The Olympics: the Unity of Humankind - Essay Example

The Olympics have long been an important symbol in society for the unity of humankind. At these Games, countries traditionally put aside their differences in order to send their best athletes to compete on the world stage against one another. This tradition is what has made the Olympic Games so important to so many people, but it is also what has caused the drastic changes that have occurred to the event. What was once a symbol of peace in the world has become a multi-billion dollar event with major television revenues to be made for the International Olympic Committee and major endorsement dollars to be made for those who are successful at these events. No longer is sportsmanship the most important thing for an athlete, as winning a medal at any cost has become the predominant goal. The amount of money that is to be made at the Olympic is staggering and, therefore, it should come as no surprise that athletes now take a variety of performance enhancing drugs in order to aid their performances, as in order “to understand the problem of drug use in sport (referred to as "doping" in most of the world), you first have to understand something of the nature of competitive sport” (Pound 54). Pound also makes the statement that “doping remains the single greatest danger that faces sport today, ” (178) which is a significant statement because things like the inflated salaries of athletes and overexposure are major problems as well. The reason why this is such an important statement is because of the effect that doping is having on the athletes of the future, as student athletes are now turning to the same performance enhancing drugs that Olympic athletes use, which is continuing the cycle beyond the present generation of Olympians. The student athletes of today are the Olympians of tomorrow and doping among student athletes in constantly on the increase. The main reason why student athletes take steroids is to give them an advantage over the competition. In a society where the biggest and fastest players have the most value, there is pressure to fit the mold that coaches and scouts alike are looking for. Therefore, many athletes will do whatever it takes to meet this demand for speed and, many times, that means using steroids or other performance enhancers. Another thing that coaches look for in an athlete is strength. Since steroids decrease the time it takes to build muscle, they also work as a way of building up strength at a faster pace. For young athletes, pressure comes from many different sources and expectations can be very high. In order to meet these expectations, young athletes can feel almost forced to take performance enhancers. Most athletes know all about the dangers of using steroids, but they will take them anyway because of the advantage that it gives them over their competition. Since testing for steroids is such an expensive process, testing at the high school level is very rare and, therefore, the risk of the student athlete getting caught is pretty minimal. In California, “drug tests, especially for steroids, are exceptionally expensive ranging from $100-$200 per test and divert funds from more effective science-based prevention approaches“ (Drug Policy Alliance 2005). This is why Pound designed a plan to “make sure that participants understood the degree of commitment required for the fight against doping in sport, I indicated that an initial capital commitment of US$25 million would be required” (71). Many of these young athletes are consumed by the dream of making it as a competitive athlete and since there is inadequate testing at lower levels, they are able to get away with it. If it appears to them that their physical shortcomings will make that nearly impossible, then they pressure themselves into doing something about it. Many uneducated steroid users think that steroids are a quick fix that will almost immediately transform their bodies into those of a prototypical athlete. This is not true, however, as it still takes a lot of hard work, and working hard is much more effective and much safer than using any sort of performance enhancer. Pound also believes that much of the problem is the “lack of U.S. leadership in the fight against doping in sport. It was also partly because of the lack of commitment” (66). Pound also touches upon the impact that professional sports have had on this process. One of the major problems with professional sports is that there is a “technique adopted of making drug testing and anti- doping policy a matter of collective bargaining between the leagues and the players associations is, in my respectful view, designed to ensure that progress, if any, will be glacial” (64). This also has an impact on potential athletes, as they see that professional athletes, like “St. Louis star Mark McGwire publicly admitted that he used andro, a steroid compound, to build up his strength, which he applied to hitting a record number of home runs,” (63) get away with using these banned substances, so they continue using them. The problem with this is that if these athletes are also competing in an event that could potentially get them to the Olympics, any numbers that they have accumulated are not real and, therefore, Olympic committees are unsure of what an athlete’s true ability is. Doping is a major problem in sports at all levels and Dick Pound has realized this and is currently attempting to make a difference at a number of different levels. Since the International Olympic Committee is such an important body, its policies are often highly regarded. Dick Pound is the head of the anti-doping agency for the Committee, so he is a very influential man in this field. He knows that something must be done to protect the integrity of all athletes before doping gets too far out of control. Collegiate athletics are a growing commodity in the United States because of the fans’ love of these sports. NCAA football and basketball are especially popular things and their television deals alone bring in millions of dollars per season. That being said, the athletes whose hard work is enjoyed by millions of fans and whose devotion to the sports is what brings the television deals in, are not being rewarded in the manner that they should. They very often do not receive the same education that they would if they were not an athlete because their entire scholastic career revolves around their athletic ability, rather than their intelligence. The