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There has been a lot of chatter over recent days/weeks/months with some athletes coming forward about doping and other scandals being released.

• Women's shot put gold medalist stripped of her title days after receiving it (Source).
• Lance Armstrong has been pinpointed in one of the largest doping rings in history (at least, that has been discovered). This included names of several other cyclists who have admitted to using performance enhancing drugs.
• Christian Hesch confessed to using EPO (performance enhancing drug) to compete and win road races for cash throughout the globe.

The Boring Runner recently put a post together asking if you would use it and under what situation. This question and post got me pretty fired up. Maybe it is the way I was raised, or maybe it is my need to always follow the rules... But I really don't see why someone would ever, under any circumstances, use a performance enhancing drug. I know there are various types of drugs that do different things, but I think it is shameful and deceiving.

In the case of Christian Hesch, he admitted to using and the whole thing seemed very cash-motivated. He did a lot of road races, won a lot of money, and even screwed over a friend in publishing his confession to make sure he earned more money. Our society is driven by greed in many ways and I believe Christian Hesch did what he thought was necessary to win the cash that he wanted. I'm sure as he continued to get away with it, it became easier. (You can read Christian's New York Times article confession here and an article about his friend's perspective here.) I though this interview on The Trailer was really interesting, hearing things directly from Hesch, live and unedited. This whole Christian Hesch thing is like a train wreck. I'm so disappointed with the situation, but I just have to read all the articles and listen to all the interviews. He says that he acted alone, but it just seems more logical that he would have others with him. In my opinion, it is much easier to do something you know is wrong, if someone else is also doing it.

As you probably have figured out, I really love running. During the Olympics, it became evident that not many others around me love running or take it seriously. They just assume people are doping and that is why they are fast (this was actually brought up a couple times in conversation). I feel incidents like this taint the purity of the sport. I know in previous years there have been several doping incidents in the sport of Track and Field. I know there are strict doping tests but some athletes continue to get away with it and I'm not quite sure how (if you can find an article describing this, it would be helpful). I mean, some of those that won medals were previously suspended for doping. Is it like prison where you serve your time and come out and get to come back? Should there be more severe consequences for any kind of doping to help "clean up" the sport (kind of like a zero tolerance policy).

But then again, I feel the lines that constitute doping are not always black and white. Or are they and I'm misled by the circus of the Lance Armstrong investigations? Is the world of performance-enhancing drugs constantly changing with different technology available?

This is a topic that really intrigues me, and I'm interested to hear what you have to say. Do you think that the lines for doping are black and white? If not, please explain. What do you think the image of Track and Field--is it tainted by doping? If you have any suggested articles or books on this topic, I'm interested to know more.

Sorry for the text-only post folks, but I don't want to use any images due to copyrights.