Great Forces Driving Cheating Culture in Sports, Essay Example

Introduction

David Callahan described the ‘three great forces driving the cheating culture’ within the modern world today. Perhaps none has been so prominent as that in sports and the cheating events that have surrounded the Olympic Games; an event that has global media coverage. Athletes have been determined to find ways to win and this has included some breaching the code of conduct and ethical rulings of the Olympic Games.  This has included taking performance enhancement drugs that help to give them the edge over other competitors.  Figure Skating suffered a major decline in integrity in the 2002 Olympics when the French judge became involved in a marking conspiracy; this resulting in the Canadian pair taking the Silver Medal. Other trends include medical experts taking blood samples to look at oxygen spikes in the blood samples; an indicator of taking drugs. (CBC News).

Cause of Cheating

Within these sports there is a powerful urge to win and be top of their chosen field. This leads some to explore options of how they can gain an edge and the exploitation of performance enhancing drugs has been one of the results. Getting right up to date with this issue, the BBC reported that different countries have been making secret bribe payments to try and ensure their countries win Olympic Medals at the 2012 games being held in London, England. Among the allegations were that of millions of dollars being offered to the World Boxing Association from countries likeAzerbaijan. The BBC provided evidence on their ‘Newsnight’ program showing the corruption and cheating taking place to ensure Azerbaijan gained gold medals at the 2012 Olympics. (Costello).  So in addition to monetary gains being made by Athletes it seems even Countries are not above cheating in order to gain media exposure at being successful in the Olympic games.

There has been a colourful history of cheating taking place at the Olympic Games throughout history.  In the Berlin Olympics in 1936 the winner of the Women’s High Jump was actually a man called Hermann and the judges were changing the rules by gender bending. Creating yet another area for potential cheating opportunities (Lynch)

Resolving the Issues

This really has to be tackled on a number of different levels. There should be a zero tolerance policy towards the taking of drugs.  Those Athletes found guilty should be disqualified from the games and banned from taking any further part in future Olympic events.  In addition, all countries participating in the events should be provided with copies of the Games Code of Conduct and statement of ethical conduct.  Those who breach these rules should be subject to both monetary fines and the country barred from participating in the Olympic Event.  Any country that is found guilty on three separate occasions should be a candidate for permanent exclusion from the Olympic events.

Countries or entities that are outside of the games that involve themselves in criminal activities should be subject to international legal proceedings. One example being breach of copyright i.e. producing goods using the 2012 London Olympics logo without official approval from the London Olympics Committee to use the brand.  Where countries are seen to be offering bribes or other inducements in order to secure medals, then this should be formerly investigated by the police and if there is a case criminal proceedings brought against the country in the international courts.  The Olympic Committee should also consider the right of expulsion of that country and the sportsmen from participating in the games.  The right of sponsorship and media coverage should also be revoked for those countries breaching the ethical code of conduct of the games.

References

CBC News. A short history of Olympic cheating. 11 2 2010. 25 9 2011 <http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/story/2010/02/11/spo-olympics-cheating.html>.

Costello, Thomas. Bribes Reported to Fix Boxing at 2012 London Olympics. 23 9 2011. 25 9 2011 <http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/218802/20110923/london-2012-olympics-london-2012-olympics-newsnight-bbc-cheat-allegations-bribery-azerbaijan-world-s.htm>.

Lynch, Steven. When men were men … and so were the women. 7 8 2004. 25 9 2011 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2004/aug/07/athensolympics2004.olympicgames31>.