DISHONESTY IN SPORTS

Rosie Ruiz took the subway to beat the competition at the 1980 New York Marathon. Ben
Johnson tested positive for anabolic steroids after winning the 100-meter dash at the 1988
Olympics.

A Little League team from New York rode a pitcher who was two years older than the
allowed limit to the 2001 World Series.

And with the news Monday that Floyd Landis had tested positive for synthetic testosterone, it
appears the Tour de France winner can add his name to this hall-of-shame list.

Unfortunately the latest news isn’t all that surprising.

Cheating in sports has a long history — the Chicago White Sox brought it to the big time
when eight members of the 1919 team were given lifetime suspensions for fixing that
season’s World Series — but today the two seem to be synonymous. The offenders are too
numerous to list and no sport seems immune.

For those who do get caught, that punishment often amounts to nothing more than a slap on
the wrist. For those who are suspended or banned from their sport, they still get to keep the
millions of dollars they made along the way.

Cheating In Sports
Cheating is now expected in sports. Athletes try to win by using steroids and by cheating on drug
tests. Rules are no longer guidelines for the game but rather barriers to be overcome. Cheating has
become a game within the games.

Ben Johnson of Canada, who won a gold medal at Seoul Olympics and then lost it after testing
positive to steroid use, might be the most well known cheater but he is not the only one. A year and
half later at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, three weightlifters were disqualified and barred
from competition after testing positive to steroid use. In all, they won and then gave up a total of
seven medals.

So why do they cheat? The rewards of winning by cheating are financial gain and fame.
These seem to be more important to some athletes than the consequences of getting caught:
financial fines and an infamous reputation. Australian Senator John Black, who investigated
the Commonwealth athletes, said, “they have learned nothing from Seoul.” He continues,
“Drug-taking is so sophisticated these days that unless they are dumb or have been given the
wrong advice by coaches, athletes should know their clearance time-the time it takes for an
illegal substance not to be traced. Ben Johnson tested negative 17 times before he got caught,
yet said he used steroids the whole time.”

There are other ways to cheat in sports. During a marathon, it is faster and a whole lot easier
to win if one takes the subway instead of running the entire course. There are always
unsportsmanlike moves that debilitate, temporarily or permanently, an opposing player.
Gambling on or against your own team has its well-known hero in Pete Rose. Fixing games
or point spreads for cash instead of glory has brought down many an athlete. Cheating
abounds in sports and sports heroes.

Fortunately, most of the cases we hear about end with some kind of attempted justice.
Athletes lose their medal; managers are banned from the Hall of Fame. The loss of points and
yards or the gain of time penalty boxes all offer, at least, symbolic credence to values of fair
play.

Implications
1. Cheating has become a game in and of itself. Punishments are seen as risks of being
caught. The goal of many athletes is still to win or to get rich with as little real effort
as possible.
2. Fair play is a concept that makes competition worthwhile. It is a concept we easily
forget to teach to high school athletes.
3. Teenagers need guidance in visualizing the long- and short-term results of cheating.
With a teenager, list the “pros” and “cons” of using drugs to improve performance.
Rate each of the benefits and consequences on a scale of 1 to 10. Add the points in
each column to show the teenager his or her own values concerning cheating in
sports.

Athletes often do whatever it takes to win in competition. Some take drugs that are meant to
improve their performance, such as steroids. These might make them run faster or hit a
baseball harder. Athletes also sometimes cheat by purposely playing poorly or losing a game.

EX 1- In a game two weeks ago, the New England Patriots team was found to be using
footballs that did not meet NFL rules. The air pressure was too low in 11 of the Patriots' 12
footballs. Sources say the leading official at the game had approved all the balls before kick-
off, or the start of play. They then were returned to each team.

Reports say that Patriots' footballs were tested again at halftime. The footballs were found to
be low and air was added. The balls were returned to play for the second half, and then tested
again after the game.

Those results have not been made public. Under NFL rules, footballs may not be changed once
they are approved. If a person is found to have broken the rules he or she could face a $25,000 fine
and other action.

EX 2- In 1999, a South African runner named Sergio Motsoeneng finished 9th in the
Comrades Marathon. Competitors run 89-kilometers in the annual race held in South Africa.
Motsoeneng won about $980 in the race. He wanted to use the prize money to help his father.
Motsoeneng was seen starting and finishing the race. But he shared the running with another
person. Motsoeneng changed places several times during the race with his nearly identical
younger brother, Fika. They both wore identical uniforms, numbers, and hats that covered
their faces.

