There comes a time in the lives of athletes when even the mere mention of the word courage, fails to encompass the actual deeds of those who achieve at the highest level in their chosen sport. Every now and then we see it in the effort of a race horse. The Nicholls trained Denman with Ruby aboard, conceding a stone to most and 22 pounds to What A Friend, smashing his way to victory in his second Hennessy win, is the stuff of legend. Each of us have memories stashed away in some deep corner of our mind, that fills us with admiration when we recall those miracle feats. But it isn't just about horses is it? People too have gone well beyond the norm in all manner of accomplishments, it's one of those things we admire in life. In sport, one such effort took place in Athens in 2004, in the Men's Olympic 1500m Final. The great Hicham El Guerrouj came into the race after two failed attempts at the event. Illness leading up to the games put his appearance in doubt. But late improvement saw a change of heart, it was decided that he'd try for that illusive 1500m Gold. The link below shows what a supreme athlete the man was. I apologies for the off topic subject, but if Hicham El Guerrouj doesn't deserve a moment in the sun on this wonderful forum, then I guess nobody does. I love this clip, it says everything about the title of this short piece.
Many great examples of this throughout history Cyc. One of my favourites is from the memorable London Olympics in 2012, the women's team pursuit in cycling where team GB set something like 5 consecutive world records and absolutely slaughtered the Americans in the final - actually coming fairly close to catching them. Final starts at around 17:10 on this youtube clip:
Never tire of watching this Cyc - the great Lance Armstrong falling off (brake lever snagged a plastic bag held by a spectator), got back on, nearly fell off again when his shoe unclipped from his pedal, and then he just attacked and leaves Jan Ullrich in his wake. Incredible, especially when you think the whole field was doped, not just Lance. So much bullshit been written about Armstrong from people who have no idea what it takes to even compete in the Tour, never mind win it.
Oddy -you defending Armstrong? That's the line he tried to use, no the whole field weren't dopers, not all went along with that culture -it's why Boardman could only win a prologue -young bassons was fiercely anti -he was ridiculed at the time.......
Not defending him per se rudebwoy, just saying there is such a lot of bullshit and double standards around the whole thing. He broke the rules, yes, and deserved to be punished. But that doesn't stop me having huge respect for the physical performances he laid down and also I respect him greatly for what he did in raising so much money for cancer research through Livestrong. Alot people trying to rubbish that but he could have made a different choice there and decided not to start Livestrong, and all that money would never have been raised. Some of the nonsense you read gives the impression he just sat on his arse all year and then, at the beginning of July he took loads of drugs and breezed to victory in the Tour de France. The guy put in such amounts of training, pushed himself so hard to achieve what he did, and that commands huge respect. Where it all falls down for him is bending the rules to get that extra 0.5% that makes the difference between winning and coming second. His closest rival in the TdF year I posted above, Jan Ullrich, was certainly doping.
Armstrong certainly had a good pharmacist. Maybe his supplier was the better than the suppliers of the 20 or 30 other dopers behind him.
This drugs issue is a never ending story. Do most world class athletes cheat or not? From what I've read, there does not seem to be any proof that full blown cheating is taking place, but the general opinion among the populace might indicate otherwise. And the reason for this appears to rely more on the opinions of those doing the testing, athletes themselves and those who in the past have administered the use of the illegal substances. I'm generally a half full glass type of person, but in this case, I think cheating does take place, in fact I believe it to be rampant. The reason samples are stored for years is because the powers that be hope that time will allow them to catch up with those cheating. How many times have we heard that the offenders are a decade in front of the game? I suspect that a host of us sporting nuts struggle when it comes to the cleanliness of those we much admire in sport. It's been said that people just don't fail a drug test, they also fail an IQ test as well. P.S. Thanks Ron.
How's this for a sporting highlight? I was shocked when the little fella started off loading. The great man took it really well.
It's a fair point Cyc. If you search t'interweb you can find folk who are adamant that all the top athletes are dopers. My default setting in life is pretty cynical but when it comes to sport I accept the performance for what it is until proved differently. One of the great performances I remember is Paula Ratcliffe's gold in the Commonwealth 5000m at Manchester. She beat Sonia O'Sullivan (no mug) by upwards of 150 metres and lapped everyone else. I'm as confident as I can be that that lass never took anything remotely performance enhancing and I sincerely hope science doesn't prove me wrong in the future. Otherwise we may as well forget Sport altogether. Armstrong was proven to be a cheat and a bully and rightly is now a sporting pariah. However he's estimated to have around $100 million to fall back on. I hope he feels it was worth it. EDIT: the O'Sullivan race was the 2002 European 10000 metres. She lapped everyone bar O'Sullivan who finished 46 seconds behind. At the Commonwealths in Manchester (same year) she destroyed the form Kenyan at the time. Both awesome performances.
Sometimes it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. The last bit of the film tells it all, for both men.
