Cheats steal more than just gold

The name Pauline Davis-Thompson won’t mean anything to most readers. Even if I told you she was from the Bahamas you probably wouldn’t recognise the name unless you were a big athletics fans. That’s another clue, she was a sprinter. Got it yet? No?

Well Davis-Thompson won the gold medal in the 200m at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. However, she was not crowned champion after her race like most winners - she had to wait until December 2009 to get her medal.

You see the Bahamian sprinter came second in the race, she was beaten to first place by disgraced athlete Marion Jones, but when the American finally came clean about her deceitful career, Davis-Thompson got what she rightly deserved but it’s just not the same.

Davis-Thompson’s name may be down in the record books as the gold medallist but she was denied one of the greatest parts about being a gold medallist – the proud moment when you stand on top of the podium as your national anthem is played out and images of you with gold draped around your neck are sent around the world.

The sad thing is, she is one of many who have had this feeling over the years. In a way she is lucky she even got given a gold medal. So many haven’t.

They haven’t because the authorities failed to catch the cheats in time or at all. In Tom Humphries’ excellent book Laptop Dancing And The Nanny Goat Mambo: A Sportswriter’s year, he speaks about Shirley Babashoff one of swimming’s greatest but never managed a gold medal in an individual event.

Simply because she faced the East Germans in the 1970s, a time where they were so drugged up, it was lucky they didn’t dissolve when they entered the pool.

Shirley never got what she deserved but she did pull off a remarkable feat to win the 4x100m relay with her American team-mates in one of swimming’s greatest races at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Babashoff deserved more, she deserved a level playing field.

More recently, the 1996 Atlanta Games will forever be remembered in Ireland but sadly for the wrong reasons. We all read the stories about Michelle de Bruin (Smith).

We didn’t realise at the time that it’s not possible for a swimmer ranked 90th in the world to jump up to be a three-time Olympic champion in a couple of years, not within the rules of sport at least.

We were blinded by her story, we should have seen through it.

Many berated American swimmer Allison Wagner when she publically claimed that De Bruin was not doing it the legit way. How wrong we were. De Bruin, or Smith as she was then, still holds the three gold medals and Wagner, Marianne Limpert and Dagmar Hase never got what they merited having finished second to a cheat.

There’s too many cases to mention and then there is those who missed out on Bronze medals because of the cheats. I could be here all day. But I won’t bore you no more. I’ll get to my point.

A recent article in The Daily Telegraph, correctly points out that fans are also the ones who lose out to these cheats.

Speaking about Marion Jones and about the recent Pakistan cricket controversy, the make the bid that fans should be repaid ticket costs if events turn out to be fixed or competitors have cheated.

I agree, it’s a fantastic idea and would mean that governing authorities would clamp down on cheating a lot harder if they knew they were going to be out of pocket.
However, they should be focusing on protecting honest athletes, not just their bank balances.

I can only imagine the pain athletes go through after years upon years of dedication, early morning training sessions, sacrifice after sacrifice and put all their love into a sport, only to beaten to a gold medal or a world championship.

But then to have that pain compounded in later years to find out the ‘sportsperson’ who beat them was filled full of drugs, must be life shattering.

They are the real losers and they are the ones who suffer the true heartbreak. They have dedicated their lives to one thing – their sport – and they have been betrayed and let down by the governing bodies.

Fans turn up, pay their money and, while they play their part, they’ll soon get over it if a cheat wins but those who competed against them will never lose that feeling of injustice.

Those in second, third and fourth are not even thought of when drug scandals break out. They never get their moment, they are the ones that need the refund but sadly you cannot give back time and effort, even if they had a receipt.

I feel for any Pakistan cricket supporter that paid money to see their team play against England, I feel for any fan who handed over cash to watch an Olympic final won by Marion Jones but their loss isn’t even comparable to the athletes' loss.

Mayweather v Mosley: Creating History

Floyd Mayweather is preparing for what could be his toughest fight yet as he gets ready to face the experienced and powerful Sugar Shane Mosley on Saturday in Las Vegas.

This is set to be a classic fight that could go down in history as one of the greatest - should it be as exciting as it looks on paper.

Two fast-punching fighters going toe-to -toe - one with the tactical know-how to pick apart any opponent, the other with the power capable of knocking out anyone at his weight - is more than enough to whet the appetite of any sports fan.

