Performance Enhancement in Sports (and Life)

Progress is the essence of life. Improvement is the key to progress. Motivation is the driving force behind improvement. But what motivates people? Success? Power? Money? All of the above? None of the above?

Regardless, (I almost typed irregardless) people are always looking for improvement and enhancement - a way to age gracefully, perform better and longer, and, vanquish that all time undefeated opponent known as aging. We do that by Botoxing our wrinkles, lifting our faces, reconstructing our noses, tucking our tummies, augmenting our breasts and taking a little pill, whose name rhymes with the the most famous waterfall in the world, to make sure we're ready when, you know, the right time presents itself.

Yet, when athletes take performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), they are vilified. Many a great athlete has fallen from the pedestal of greatness to the doldrums of darkness with a single confessional press conference or a single report that revealed it all. Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Martina Hingis, Diego Maradona, Ben Johnson, Shoaib Akhtar - the list is as long as the Nile. Even average-Joes like myself take protein and vitamin supplements to maintain a balanced diet and control an ever expanding belly. The culture of personal physical enhancement has pushed the use of steroids and PEDs everywhere -- from Hollywood to the music industry to your next-door neighbor who wants to fight nature.Then, why the preferential scrutiny of athletes?

Athletic achievement is made to be measured and is available for instant analysis when performances improve, even incrementally. Athletes stand on pedestals, and pedestals are made to be toppled. A kind of moral ceiling hangs over sports, as degraded as that ceiling might've become in the 3,000 years since a bunch of Greeks began throwing javelins and racing chariots. Play by the rules. Play fair. Level playing field.

But what's happened is that many athletes have given performance enhancement a different meaning and a few of them have come, or have been forced out, of the closet to the extent that it is increasingly difficult to differentiate between excellent natural athleticism and drugs induced enhancement. Are the superstars of world sport truly great ones, or is it merely a matter of time before they fall from grace.

The truth is, sports do not define the culture -- they reflect it. Society's image of the ideal body is shaped largely by forces outside the chalked lines. And the belief that life can be improved, even extended, by drugs comes not from sports but from the burgeoning field known as medicine.

Sports bodies will soon have to decide whether to open the gates to PEDs and create a level playing field or continue to sweep things under the rug and play by the current rules. Either way, improvement and progress will continue to drive performance and life - natural or not.