Did anyone watch Tamsyn Lewis run in the 800m Semi-final last night? All I can say is my heart went out to her.
Tamsyn Lewis 2008 Olympics
Before she even ran the race, there was a great media controversy thanks to her comments regarding drugs in sport. From what I gather she basically said that many athletes are using drugs. Well considering that most of the Russian team (except for the woman that won the same 800m semi-final in which Tamsyn competed) were disqualified for using drugs. It seems she was right. So why did the media crucify her? Why is it such a taboo subject that no-one will talk about and yet it appears to be happening?
The head of the IOC, Jacques Rogge admits that there are types of performance enhancing drugs that they can’t detect yet. Also here’s a study that says there are flaws in the doping detection system that the IOC employs. Mr Rogge also spoke about American Sprinter Marion Jones, who was stripped of medals won at the 2000 Olympics, and was able to make sure she was “clean” over the time of the competition. Well it would seem that even the IOC is well aware that it is going on and that they can’t prevent it all.
Gary Hall Jnr was on the Yum Cha program ( Episode 5: go to about 39 minutes into the program) the other day saying that when people are breaking world records left, right and centre then you have to start considering that perhaps drugs are out there.
Gary Hall Jnr
Back to my thoughts now; remember when maybe one or two world records might be broken in a single Olympics? Remember when a world record used to hold longer than an hour; in fact some of them held for years before they were broken? Well how many swimmers have been swimming in front of that green line that moves down the pool to show us where the World Record time is? Often there are three people swimming better than a world record … I mean what the heck, can you tell me that is seriously all diet and the funky swimsuits?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not accusing anyone and I really hope I’m wrong, but there are limits to the human body and how are these things achievable across so many people. Look at situations where athletes struggle to finish fifth in a heat and then in a final a couple of days later they finish without breaking a sweat.
Why isn’t anyone else considering this? Why is everyone so silent? Why did Tamsyn Lewis get crucified by the media for comments that are in fact true in the situation in which she was referring to?
Anyway, I tip my hat to Channel 7 for continuing her crucifixion by interviewing her straight after her loss in the 800m semi-final last night. I mean the girl is obviously upset, she’s crying for god’s sake but Channel 7 they don’t decide to leave the interview until after she’s composed herself. No, they get straight into it and ask her stupid questions which make her feel worse. She was openly crying by the end of the interview. Then they plow into the whole issue of her comments on drugs earlier in the week in the hope that she will say something else they can use against her and hopefully get higher ratings.
Well Channel 7, I for one say “That’s not cool” That is absolutely not the way to be treating someone who has worked and trained hard, made lots of sacrifices and has just had a devastating loss. Not only that, she was speaking the truth and she’s Australian. We should be supporting her not trying to knock her down at every pass!
I’d also like to say that before this Olympics I didn’t really know who Tamsyn Lewis was and I am aware that recently her career hasn’t been that stellar, but arguably that could be as a result of her decision NOT to take drugs. It has to be heartbreaking to know that you are doing the right thing but that others in your sport aren’t and then you have your country behind you wanting to know why you aren’t winning. In fact, I wonder if Tamsyn had been at the top of her career (i.e. a winner literally speaking) would the media have been as quick to crucify her?
Food for thought.
[...] Original post by silvergirl2010 [...]
Can you tell me who did your layout? I’ve been looking for one kind of like yours. Thank you.
Hi Randy,
My layout is a template provided by my blog hosting service (free service) called WordPress (www.wordpress.com). The template is called ‘Redoable Lite’ by Dean Robinson. If you sign up for a free account you’ll be able to take a look and also see the CSS for the template which might help you (It didn’t look like you were using a wordpress website).
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
[...] back in 88, and this years 1500m winner came back after a drugs suspension. Then the mess with Tamsyn Lewis, the poor girl. Screw this shit, why penalise the few athletes who obey the rules? Let everyone [...]
who cares, tamsyn is completely over-rated anyway… if jana was bad, shes worse in my opinion!
Ah, you see this is the benefit of ME having MY OWN blog … I can write about whatever I WANT to and quite frankly if you don’t care then don’t read it!
Crap. I wrote you a long, ranting message and the stupid site wouldn’t let me submit it and now it’s gone, gone, gone!
anyway, the summary was that I found the yum cha program racist, stupid and offensive, but hey, that’s sunrise for you.
Re Tamsyn, my heart goes out to her. She was brave and there should have been an olympic committee enquiry into her claims and rigorous testing pre race to try to pick up some of the cheaters. How would you feel, years of your life spent getting to this point only to find that you are competing against people who have a synthetic advantage. But instead we shot the messager – how Australian!