Why question whether Phelps is clean?
Posted: Saturday, August 16, 2008 12:37 AM
BEIJING – It’s become a knee-jerk reaction, and it’s getting more than a bit absurd. Michael Phelps dominates swimming like no one ever has, so automatically people suggest that he must be doping.
There is no evidence for the allegation. Phelps has volunteered to be tested more than anyone else by more sophisticated methods of detection. Under the program, his blood and urine samples will be preserved so that they can be tested again when better detection technology is introduced. You don’t agree to that if you’re hiding something. He’s never tested positive for anything other than those beers he put down before climbing in his car in Baltimore when he was 19 years old, which he has acknowledged as the youthful lack of judgment it was.
Other than that, he’s been an exemplary citizen and an exceptionally nice guy.
The only reason anyone can come up with to suggest Phelps is fueled by anything other than mountains of talent is that he always wins, even if it’s by three quarters of an inch, which was the approximate margin of victory in his 100-meter butterfly win. Does that mean that Mark Spitz, the previous greatest swimmer ever, was also cheating? And don’t say steroids weren’t around in 1972; they were. It’s just that nobody tested for them.
The most recent charge is that Phelps gets an advantage by listening to his iPod until moments before he steps on the starting block. This one was originally posted in a blog on The Baltimore Sun’s website.
Dr. Alexei Koudinov, who edits the online publication, The Doping Journal, writes in the post: “Listening to music improves blood oxygen capacity and is a performance enhancement.” Neither the International Olympic Committee nor the international governing body for swimming has a rule against listening to music before competing. Yet Koudinov says that it’s cheating.
I don’t know enough to question his science, but I will question his logic. There are no rules against it. And if you’re not breaking any rules, you’re not cheating.
If anything, it shows just how smart Phelps and his coach, Bob Bowman, are. I suspect they’ve read the same research and are taking advantage of every possible advantage they can. His opponents are free to listen to tunes before the race just as he does. If they don’t, it’s their fault, not his.
Doping is real. We all know that. But it’s just wrong to assume that every person who wins a race must be getting help from an underground pharmacy. It’s unfair to the athletes, unfair to other fans. Most of all, if you’re the one making the assumptions, you’re cheating yourself. If you’re taking the time to post on blogs and message boards, you’re obviously watching the games. If you’re so convinced everyone’s cheating, stop watching and spare us your bile. Go rant about “American Idol” or Britney or something closer to your intellectual capabilities.
You can bring up the subject if someone comes from obscurity to the top ranks of a sport, shaving big chunks of time off his or her personal bests in a short period of time. You can be suspicious if someone has a body with muscles that don’t seem possible for a human being. You can wonder about supermen who are covered with acne and prone to sudden rages and mood swings.
But you can’t sit in your La-Z-Boy grousing that everybody’s cheating and everything is rigged and you hate everyone and everything and expect anyone to listen to you.
At some point, you have to appreciate excellence when you see it. You have to marvel at the sunset, oooh and aaah over great music and art, and let your jaw drop at the performance of the greatest athlete you’ve ever seen.
