Collins - I may take drugs

[EPelle]

Would you cheat yourself, your fans and your competitors to win a race?

KIM COLLINS: UNDECIDED

<< "I can't say for sure that I wouldn't take drugs if I was losing. It's a possibility," the St Kitts & Nevis star told the Mail on Sunday newspaper. >>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/3656903.stm

[tafnut]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

At least he's honest. Then there's the Regina Jacobs approach: lie when you're caught red-handed. I would think that a great majority of world-class athletes are at least heavily TEMPTED to cheat. When your livelihood (not to mention ego) is on the line, ethics often go out the window, which is exactly why we're in the Balco mess right now.

[No Name]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

Tafnut's statement is true. During the 1996 Olympics, Sports Illustrated did an annonymous survey of Olympic athletes in which they asked the following question:

Would you take an illegal performance-enhancing drug under the following conditions:

1. You will certainly win the gold medal if you take the drug.
2. You will certainly not be caught.
3. You will certainly die 5 years from now as a result of the side-effects of taking the drug.

The vast majority of respondents stated that they would take the drug under these conditions.

[Truth Squad]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

It was not a vast majority that said this. And I don't think it was SI that took the survey, although they might have reported on it.

[MJD]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

>It was not a vast majority that said this. And I don't think it was SI that
>took the survey, although they might have reported on it.


"That's if athletes aren't already tainted by the popular belief that drug use is widespread. Such cynicism may be well founded. Every two years since 1982, Bob Goldman has conducted an informal questionnaire among Olympic-level U.S. athletes, asking: If you were offered an illegal substance that guaranteed you would win and not be caught, would you take it? In 1995, the answer from 195 of 198 athletes was yes. Asked if they would take a banned substance that would enable them to win every competition for five years but then kill them, more than half the athletes said yes. "With the money athletes can make now, the kids don't really care about taking drugs," says Goldman."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/ ... e_la5.html

[No Name]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

Thanks for the quote, MJD. Of course, none of this should really be too surprising.

[RMc]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

>>It was not a vast majority that said this. And I don't think it was SI
>that
>took the survey, although they might have reported on it.
>


"That's if athletes aren't already tainted by the popular belief that
>drug use is widespread. Such cynicism may be well founded. Every two years
>since 1982, Bob Goldman has conducted an informal questionnaire among
>Olympic-level U.S. athletes, asking: If you were offered an illegal substance
>that guaranteed you would win and not be caught, would you take it? In 1995,
>the answer from 195 of 198 athletes was yes. Asked if they would take a banned
>substance that would enable them to win every competition for five years but
>then kill them, more than half the athletes said yes. "With the money
>athletes can make now, the kids don't really care about taking drugs," says
>Goldman."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/ ... .just_say_
>o.the_la5.html

As I've said before, such "contingent valuation" studies that are poorly designed and have no real consequences, i.e., no such drug exists, will give seriously biased answers vs. what might actually happen.

[tamillerx2]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

What?! I'm shocked that people would still take the drugs given that they would die. People are nuts.

[gh]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

Walt Murphy (in response to a post on the Current Events board) came up with this rejoinder:

<<KINGSTON, Jamaica (AFP): World 100 metres champion Kim Collins is furious at a British newspaper that quoted him as saying he would consider taking performance-enhancing drugs if he were losing races.

The 28-year-old sprint ace from the tiny Caribbean islands of St Kitts and Nevis said Wednesday he was determined to get to the bottom of the story printed in the Mail on Sunday newspaper last month.

"There has been an article printed in England that I said I would take drugs," said Collins in Jamaica where he is training and preparing for the Jamaica International track meeting.

"I would never in my right mind say to any reporter or not even to a fellow athlete that I would take drugs. People around me and the people who know me know that I would never say something like that. I am going to get to the bottom of this.">>

[ycn]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

Link to Collins' response.

http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/2004/05/06/collins.htm

[malmo]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

The fact that 195 out of 198 athletes said yes is the evidence that the "survey" was bullshit.

[RedPete]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

The Money makes it all possible.

[MJD]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

Maybe this is the cause of the misunderstanding if that is what it is:

""We are people - we cheat in everything we do. We cheat in taxes, in tests, in relationships. We always feel we could never get caught, so we cheat.""

http://sport.scotsman.com/athletics.cfm?id=853732004

[RMc]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

>The fact that 195 out of 198 athletes said yes is the evidence that the
>"survey" was bullshit.

Right on. Said much more eloquently and succintly that I.

[antoineg]

Re: Collins - I may take drugs

>The fact that 195 out of 198 athletes said yes is the evidence that the
>"survey" was bullshit.

And the reason it's bullshit is: what? That you don't want to believe that athletes would take drugs if they knew they wouldn't get caught?

Just because it disturbs your worldview doesn't make it bullshit. Point us to methodlogy problems or something, but leave your self out of it.