Sometimes the winds of change are so ripe that even the staunchest of institutions has to recognize that change is inevitable and is the RIGHT THING to do.  Today the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favor of Thomas Alsgaard, Frode Estil, Kristen Skjeldal and Beckie Scott.  Johann Meuhlegg and Olga Danilova were disqualified from the entire Salt Lake City Olympic Games.  Their use of performance enhancing drugs was deemed in violation of the Olympic Creed and therefore all of their results were nullified.  Beckie Scott will received her justly deserved GOLD MEDAL.  Thomas Alsgaard and Frode Estil will now be listed in a  first place tie with a GOLD MEDAL.  Juan Samaranch is gone. This looks to be a new IOC and I for one applaud their efforts in honesty and fair play starting with the figure skating mess in Salt Lake City.  But this ruling is even more important.  Skiers will be relieved of one more pressure to violate the rules. The thought, " If other skiers are cheating in I have to do it to keep up.", may now be changed to "If other Olympic skiers are doing it there is real chance that they will be caught, maybe I better not do it."  A secondary and no less important benefit is the positive effect on long term health of the athletes.  It will be better.

This drug abuse happened at the highest elite level, but the problems are rampant within the system.  It is not just an old East German and Communist country thing.  American young are using steroids.  When I was in high school a 220 tackle was a very large man.  Jimmy Brown, arguably the best running back ever, was 232 pounds and larger than most professional defensive tackles.  Today a 300 pound professional lineman is small and not uncommon in high school.  But is goes even further, a very successful cross-country running coach was relieved of his high school coaching job for among other things providing over-the-counter drugs to his athletes.  Innocent enough, protecting the health of the team?  Well one of the drugs was Sudafed, a performance enhancing drug banned by the IOC.  Maybe not so innocent but rather a deliberate attempt to give his athletes an edge?  Even at the high school level!  I watched a high school cross-country event recently and was surprised to see so many inhalers left at the starting line.  I doubt that there are that many young runners with asthma.  I have spoken with cross-country skiers that use inhalers arguing that most skiers have exercise induced asthma and therefore they should be allowed to use them. 

Now is a good time for us all to examine our training methods.  The Norwegian Olympic Committee did and decided to stop using altitude chambers.  My bet is that there is more performance enhancing drug abuse at the Masters level than there is on the elite level.  EPO, sold as ProCrit, is advertised on the television every night and available on the internet.  Masters skiers have money, are in pursuit of youth and no one is checking.  We have only our honor.  And in the end that is what determines how we lead our lives.  Our honor determines the value of our accomplishments. I once did an interview with Jonathon Newberry and asked what he got out of skiing.  His answer, after reflection, was honor. The honor of knowing that the results he got were directly related tot eh work he put into his training.  I hadn't really though of it that way before and it really struck me as right. 

Write a letter or send an email to IOC and congratulate them.  Write a letter the USOC and tell them to quit underreporting positive results in the US.  Tell the USOC to start making their required payments to WADA and quit bellyaching about everyone else abusing drugs.  Send Dick Pound at WADA an email and let me know that you support his work.  Tell the young athletes that you coach, drive to races and train with that there is a right and wrong way.  I will.