A newspaper reporter noticed a change in the time piece each brother wore. Sometimes it was
on the left side, other times it was on the right.

Sergio Motsoeneng was forced to give back the money. Officials also banned him and his
brother from entering the event for 10 years.

Indian sport is no stranger to challenges of integrity. Match fixing, event manipulation and illegal
betting have shaken the country’s primary sport, cricket,6 more than once in the last two decades.
Combine the issue of fixing with age fraud,7 doping8 and sexual harassment9 and we have a
quartet of familiar faces that are making their presence felt not only nationally but also
internationally.

Cheating In Sports
Cheating in Sports Sports are governed by sets of rules or customs and often, competition. Sports
have always been a way to connect us to our past and to build optimism about the future. Sport’s a
way to bond the people despite differences in race, age and gender. However, today the game that
is supposed to teach character, discipline and team work is teaching cheating. And in today’s world,
with fame, endorsement, drugs and so much to gain, it is not surprising that athletes are cheating in
sports. Cheating in sports is not new thing; it started the day when humans first discovered athletic
competitions.

But the penalties for cheating are small. A six months or one year ban for competition is a small
penalty. The use of performance enhancing drugs is increasing day by day. Shocking doping cases
happened during the Seoul 1998 summer Olympic Games. For example, Canadian runner Ben
Johnson tested positive in a drug test for anabolic steroids. Therefore, Johnson lost his 100 m gold
medal to long time competitor Carl Lewis (Blackwell 1). Whereas, most athletes persist taking
steroids believing that this substance provides a competitive advantages but on the other hand it
can cause a life time ban on sports after a positive dope test. Professor John Hoberman, Department
of Germanic studies at University of Texas at Austin noted “In August 1968, the Belgian distance
runner Joseph Rombaux was disqualified for a positive dope test after winning the national
marathon championship. He was banned from athletics for life”.

Cheating for the best performance in the sports is against the spirit of the sports. According to
Professor John Hoberman, Department of Germanic studies at University of Texas at Austin,
“The use of drugs and other prohibited techniques to enhance the performance of athletes in
marathon racing is contrary to the whole philosophy of our sport” (Hoberman, 387). Sports
clearly are a fair competition between the athletes but, using drugs destroys the meaning of
sportsmanship.

Cheating in sports, which recently has manifested in diverse forms, is more a result of increasing
pressure to win from the sponsors and team management, especially in the context of sport
becoming a career rather than an act of recreation.
Drug use in sports is considered cheating. Doping has many historical backgrounds, but now
it is on a larger scale in order to maximize though there have been various laws and rules in
the sports, athletes didn’t hesitate breaking those rules. Using drugs in the sports a favorable
outcome (to win) and gambling have speeded to the maximum. Athletes are cheating in
sports through drugs and gambling leads to cheat to get the name, fame, money and rewards
and instead of using their own effort and ability to work. They cheat when they don’t have to
and when they get caught it ruin their career. In addition, gambling itself is addictive and the
athlete who begins losing the money can be dangerously vulnerable to different destructive
behaviors. Drug use and gambling are harmful for the career. Finally, all cheating in sports
has to eliminate to save the spirit of sports.
The reason behind this is that athletes will do anything to gain a competitive edge, as
they want to desperately win games, and will do anything in order to do this.

Finally, the truth is that as long as their is competition in sports, cheating will always
happen, and there is nothing that anyone can do to stop it.

Rules are no longer guidelines for the game but rather barriers to be overcome.
Anabolic steroids, commonly called "steroids," juice, hype or pump, are powerful prescription drugs.
They are controlled substances that people abuse in high doses to boost their athletic performance.

Besides making muscles bigger, anabolic steroids may help athletes recover from a hard workout
more quickly by reducing the muscle damage that occurs during the session. This enables athletes to
work out harder and more frequently without overtraining. In addition, some athletes may like the
aggressive feelings they get when they take the drugs.

What is point shaving?

The illegal practice of deliberately limiting the number of points scored by one's team in an athletic
contest, as in return for a payment from gamblers to ensure winnings.

