Spartan Daily

Professional leagues need more stringent penalties for dopers

Spartan Daily, Spartan Daily

Christian Gin is a Spartan Daily staff writer.

While players will sometimes use steroids and PEDs to heal an injury faster, others prefer to use them to make themselves stronger.

This past week, professional cyclist Alberto Contador was officially stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title after testing positive for taking clenbuterol.

While he tested positive more than 18 months ago, the Court of Arbitration for Sport stripped him of his championship on Tuesday.

I wish sports leagues would be stricter in removing an accomplishment from someone’s history for cheating of any kind.

Whether it’s Spygate, steroids, NCAA violations or a betting scandal, these are all wrong in my book.

Some sports are very lenient with these kinds of rules.

In football, you would only receive a four-game suspension for taking a PED. In baseball, you would receive a 50-game suspension for taking PEDs or Human Growth Hormone.

The International Olympic Committee is the strictest of all sports organizations. They will strip someone’s medal or records if that person is caught.

If someone tests positive again, the person will be banned for life from any kind of sport that is connected to the IOC.

An example of this is Marion Jones, who was a three-time gold medalist and two-time bronze medalist during the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney.

The infamous Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative scandal happened in 2003, and names of athletes who used their products were released. BALCO was an organization that provided athletes with performance-enhancing products.

Jones’s name was on the list of athletes, but it wasn’t until 2007 when she admitted to taking PEDs after being accused in books and news articles related to BALCO.

The IOC stripped her of all the medals that she won. This includes a relay medal that her USA teammates were forced to give back as a result.

It gets under my skin when a player in baseball, who achieved some incredible feat, tests positive as well.

Most recently, Ryan Braun became baseball’s National League most valuable player for his 2011 season. After being awarded this, news leaked that he had a high level of testosterone.

This means that he took a PED, making his 2011 season tainted.

Baseball will not strip him of his award, and he’ll retain his MVP title for the season.

There is a strong chance, however, he will face a 50-game suspension for 2012.

In the eyes of fans like me, his 2011 season will always have an asterisk on it because of the fact he took PEDs.

His statistics in that season are highly inflated with the help of himself being juiced.

I really wish that sports leagues would be stricter like the IOC is with their athletes.

If there were stricter rules enforced on athletes, there would be less people taking these drugs to make them more competitive.

It’s unfortunate that a record like Barry Bonds’s home run total can stand even though people believe he took steroids.

The legendary Hank Aaron didn’t take PEDs to reach the home run record when he played baseball.

The integrity in sports diminishes each time someone uses PEDs or HGH and is caught in the process.

There should be more severe punishments in baseball and football compared to what they get today.

It’s unfair to those who do have legitimate records in the books from not taking drugs.

Someone who takes steroids to enhance their body is as bad as someone cheating on a test or plagiarizing on a project.

If more professional sporting organizations were as strict as the IOC and CAS, we’d see a severe drop in athletes cheating and tainting the record books.

  I wish sports would be stricter in removing an accomplishment from someone’s history for cheating of any kind. Whether it’s Spygate, steroids, NCAA violations or a betting scandal, these are all wrong in my book.