Cheating and Money

Questions: would there be less cheating if track and field did not provide as many lucrative opportunities for prize money and endorsements? Would there be less cheating if the clock was turned back 30 years or so? Is there more incentive to cheat today?

[stevehj197]

Re: Cheating and Money

money is the root of all evil......

Re: Cheating and Money

>money is the root of all evil......

Not quite. It's actually LOVE of money that is at the root of all evil. This is perhaps one of the most misquoted sayings in human history...

Re: Cheating and Money

Unfortunately, this proposition is sort of a double-edged sword.

Yes, if there was less money, there would be less incentive to cheat, and hence probably less cheating.

BUT...

If there was less money, people would quit track after college and/or after one Olympics to work in other jobs; you wouldn't get long professional careers like Michael Johnson, El G, Geb, etc.

[Conway]

Re: Cheating and Money

That didn't seem to bother the sport in the past ... The sport was thriving here in the United States prior to "professionalism" and has been dying a slow death ever since ... And there was no dearth of outstanding athletes to cheer for ...

Re: Cheating and Money

True, but that's another part of why this sword has many edges. There is a lot of stuff that we might have missed out on due to the old system.

For example, who knows what greats like Bob Hayes and Tommie Smith might have done if they had stuck with track and field? Who knows what kind of a career Jim Ryun might have had if he'd had the resources of Steve Scott (not that Ryun's career was too shabby anyway).

There are benfits and drawbacks of both the modern system and the old system.

[racewalker]

Re: Cheating and Money

I doubt that the genie will go back into the bottle, no matter what. Drug use did exist back in the "good old days" when monetary rewards were less, so it's hard to believe it would diminish to nothing if the money dried up. Furthermore, as long as there are nations using athletics for political purposes and promoting state-sponsored drug programs, the problem will still be there.

What a rat's nest.

[6 5.5hjsteve]

Re: Cheating and Money

>>money is the root of all evil......

Not
>quite. It's actually LOVE of money that is at the
>root of all evil. This is perhaps one of the most
>misquoted sayings in human history...


Thanks for the correction, and I agree. But they pretty much end up being the same due to human nature. Even the great philanthropists, as wonderful as they all are and have been through history, never gave away so much that they had to worry about paying the rent or buying groceries.

Maybe we do not all love money but at a minimum we all have a appreciation and preference for the goods and services theat money makes possible.

Re: Cheating and Money

Not just money but attention and influence/leverage. Or as one cynic put it, "Anything that gets you laid is worth cheating for".

[abinferno]

Re: Cheating and Money

money=root of all evil=evil^1/2
time=money
women=money*time=money^2
women=evil

there, an undeniable, mathematical proof

[Arnie]

Re: Cheating and Money

But not in the U.S.A.

[Arnie]

Re: Cheating and Money

What i wanted to post was that drugs were not used in the U.S.A in the 1960s or 70s.

Re: Cheating and Money

Here's another formula for you Arnie=out of touch if he believes no drugs in U.S. in '60s or '70s. Americans used steroids in the 1964 Olympics and talked about it because it wasn't illegal at the time. Was not illegal in 1968 either.

Re: Cheating and Money

Bill Toomey, US winner of Olympic Decathlon in '68, admitted he used steroids, which were legal.

Re: Cheating and Money

Arnie: You have got to be kidding!!!!!!!