Good Man, Bad Man And Shades Of Grey Between

Usain Bolt is one of the greatest athletes of all time, a fact he hammered home with victory in the 100m final at the World Athletics Championships in Bejing on Sunday. He narrowly defeated the much villified 'two time drug cheat' Justin Gatlin to seeming universal approval. Some have gone so far as to say that Bolt thereby saved the soul of his sport. But let us unpack this a little.

Firstly I do have to admit that my own affections lay with Bolt but the easy Good/Bad dichotomy strikes me as an over-simplification. Taken to a libertarian extreme, why should we even be concerned what athletes choose to put in their bodies to enhance performance? Let the chemists loose on the whole lot of them and see who comes out best? On balance, no. Impressionable and ambitious athletes should not be put in harm's way by their support teams. However what is the argument for intervention if the drugs are without adverse side-effect? Some sort of notion of athletic purity? And what about the moralising implicit in the anti-doping efforts - why are recreational drugs without performance-enhancing benefits on the prohibited lists?

The unforgiven

Bolt is a media natural - an insouciant showman who revels in the limelight and manages to avoid the fast-twitch chippiness that is the mark of many sprinters. If ever a man was relaxed in his skin it is Usain Bolt. Gatlin seems an uneasy character, a deep insecurity betrayed by the affected pre-race posturing. His first ban was for ampheltamine use, apparently courtesy of drugs prescribed from youth for his ADHD. This we may forgive. The second ban was for steroid use. He claims that a masseur used a steroid based cream without his knowledge. The masseur denies that he ever did so. Whatever the truth, has Gatlin perhaps served his time?

The forgiven

The American attitude to this issue is interesting, particularly as manifested in their behemoth professional team sports, American football and baseball. If you fancy a bit of googling, try searching 'A-Rod drugs ban' to get the low-down on the making, unmaking and remaking of a baseball hero. Alex Rodriguez is plying his eye-wateringly lucrative trade once again for the New York Yankees and this after a punishment far less onerous than that endured by Gatlin. Shades of grey. (As I write 'shades of grey' I wonder if we will ever be able to rescue that useful phrase from the clutches of soft-pornographic innuendo.)