Sportsman or Superman- You Can´t Be Both!

Jeremy Rozansky, assistant editor of National Affairs, published the article `How to Think About our Steroid Supermen- Lance Armstrong, the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the Meaning of Sports` on January 19, 2013. It appeared online on The new Atlantis, a journal of technology and society, and addressed the general, educated American society. The text talks about the use and the consequences of steroids in modern sport and the moral side of this issue. His thesis, “In choosing to use performance- enhancing drugs these men chose to participate not in sport but in a spectacle that bears only a mocking resemblance to true athletic achievement” (Rozansky, 2013), suggests that athletes, who decided to dope, can´t be seen as great sportsmen, even though their foul deeds are decades back in the past.


Armstrong, Bonds, & Clemens

http://prommanow.com/2013/02/06/pandemonium-blog-lance-armstrong-barry-bonds-roger-clemens-and-mma/
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/news/20130109/hall-of-fame-shutout-reaction/
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/harper-hall-bonds-roger-article-1.1570458

Rozansky, who owns a degree from the University of Chicago, used historical, statistical, and psychological evidence to support his article. He provided the reader with background information about the baseball Hall of Fame, talked about athletes from several years ago, explained game statistics, and revealed why “sport is an exclusively human kind of performance” (Rozansky). Further he tried to tie us to his article by using quotes from athletes and experts to give us some “insider information”.

Since I am an athlete and I love to watch athletic events, I know what the author talks about when he mentions how “we admire the willed actions” (Rozansky) and the pure human performance. I also know how it feels when the shadow of performance- enhancing drugs lies over an event and “fundamentally change[s] the character of the act we witness when we cheer on our sport stars” (Rozansky). Therefore, and for some `other reasons`, I totally agree with the position and the arguments of Rozansky.

In my research paper I want to try to explain the `other reasons` I have. I also plan on finding out more about modern drugs and how science is able to help athletes in their abject acts of cheating. Hopefully I can discover more about drug abuse by athletes by examine past and current cases. I consider using other articles, TV documentations, and interviews for my research.