Landis

Since yesterday’s announcement that a blood sample from Floyd Landis tested positive for excess testosterone, many of us who praised him highly last week have been silent.

So let me say this.

What was once a simple game of "does he or doesn’t he" has changed over the years. Everyone does. Those who don’t approach the line between conditioning and chemical enhancement don’t get near the game.

In all competitive sports athletes and trainers manage bodies like a NASCAR garage. You come as close as you can to the line without stepping over. Meanwhile, however, the doping authorities keep moving the line back. Excess testosterone may mean illegal supplements, or it may mean an excess of legal ones. Or it may mean Landis was jacked up going into Morzine and produced it all naturally. (Or the second sample may show nothing.)

The line is constantly shifting because the bad chemists are constantly
coming up with new ways to go way over the line without detection. The
testosterone test is a secondary test, meant to indicate something
we’re not sure what it is.

What we’ve got here, in other words, is something like a high rear
spoiler, in NASCAR-speak. And in response we’re saying that car never
raced, that athlete is a druggie, damned for life. Those are the rules
which were agreed to.

It’s a no-win situation for everyone involved, and it’s pushing
millions and millions of parents, like me, toward keep our kids away
from all highly-competitive sports. You can bet these kids will also
grow up uncaring about competitive sports. Although at some point
(maybe after someone dies) a University or corporation is going to
start testing for illegal performance-enhancers in the workplace, not
just performance detractors like cocaine and methamphetamine. And
people will be fired for doing what the company doctor told them to do.

Floyd Landis just got there first. But the drive to succeed, combined
with trial by machine, is going to get us all into this Orwellian
nightmare, sooner rather than later. The faster we define what
"drug-free" really means in a competitive world (just say no says
nothing about this) the better.