NCAA owns these players and controls everything that they do until they graduate from college, which is a process that needs to change quickly because it is not fair to the athletes or the universities as a whole . Even though “colleges and universities enjoy huge revenues from marketing their collegiate sports program and that the extraordinary profits resulting from these revenues are not shared with players who perform in the arena,” (Mondello and Beckham) these athletes are also becoming such a focal point at these schools that the education levels are decreasing. Boosters and administrators would rather win the big game than have a record number of academic all-Americans, which has put education a distant second at many major universities in the United States. Intercollegiate sports should implement a system where only students who have achieved a minimum academic standing, without any preferential treatment, are able to attend a school and, therefore, participate in on campus sports. The NCAA has moved from being non-profit organization that provides learning opportunities for student-athletes into a multi-billion dollar enterprise with a significant television deal. The association also has capitalized on selling jerseys, video games, and other products that are associated with NCAA sports programs. This has led to a huge problem, as the student athletes are only recognized for these exploits, rather than for being a good student that also happens to be an athlete. While some may believe that these athletes are receiving something that is very fair, in the form of an expensive education in exchange for helping to raise the university‘s reputation, this fact is dwarfed by the amount of money that is spent on these university teams in comparison to other things around campus. This is proved by the fact that “the NCAA is a financial institution that dwarfs its competitors -- the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball; in fact, it brings in more money annually than all three combined” (Barra). The amount of money that is present is growing significantly as well, as “in 2002 average revenues for BCS conference schools ranged from $27 million in the Big East to $44 million in the Big Ten. Average revenues in the other leagues ranged from $6.7 million in the Sun Belt to $18 million in the Mountain West. Revenues have more than doubled since 1993 in all BCS conferences, and average revenue increases in non-BCS conferences have been slightly lower, from 42% in the Sun Belt to 154% in the Mid-American” (Sylwester). What this means is that the NCAA is becoming more and more lucrative, but it is only the people at the top of the university sports programs that are receiving the benefits from this. The coaches of university football teams alone make millions of dollars each per season and these numbers rival the amounts that NFL coaches make, as “the players amateur status, which bars them from earning money from sports, account for the inflated salaries of athletic-department personnel, especially coaches of football and mens basketball“ (Porto 62). Something has to be done about this because eventually, student-athletes will decline so heavily academically that the schools will have no choice but to eliminate these programs. An important reason for the change in this policy is the risk of injury that these student athletes endure over the course of a season. Many of these players are counting on making a professional league in the future, so they need to be healthy. If a player is injured in college and, therefore, unable to continue on with a pro career, then he or she will have ruined his or her chance at making millions of dollars later on and will not be compensated for this loss, nor will he or she have received the proper education because of the special treatment that many athletes receive from their schools. Situations like this occur all the time, as players have their careers ended while playing in the NCAA every season and this is not fair to them because they are basically taking this huge risk and not acquiring the knowledge to move on another profession should their athletic careers fall short. This is made evident by the fact that “the NCAA does not want college athletes to be employees when that status would cost it and its member institutions money; however, it is willing to treat them as employees when doing so benefits coaches and athletic directors” (Porto 124). Employees of the NCAA would receive benefits should something happen to them, but the NCAA only wishes to capitalize on its athletes while they are in school, without having to potentially give something back later on. What should be done in intercollegiate sports is to have a system implemented that makes things fair for each and every student. This means that students would be allowed into schools based on their grades and then sports teams would be made out of these students that were able to get into these schools. Currently, a student in this situation is not a “student-athlete, but an athlete-student. Your main purpose is not to be an Einstein but a ballplayer, to generate some money, put people in the stands” (Porto 8). This system, however, does not appear to be viable, since the consumer wishes to see that biggest, strongest, and fastest athletes possible and the business of university sports has already exceeded the point of no return. Works Cited Barra, Allen. “The evil NCAA”. Salon.com. 13 October 2000. Viewed 6 March 2007. http://www.salon.com/news/sports/col/barra/2000/10/13/ncaa/index.html Drug Policy Alliance, 2005, viewed March 6 2007. http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/051805cahighschoolsteroids.cfm. Mondello, Michael J. and Beckham, Joseph. “Workers compensation and collegiate athletes: The debate over the pay for play model: A counterpoint”. Journal of Law and Education. July 2002. Viewed 6 March 2007. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3994/is_200207/ai_n9112066 Porto, Brian L. A New Season: Using Title IX to Reform College Sports (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2003). Pound, Richard W. Inside the Olympics: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Politics, the Scandals, and the Glory of the Games (Canada: Wiley, 2004) Sylwester, Mary Jo. “Athletics expenses gobble up revenues”. USA Today. 16 April 2004. Viewed 6 March 2007. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2004-04-16-athletic-expenses_x.htm Read More