Lewis’ ideas food for thought

It’s only a few more days to go for the curtain of the XX1Xth Olympiad to come down at the Bird’s Nest - the National Stadium in Beijing.

Sixteen days of action provided by nearly ten thousand athletes from 204 nations across the globe would come to an end on Sunday. The theme for the latest edition of the summer Olympiad is “One dream, one world”.

The Olympics has been a lifetime experience to all those who has been a part of it, be it a competitor, coach, official, media personality and volunteers. They have been living as members of one family - the Olympic family, which has been promoting solidarity amongst nations.

The ever-increasing competitiveness in the modern Olympic Games has gradually attracted performance enhancing drugs to spoil the great world of sport.

Among the many past Olympic heroes in town for the Beijing Games is celebrated American sprinter Carl Lewis, the nine-time Olympic gold medallist. Lewis was a household name and our hero during our schooldays. He was simply invincible during the 1994 Los Angeles and 1988 Seoul Olympics.

The undisputed Olympic champion has expressed some sensible views during his media interviews in the Chinese capital. He has said that competing athletes must carry the onus in the fight against doping in the drugs-tainted sport of track and field.

Marion was simply a superwoman at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. But later she ran from grace to disgrace and went behind bars as a drugs cheat. Lewis was of the view that emphasis for change should come from individuals.

What the former sprint and long jump king has said were very true. It’s the sportsmen and women who should step up and decide whether they are genuinely interested in putting a permanent end to the drug problem or not.

As Lewis had stated, until the athletes themselves do that, it is going to be an issue that would be hard to settle.

Lewis makes a humble appeal to athletes to say no to performance enhancing drugs. If the athletes are genuinely interested in eradicating drug nuisance, they would well play the biggest role in cleaning the sport.

Lewis had been humble enough to share his own experience with doping, which saw the American great failing three drugs tests during the US Olympic trials in 1988.

Many question what has gone wrong in the US track and field. Jamaicans, have become the new speed merchants, demolishing the American dominance.

But Lewis says drugs and unqualified coaches have been the main reason for the American debacle.

In Sri Lanka too, banned steroids have been making their way gradually for the last few years. A few athletes have tested positive. Even a reputed coach too has been found guilty and is expected to face a severe punishment within the next couple of months.

If Sri Lanka is to take Lewis’ advice, we must strengthen our anti doping regulations. The real culprits should be severely punished so that new people indulging in such activities would be greatly reduced.

The undue and unhealthy competition amongst coaches too has been one of the major reasons for drugs to invade Sri Lanka athletics. Though some level of competition is good in sphere, this type of unhealthy competition would only ruin local sport.

China’s emergence as the world’s most dangerous sporting super power takes a great message to the world.

They have been making big preparations for the last four to six years and this is the time that they collect that harvest, an investment for the future.

The host nation has been maintaining a good lead in the latest medal standings, ending long dominance of the USA. China would surely have a few more surprises to spring during the last few days.

In contrast, Sri Lanka could not be happy with its performance here. True that Susanthika Jayasinghe is the greatest athlete that Sri Lanka has ever produced.

We still put an undue pressure on her, even 11 years after her first IAAF World championship medal. That shows the bankruptcy of local athletics.

Most of the past officials should take the responsibility for the pathetic plight in Lankan athletics.

Pointing a finger at the present administration is not going to do any good.

In the past, many of our athletic officials have given loads of promises but nothing constructive has been done to genuinely uplift the standard of Lankan track and field.

Similar to Lewis pointing finger at the US track and field, we too have a problem of unqualified coaches. The AASL must introduce criteria for different level of coaching.

The unhealthy competition amongst coaches has not only ruined local athletics but has also developed a bad animosity amongst athletes themselves. Some coaches make athletes mere scapegoats to fulfill their professional aspirations and objectives.

This is not a problem only confined to Sri Lanka but to most parts of the world. We should not let the poor athletes become victims of personal grudges amongst coaches.

This is a serious problem and we should not take things lightly anymore.

As Carl Lewis has pointed out very clearly in his recent media interviews, it’s the athletes themselves who should act promptly to make sure the sport is clean and is without any cheats.

By Sunday, the Olympians in Beijing will get the bitter feeling of departing, ending 16 days of action packed high drama. The real victors would only be known later after the reports of the current laboratory testing of hundreds of urine and blood samples are out.

Though the officials expected a high number of drug cheats in Beijing, it is unlike that there would be many. Perhaps it may not be due to the fact that the sport is clean but a few athletes are smarter in maintaining performance enhancing drug volumes in their bodies at right times. A connective effort is needed to overcome the drug mafia that is making it a spoiled sport.