States for the past few years, Major League Baseball has been plagued with allegations, reports and hearings regarding the use of steroids, etc.  Other sports such as track and field have also dealt with major global superstars who have admitted using performance-enhancing drugs and had to return their Olympic medals, e.g. American sprinter, Marion Jones.  In France, the Tour de France cycling race has had a lot of negative publicity the past couple of years because of the revelations regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs by several cyclists who were subsequently disqualified or withdrew.  The primary and saddest effect of all of these scandals is the loss of faith by the general public in the integrity of the sport and the athlete.  There becomes the lack of belief that a player broke a speed record because of rigorous training rather than drug use.  In economic terms, it is very difficult to quantify what adverse effect these scandals have had on the various sports.  Certainly, some sponsors may not choose to remain involved with certain events which have experienced scandals.  For tennis, which has heretofore avoided a major scandal, one hopes that the powers that be can develop and enforce rules which will be respected by the players and tournaments in order to protect the integrity of the sport of tennis. 

Posted by TC at 07:42 PM |