2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics

The 2010 Winter Olympics are almost over, just one more Cross Country Ski Race today, and then the final showdown of the games, U.S. vs. Canada in Hockey. The U.S. grabbed one more gold medal yesterday in the 4-Man Bobsled race, led by driver Steve Holcomb. It marked the first time that the U.S. won the 4-Man Bobsled event since Francis Tyler drove the U.S. to gold at the 1948 St. Moritz Games.
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(steve holcomb, with beard, and teammates on the u.s. bobsled team)

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Whether or not Bobsledding is a real sport, we'll get into in a couple of days, but for now, we're taking a look at the overall medal count and the changing face of world-wide sports. Much has been made of the lack of medals won by former sports juggernaut Russia, and the changing of the guard in certain sports. The 2010 Vancouver Games marked the first time since 1960 that Russia didn't win the Pairs Figure Skating, it marked the first time since 1964 that a American woman didn't medal in Ladies Figure Skating, it marked the first time ever that the U.S. won medals in Nordic Combined Events, etc., etc. An obvious answer as to why some countries are "catching up" to other formerly dominant countries in some sports is because our world is simply becoming more open.
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(francis tyler driving the u.s. to 4-man bobsleigh gold in 1948)
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With the internet and an ever-growing world-wide media, even third world countries can now watch these sports for the first time and take an interest in participating in them. And as those third world and industrially developing countries find the capital, they can begin to assemble teams for these new sports. But a bigger, and maybe uglier, answer is the fact that with the break-up of the Soviet Union, many of the athletes who formerly won medals for the Soviet Union now compete for other countries. The ugly part comes in the knowledge that the Soviet Union used to dope the hell out of their athletes. Remember the monstrously huge East German women of the 1970's? With better doping tests and therefore fewer juiced athletes competing at the Olympics, it certainly levels the playing field for all the athletes.
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(the gold medal winning u.s. 4-man bobsled)

The Greatest Player in Baseball

Evidently there are a lot of people out there who definitely feel hurt and cheated by the baseball doping scandal. And just wait, it's going to get hotter.

(alex rodriguez)

A Sad Day in Sports is Getting Sadder

Yesterday we wrote about Alex Rodriguez's admission of steroid use, and now, Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada has been charged with lying to Congress about his own steroid use. Tejada will appear in court on Wednesday where he is expected to plead guilty, and could face as much as a year in jail. Tejada won the 2002 American League Most Valuable Player award and is a five-time All-Star.
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(miguel tejada)
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As we mentioned with the Rodriguez confession, at this point, no one is really surprised that the players used steroids, about the only thing that catches our notice, now, is which players admit it and which ones continue to lie about it. This scandal is only just now getting started, and before it's all over, it will ruin the lives and athletic careers of a lot of people, and will go a long way towards changing the way we view our professional athletes forever.
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UPDATE-Feb. 11: As it turns out, Miguel is not being charged for lying about his own steroid use, although many believe he did use them, but rather for lying when asked about other players' use of the banned substances.

The Kings of Performance Enhancement

Alex Rodriguez, one of baseball's biggest superstars, admitted today that he took steroids from 2001 to 2003. The real question is: is anyone surprised by this?

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It has become increasingly apparent over the past few years that many, many of our professional athletes have taken steroids, many more than we'll probably ever know. In fact, it might be a more prudent use of our time to try to find the few athletes who haven't take steroids rather than the many who have. It's sad.

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The only remaining questions are what will happen to these athletes who "cheated" to get ahead, and how should their records be treated in the sports history books?