However, while some fights that have the potential to be classics they don’t always turn out to be, but this bout is sure to go down in history for a another reason at least.

Mayweather against Mosley is the first professional boxing contest to include US Olympic style drug testing in the run-up and aftermath of the fight.

That means both boxers have been subjected to random blood and urine testing during their training camps and any failed test from either fighter will automatically mean the cancellation of the event.

Mayweather was keen to introduce the testing, claiming there are too many fighters dying in the ring due to ‘cheating’ and it led to the breakdown in talks between his promoters, and the representatives of Manny Pacquiao when they tried to set-up a super fight between the pair.

Pacquiao was reluctant to take the blood tests, deeming them likely to weaken him during his training but many questioned his stance, and questioned again if he was using steroids.

However, he would have put himself at risk as if he lost people would have claimed he can’t win without drugs, not everyone but some.

Mosley has no such worries apparently, he is confident of beating Mayweather and he is out to prove he doesn’t need drugs to succeed.

The WBA World Welterweight Champion spoke at the high-profile Balco case and admitted he took, unknown to him, performance enhancing substances.

More videos have emerged in recent days with Mosley admitting he did know he was taking EPO but this is irrelevant for this fight, there won’t be EPO and Mosley can put all that behind him IF he beats Mayweather.

It’s a brave decision by Mosley he is putting himself out on a limb as, like Pacquiao, even if he has been clean, a loss would raise questions.

If for some reason on the night he feels tired, lacks the power we have seen before or does not look like the Shane Mosley who has knocked out 39 of his 52 opponents then people won’t just question his age but also his honesty.

However, Mosley deserves respect for agreeing to the demands of Mayweather’s camp, albeit probably being slightly tempted by the huge pay cheque that comes with facing the self-proclaimed ‘biggest name in boxing’ being part of it.

Hopefully this will set a precedent in boxing and open the eyes of the sport’s authorities and they will enforce more stringent testing in the future.

That remains to be seen but one thing for sure is that Floyd Mayweather Jr against Shane Mosley will go down in history, for one, if not two reasons.

If it ain't broke don't fix it

The British Amateur Boxing Association's (BABA) first major decision after being set up to improve Britain’s Olympic boxing team was to sack head coach Terry Edwards just months after he trained the most successful Olympic team to date.

In an unbelievable move they have decided to get rid of the experienced coach who has been involved with the British team for the last decade and has been officially at the helm for the last two years which has seen England and Britain win their first World Championship gold medal in 2007, when Frankie Gavin made his name, and their first European gold medal since 1961 when hot prospect Luke Matthews won on home turf in 2008.

Of course their was James DeGale’s gold medal as well as David Price’s and Tony Jeffries’ bronze medal wins in Beijing. It was starting to look like Britain could be overtake Cuba as the world’s best amateur country.

However, BABA chief Derek Mapp decided to axe Edwards as they apparently look to further improve on their success. He said in a statement:
"Terry Edwards has made a huge contribution to British Boxing resulting in a record success of medal haul in Beijing. However we now need to further improve upon that and, as importantly, work to create a legacy of success demonstrated by the development of our boxers, coaches and support team for generations to come."

Have they ever heard of the saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’? Did British Cycling axe their head coach? Would Manchester United have sacked Sir Alex Ferguson after they won the treble in 1999 just cause they wanted someone younger? No because even if we ignore the fact of how unfair it would be, it also doesn’t make sense to sack somebody who has just brought such a massive success.

Edwards was even more shocked, having just spoken to the new chief about the future of British boxing a few days before, he would have expected to be preparing for the World Championships this year but now he may move, like his medal winners, to the professional game as Frank Warren seems interested in getting him to coach some fighters.

Something stinks with this issue, whether it be a bitterness from rival trainers or people within this new organisation or his, in my opinion, correct decision to send Frankie Gavin home from Beijing, it’s an absolute disgrace and this upheaval can only upset the mood in the camp.

They probably thought they would be clever and wait until all the talk about Beijing died down but the people that it will affect the most are the young boxers with dreams of stepping into the ring at the London Olympics in 2012 and they will know their chances have been reduced unless BABA have an exceptional replacement. However, the best man for the job will now be either earning big money coaching the pros or enjoying his retirement.

A ridiculous decision that will could set British boxing back a few years, lets just hope it doesn’t effect the many impressive talents that are coming through the ranks and that Britain can emulate the Beijing team in 2012.