The day we all had previously pined for, has come… well, it’s in the on-deck circle anyway.
The day we all had previously pined for, has come… well, it’s in the on-deck circle anyway.
For the previous decade our beloved niche sport was gaining steam, we just knew it was growing and would ultimately be realized as the most entertaining form of sport around. Salaries were increasing in monumental sums, the equipment was advancing to levels that would have bordered on science fiction a few short years earlier. The bikes were more expensive and capable than ever, every team of substance showed up in 18-wheelers, a few privateer-collective efforts as well and racers employed drivers for their motorhomes as well which allowed them a greater sense of comfort throughout the race-day.
Even with all this expansion in the MX/SX industry as a whole, the numbers watching from their couches(hey that’s me!) at home remained nominal and indicated just how niche this passion of ours was in reality. In the second half of this last decade, many of those salaries hit a wall as the boom went a little bust and recently has reached a median. The money in the sport very closely mimics the economics of the US as a whole where the upper-class acquires and retains the bulk of the funds and leaves the rest of us (the also-rans) scrambling, hustling and promising to make good for the slim picken’s left on the table for the masses.
There was an aspect of disingenuousness, long-suspected of the combatants at the elite level of moto, in regard to their fitness and capacity in dire conditions. Conditions made up of both the unalterable weather in the outdoor series and the incomparable talent-pool comprising the Supercross and Motocross fields. In an attempt to both validate the physical supremacy of the elite riders amongst one another and in the eyes of fringe fans and hardcore sports fans as a whole; it was widely believed that testing for Performance Enhancing Drugs(PED’s) would serve those purposes as well as keeping the future of the sport safe and clean as the precedent would be set for those in the amateur ranks.
Just like other sports where PED testing has been implemented, the goal has been to make the sport clean, to showcase hard work, natural and cultivated talents and give the youth working to achieve greatness at the elite level, a healthy roadmap to do so. Also like these other sports, people will always seek a shortcut to greatness and risk it all in an effort to lay claim to the spoils that come with reaching the pinnacle of sport. One of the oft cited cliche’s of America’s past-time, Major League Baseball, has been “if you ain’t cheat in’, you ain’t trying”. Sure this once slightly harmless notion had more to do with pitchers employing pine-tar or sand paper and the sluggers using corked bats to achieve that “step-up” but it of course lead to implications and later convictions of the athletes delving into the pandora’s box of PED’s.
As long as they are out there, athletes will take the risk for a chance at the rewards. They aren’t going anywhere, folks.
Beginning in 2009, WADA (The World Anti-Doping Agency) has been tasked by the FIM to handle Supercross testing and enforcement of penalties involving any would-be PED users through their established system of random testing. It is widely cited that PED’s would not be of much use in Supercross due to it’s sprint-race style events in comparison to the outdoor events where riders are often severely pushed to the limits of their bodies capacities.
Despite this belief, the word got out that indeed someone tested following the Seattle Supercross did indeed test positive for a banned substance. Being near the end of the Supercross series, it is fully possible that this banned substance was part of a program intended to benefit the rider as the Motocross series kicked off. On the flip side, it’s also totally plausible that the rider was prescribed the substance to counteract a diagnosed issue. Regardless of the reason the substance was in the rider, this can be easily broken down into common sensibility.
WADA explained their procedures to the Licensed AMA/FIM racers at the onset of their joining the series as the testing body. This includes making all banned substances known to the riders (all listed online as well). At this point it is fully on the rider to assure they do not tread into this land of forbidden fruit. If a rider has been prescribed a WADA-banned substance, they better get their Doc on the horn with WADA at the onset to discuss a possible agreement to make a concession. Short of that, the rider had better prepare for the punishment to be dealt swiftly and justly.
On second though, maybe not so swiftly.
Talks of the infraction were rumbling through the industry no less than 5 days ago, at which point it was decidedly a punishable offense as the test had been verified to be a failed result. In my mind, the Press Release citing the facts of this infraction is being delayed because the powers that be are running scared. Trying to back pedal and somehow diminish the severity of the penalties against this rider as the penalties would absolutely adversely affect the racing series in financial terms. It’s a worst case scenario for promoters of a racing series. An elite athlete of the series shoots themselves in the foot and by proxy, shoots the Series in the butt cheek as well. We all wanted drug testing of the series to prove our athletes’ innocence and now innocence is lost and the promoters have to be asking themselves what the hell was to gain for them from this decision to test?
As far as the implicated rider is concerned. Most of that riders common opponents will (and already are) do their best to suppress their own sense of satisfaction at said rider’s plight, while portraying an unbiased point of view in public media opportunities. This rider will be best served to be utterly forthright with the situation. We all remember how beloved Mark McGuire of the St.Louis Cardinals was during his and Sammy Sosa’s phenomenal home run smash-fest a few years ago. When word got out that he was suspected of using PED’s, Mark was still beloved as he was adamant that he was clean and not using. As soon as Mark was proven to be using, his reputation plummeted to catastrophic levels, never to resurge. And in probably the most publicized of all PED controversies, there is of course the Lance Armstrong instance. While he still has staunch supporters (due mostly to the fact that the cycling world as a whole was dirtier than Hobo Nick when he entered the Pacific), he’s been stripped of all his Tour de France titles and his reputation and legacy is tarnished forever.
Apologize, accept the penalty and move on.