Point shaving
In organized sports, point shaving is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to prevent a
team from covering a published point spread. Unlike other forms of sports betting, spread betting
invariably motivates point shaving. A point shaving scheme generally involves a sports gambler and
one or more players of the team favored to win the game. In exchange for a bribe, the player or
players agree to ensure that their team will not "cover the point spread" (i.e. the bribed player's
team may still win, but by not as big a margin as predicted by bookmakers). The gambler then
wagers against the bribed team. Alternatively, an official (referee) of the game may be bribed, or
even bet on his own behalf, so that one or more "close calls" will be called in favor of the
"underdog" rather than the team favored to win.

ILLEGAL PLAYERS

using an able body who is outside of the league/sport regulations that were set by officials.

How to use illegal players

age
suspended players
Paralympics

Soccer is no stranger to simulation. Players may fake a foul then fall, or even actually get fouled and
go to the ground grabbing their leg to get the call. When they really exaggerate it, they even toss a
roll in there.

In association football, diving is an attempt by a player to gain an unfair advantage by falling to the
ground and possibly feigning an injury, to give the impression that a foul has been committed. Dives
are often used to exaggerate the amount of contact present in a challenge. Deciding on whether a
player has dived is often very subjective, and one of the most controversial aspects of football
discussion. Players do this so they can receive free kicks or penalty kicks, which can provide scoring
opportunities, or so the opposing player receives a yellow or red card, giving their own team an
advantage. Diving is also known as simulation (the term used by FIFA), Schwalbe (German for
swallow), and, in the U.S., flopping.
The Hand of God

As the England goalkeeper Peter Shilton and the Argentine captain Diego Maradona
converged on Jorge Valdano's cross in the 52nd minute of their quarter-final at the 1986
World Cup finals, the game's goalless scoreline seemed secure. Maradona was, after all, a
mere 5ft 4in, eight inches shorter than Shilton, who reached out with his right arm to punch
the ball clear. Miraculously, or so it seemed, the leaping Maradona managed to guide the ball
into the England net. Tunisian referee Ali Bennaceur, well placed to spot any infringement,
ignored the protests of England's defenders that Maradona had handled the ball. He didn't
even bother to consult his Bulgarian linesman, Bogdan Dotschev. But the slow-motion replay
and, more tellingly, a still picture taken by a Mexican photographer showed that Maradona's
left hand had deftly deflected the ball home. 'It was partly the hand of Maradona,' the
Argentine said the next day, 'and partly the hand of God.' Later in the game Maradona scored
a goal of unimpeachable brilliance as Argentina won 2-1 - and went on to win the World
Cup.

Ben Johnson
Awesome Olympic champion - until his drug test caught up with him

'I'd like to say my name is Benjamin Sinclair Johnson Jnr and this world record will last 50
years, maybe 100.' So said Ben Johnson after trimming four-hundredths of a second off the
world record to finish first in the 100 metres at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Within hours,
though, his triumph was transmuting into one of the great Olympic scandals. In the Olympic
Doping Control Centre, less than half a mile from where Johnson had received his gold
medal, Dr Park Jong-Sei found that one of the numbered urine samples taken from the first
four finishers contained stanozolol, a dangerous anabolic steroid. The number was Johnson's,
confirming the suspicions of one American trainer, who had noted before the race that the
Canadian's eyes were yellow, the result, he said, of 'his liver working overtime processing
steroids'. Carl Lewis, Britain's Linford Christie and Calvin Smith were each promoted one
place to fill the final medal positions as the disgraced Johnson, stripped of his gold, flew out
of Seoul, feebly protesting his innocence. Johnson raced at the next Olympics after serving a
two-year suspension, but was banned for life in 1993 after he tested positive again.

David Robertson
Transgressing golf's code of self-regulation

Golf prides itself on its culture of honesty and self-regulation, which makes the case of David
Robertson, a former Scottish boys champion, all the more remarkable. Robertson was playing
in final qualifying for the 1985 Open in Deal, Kent, and after 14 holes, his playing partners
summoned an official and (according to a newspaper), 'after a long discussion Simmers [the
official, Graeme] disqualified Robertson for not replacing his ball in the correct position on
the green'. It was reckoned that, at times, he had moved his ball up to 20 feet. He did this by
arriving at the green first, appearing to mark his ball, but merely picking it up and then
carrying his marker on his putter around the green and dropping it much nearer the hole. He
was fined £20,000 and banned for 20 years from playing as a pro by the PGA European Tour.
The fine was never called in. Seven years later Robertson applied for and obtained his
amateur status back and played in some amateur events in the Lothian region.