The fight against doping: it's time for sportspeople to understand that the public prefers honesty to achievement ... and ideally both!
Following Lance Armstrong's loss of his 7 titles, Cadel Evans (winner in 2011) last week made an impassioned appeal to the public and sponsors "not to despair of cycling", explaining that his sport has changed and that "intensive training, meticulous preparation of the equipment and natural talent now make it possible to win the big prestigious races". We, the simple spectators, just want to believe it, so go for it, Mr Evans, get involved, and you too can say #IloveSportIamClean!
It's extremely simple to eradicate doping - all you have to do is stop the athletes doping! It may sound simple, even simplistic and naive, but it's not the spectators who are doping. So if you don't want the public to despair of sportsmen and women, don't exhort them, say no to doping and say yes to sport. That's the #IloveSportIamClean challenge. How many will be able to take it up?
So of course it's difficult to say no, and there are many accounts of the pressure some people felt to oppose the 'system'. Others have been able to explain that it was "without their knowing it", a famous phrase. Today, it's the public that is urging and even challenging sportsmen and women: get involved! Rebellion, turning the tables, the public will be with you.
And, please, let us also stop the media and the experts explaining that the public, expecting more and more performance, would be disappointed and, above all - and this is the essential point - would flee the audience. These explanations often sound like justifications. In sport, as elsewhere, the public expects honesty, sincerity and exemplarity, particularly from young people who we would like to instil with these - famous - "sporting values". What counts is the story, the surpassing of oneself, the beautiful gesture, the collective. A few years ago, swimming wetsuits shattered world records. But without wetsuits, without records, was there a lack of spectacle and emotion in the London pool at the last Olympic Games? Sportsmen and women, especially those at the highest level, have responsibilities, firstly towards themselves, because the first people they lie to when they doped were themselves. Who can think they're good at maths with cheat sheets?
As for the explanation that "it's the system", that "others do it well", this is simply cowardice and depressing fatalism. This is an argument for consenting adults, and it doesn't hold water with a child.
Then, of course, there's the money, the devil of all our ills, which would impose doping in the race for the podiums. Here too, brands would do well to be wary, because the risk to their reputation can, today as never before, do a great deal of damage. The mistake would be to continue to believe that there is more to be gained by breaking the rules than by abiding by them. The time has come for some people to be well inspired and position themselves as anti-doping sponsors. It starts with commitment: when a sportsperson and a sponsor make a commitment, they do so not only to each other, but also to the public, to their 'fans'. You don't lie to your friends, you don't lie to your fans. So why not sign? Olympic athletes have their oaths, some professions have theirs. So why shouldn't there be a formal act of commitment for professional sportspeople when they sign their contracts with the brands, clubs or federations that employ them? Is it so difficult to commit not to dope? Of course, it won't solve everything, but in the end, it's the contractual basis of the professional sportsman's code of ethics! And it's a reciprocal commitment, not to dope, and not to encourage doping either, either physically or psychologically. Let's bet that the vast majority of people like sport, authentic, healthy and natural sport, the only sport that counts. The invitations have been posted on twitter: Minister Valérie Fourneyron, Mr Prudhomme, Oscar Pereiro, Carlos Sastre, Frank and Andy Schleck, Mark Cavendish, Cadel Evans, Alberto Contador, the UCI, the French Cycling Federation, .... check your twitter inboxes, you have a message, we are waiting for a reply.
Affirming our values also means forcing ourselves to live them.
All sports and competitions are concerned. Support #IloveSportIamClean
Editorial on atlantico.fr