Doping in the Olympics is not an uncommon thing. Now you might be wondering: What is doping? Well, doping is when athletes who feel the need to cheat take steroids or other performance enhancing drugs in order to win at their sport. It has happened at every single Olympic game except for only 6 times, out of 25 Olympic games. Every time the Olympics come around, some athletes think they can get away with doping. But not in the case of Ben Johnson.
Ben Johnson was a Jamaican born Canadian former sprinter who won two bronze medals and at the 1984 Olympic games and one gold medal at the 1988 Olympic games. Only three days after his race in the 1988 Olympic games, his blood and urine samples were found to be positive for Anabolic steroids. After the Olympics were over, Ben admitted to using steroids and so the International Association of Athletics Federations took away his world record and the International Olympic Committee took away his gold medal. Luckily, Ben Johnson is the only Canadian athlete to ever get a medal taken away at the Olympics.
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| Ben Johnson in 1988 at the Seoul Olympic Games. |
Ben Johnson was a very fast man. As a matter of fact, when he won the gold medal in the 1988 Summer Olympics he was actually the fastest man in the world for his time of 9.79 seconds. But as soon as the International Olympic Committee found out that he took Anabolic steroids, they immediately took his record away and removed it from the Olympic records so he was no longer the fastest man in the world. Taking drugs in order to enhance one's performance for any kind of sport like Olympic sports, National Sports and regional sports is considered unethical by most sports organizations including the International Olympic Committee, and in almost every case of it, the athlete gets disqualified and anything won gets stripped.
Personally, I believe that it's perfectly fine that they took away his record and medal because it is very unfair to other athletes who are trying to compete. I like to think about what Mr. Noecker told us on the first day of class: "Taking steroids is the easy way out instead of putting the hard work needed to succeed".
Sources:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/drug-scandal-hits-us-athletes/
http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/jo/ben-johnson-1.html
https://books.google.ca/books?id=c4oQAR2G4OgC&pg=PA99&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/may/25/ben-johnson-seoul-olympics-1988
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02656/ben-johnson_2656894k.jpg
Mr. Noecker
Personally, I believe that it's perfectly fine that they took away his record and medal because it is very unfair to other athletes who are trying to compete. I like to think about what Mr. Noecker told us on the first day of class: "Taking steroids is the easy way out instead of putting the hard work needed to succeed".
Sources:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/drug-scandal-hits-us-athletes/
http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/jo/ben-johnson-1.html
https://books.google.ca/books?id=c4oQAR2G4OgC&pg=PA99&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/may/25/ben-johnson-seoul-olympics-1988
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02656/ben-johnson_2656894k.jpg
Mr. Noecker
Hey Brousseau! Your blog looks pretty good! I would like to know how is it possible to cheat in video games, other than hacks and things. A few more details on that would interest me. Also, are those performance-enhancing drugs expensive? I would imagine that athletes make a lot of money, but still? Could a high school player afford those drugs? Is there some sort of base ingredient to all of them? I liked that you used the example of a man from our country. Keep writing, Matt!
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've seen, most of the time the trainers pay for the performance-enhancing drugs and they give them to their athletes. It's not necessarily the athletes that buy them. Anyways, performance-enhancing drugs prices can differ from about 1-2$ per pill up to 75$ per pill. So it really varies based on how intense the drugs are. If a high school player made enough money he could easily afford these drugs. But, just because you can afford them, doesn't mean they're easy to obtain. Most steroids are just synthetic versions of testosterone that can be put into the body un-naturally.
DeleteHey Matt Brousseau. You're blog looks pretty good so far. I especially like the background, I think it fits the subject really well. But I'm pretty sure using M. Noecker's quote is cheating in itself, because you're trying to make him like your blog better that way. That seems a bit contradictory to the whole blog if you ask me. I'm just kidding, it looks good, keep it up.
ReplyDeleteWell, you couldn't consider M.Noecker's quote as cheating because, as you can see in the sources, I cited M.Noecker as a source. Sooooo, what you just used as your 50 words for your comments, could be minimized to around 37 words. Also, the background needs to be worked on and I'll have it include video games too.
DeleteHey Matt, I'm afraid you misunderstood what I meant. When I said you were cheating I did not mean that you plagarized from M. Noecker, What I meant was that you had used a quote from him (which you sited properly, good job) to get his approval so he would like your blog. And so in that sense I still think it's cheating. And also, your comment could have been minized to about 25 words, so you shouldn't be talking. I'm just kidding again, I think it'll look real good once you add the video games part.
DeleteHey Matt love the post, I find cheating to get the prize gets you nowhere its kinda like taking steroids at a gym to just get the end result a wise man once told me that in fact. Thanks for the post I look forward to reading and following the volumes to come with your blog.
ReplyDeleteYeah, cheating really aggravates me. Especially when I'm playing a good old game of CS:GO (Silver Rank) and some idiots with walls and aim bots come in and ruin the fun for everybody. But anyways, I will make sure to write more volumes of this series. Thanks again for the great comment.
DeleteHello Matt, I found your blog very interesting about doping in sports and such and it's a very informative blog. I'm kinds dissapointed that its a canadian athlete that you posted about but that' just my pride. If you could, I'd really like to see more of your opinion in your blog because i want to know more about your opinion of this matter. It's really good so far though so keep it up.
ReplyDeleteYeah it is pretty sad to see a Canadian athlete that competed in the Olympics, using drugs to win and get his medal (which later got removed). I realize that I probably should include more of my opinion and personal experiences so don't forget to look at my latest blog post.
DeleteHey Mathieu, I like how in this blog you are able to use many different subjects and ideas but still stay on topic. I think your opinion is very clear throughout your posts. I am actually shocked in what Ben Johnson did, I had no idea. Also how they really removed his record, really shocks me. I am interested in your blog, I will continue to read, good job!
ReplyDeleteHey Matt! I've read your blog and so far, it's very interesting. The stories and examples of cheating really goes to show how often people end up breaking the rules. That being said, I've heard about past event that involves the use of performance enhancing drugs involving Lance Armstrong. If possible, could you do an article on this subject? I'm interested in learning more about this event and I believe it would make for a good article.
ReplyDelete