gatlin in Beijing last year. Shake hands and move on.
Athletes that shriek the loudest about dopers - especially after winning - look like they have something to hide. Remember Lance and Paula?
Respectfully, I disagree.
- The IOC and FINA don't want athletes to speak out because they believe that it will damage the brand -- as if not saying anything about doping means that it never happened. The only way to reduce the scourge of doping is to change the culture locally, nationally, and internationally. The only way to change culture at the IOC and FINA, it seems, is to shine a light on the corrupt organizations and systems that enable and then conceal doping. I applaud King and the other athletes who have spoken out against the corrupt culture and deals that characterize sport today -- cheating, bribery, etc. thrive in darkness, after all.
- It is worth remembering that Lily King is a 19 year old NCAA athlete. Not a grizzled pro with a freaking building named after her at headquarters. To the people who say that she is an attention seeker, I ask you to consider whether whistleblowing and outspokenness helps or hurts the careers of young athletes. From what I can see, most athletes are too afraid to speak out -- they fear loss of a sponsor, inability to get a sponsor, an inability to get a lane in major meets, being pilloried in the press a la Shirley Babashoff. (Insert any number of T&F athletes here -- e.g., Lisa Dobrisky.) My bet is that Lily King will never get rich from swimming. Indeed, I suspect most people will forget her name five minutes after the games are over. (Think about it . . . does the name Rebecca Soni mean anything to most people? She won gold in the 200 breast in the Olympics last time out and set a world record.) There are like 3 pro swimmers who actually make money in the US -- really, just Phelps in the US and Missy Franklin (though Missy is having a brutal games and likely will see her value drop significantly). The VAST majority of US swimmers make squat. King responded honestly when questions were put to her. She did not give US athletes a pass when questioned. She believes in life-time bans, apparently. I don't think that expressing these views was attention-seeking.
- Sure, maybe she is cheating. I tend to doubt it. Again, she's 19 years old. She just finished her frosh year at college. I think it is unlikely that (i) she and her family worked out a secret doping scheme while she was still in high school sharing lanes in sh*t pools, and (ii) she somehow managed to continue with a secret doping scheme during her frosh year of college. Maybe I am wrong. Time will tell. And, if I am wrong, then let her get banned for life. As I said before, no sport or country has a monopoly on doping -- or competing clean. Test and ban. Let the chips fall where they may.
- I keep coming back to the number of athletes who had their moment in the sun stolen by dopers -- Bekkie Scott, Adam Nelson getting his medal in a food court, all of the 800 meter female runners cheated by Savinova et al, the female swimmers from the 76 Olympics from around the world (not just the US). I can understand why athletes want lifetime bans. Not getting the gold, not getting a medal, not making the final, not making teams -- there are so many collateral consequences for clean athletes.
- As for swimming, I remember the 76 Olympics, since I was a young age group swimmer then. The East German women won 11 of 13 medals. Watch what happens when the US women won the last relay -- athletes from around the world congratulated the US team after they won. Everyone knew. But Shirley Babashoff was killed in the media when she said something. Everyone lost. Clean athletes lost. Doped athletes lost. (Watch the documentaries about the East Germans -- many of them have suffered horribly as a result of state sponsored doping. Those few who spoke out, after Stasi files revealed the state sponsored doping, then lost again when they were branded traitors.) I remember Michelle Smith -- the Irish swimmer coached by her sketchy husband -- who came out of nowhere to win gold but later got in trouble when she tampered with her sample. This isn't nationalist pride on my part -- I am sure there are US swimmers who have doped. Again, though, the only way to really get a doping is to raise the stakes for athletes AND make it difficult for the IOC and governing bodies to sweep doping under the rug. Test and ban. Don't make the story about whether some 19 year old should have congratulated an athlete who served a doping ban.
