As the world gears up for the Summer Olympics in London this year, it might be a good time to review some lessons from the past.
In the year 2000, the big story from Sydney, Australia, took place before the games even began. The International Olympic Committee instituted random drug testing of the world’s greatest athletes, searching for evidence of “performance-enhancing” agents such as anabolic steroids. Not only did a number of sports-stars flunk, but communist China refused even to send 27 members of its team, in anticipation of failing! Naturally, some nations protested against “human rights” violations, but if it hadn’t been for the cheating of their own athletes, tests would never have been necessary in the first place. Pretty sad, huh?
Following that episode, the Olympics were besmirched in 2002 when recruiters in Salt Lake City were charged with bribing IOC officials in order to host the winter games in their city. It was true; several IOC officials were fired; but Salt Lake City still got the games.
Long before the greed of mega-buck sports endorsements, men competed in Olympic contests for the sheer honor of it. They had no steroids, …