What people need to realize is that this world simply isn't what it was 30-50 years ago. It seems self-explanatory, but many fail to see that every day.
Sure, 30-50 years ago we say that runners threw on their old, crappy sneakers and pounded out a 10 mile run before work and that's how you got to the top.
However, we've added more than a billion people the world's population since then. More countries are becoming developed and giving opportunities to high-level athletes. Fast runners are popping up all over the globe, sometimes in places never before known for it. The talent pool has always been there, but now it's more accessible to people all over the world. I mean heck, even Afghanistan is trying to send skiiers to the next Winter Olympics.
We live in an overpopulated world where to be world-class at anything you have to be a specialist and completely devoted. We talk of Olympic dreams but many countries get protested just for trying to apply to HOST the games! It's crazy.
Our technology has hit the point where we can analyze every second of a race bio-mechanically, and we can measure the amount of oxygen in your lungs at a given moment. We start getting so close to what humans can do that we aren't going to see huge gains anymore. I think about how long a straight-away mile is, and breaking the world record by four seconds is realistically not very far ahead of the next-fastest person. We know that every single second matters, and so you look for every advantage you can get. If you are at the top, why wouldn't you look for every possible legal way to stay there or advance? I think many on this board wish they had the time and finances to be able to delve into the "gray" area and see what happens.
Our world is no longer one for the purists.