June 03, 2008

• Amazing, and amazingly respectful of Johnson's decision.
• Very well said, Mr. Johnson. It takes a lot of guts, and a lot of integrity, to see and admit that one has been naive. Maybe there's some hope for integrity in sports after all.
• Well done. It's not an easy thing to hand back something I'm sure Johnson treasured. It would have been very easy for him to claim that since he didn't take the drugs, he should keep his medal. What a wonderful example of sportsmanship, something we see less and less of these days.
• So what? They can run/jump/whatever with speed and steroids dribbling out of their ears for all I care. There's far too much money involved in the whole ludicrous spectacle for this sort of thing to be prevented. Hopefully the whole pointless edifice of professional sports collapses in the not too distant future. Grrrrrrr.
• Maybe they could separate the Olympic games into the juiced/unjuiced divisions. I bet ratings would improve.
• Cyborg/non Cyborg.
• First of all, secondhand, this is amateur sports we're talking about here. I'm sure Michael Johnson made a few bucks in endorsements for his efforts, but considering the effort required (by non-cheaters, at least) to reach that level of performance, I'd say he earned it. I think both the science of doping detection and the will of organizers to expose the problem have grown enough recently to put the era of chemical enhancement behind us. I applaud Mr. Johnson's gesture, even if it's made easier by the fact that he still has four more gold medals at home.
• Okay, Mr. Johnson "did the right thing" as well as pre-emptively covered his muscular butt. Good for him. I am, however, far too cynical to believe that his motivation was pure by any means. My suggestion to improve ratings for the Olympics: all drugs allowed, but no clothing. An armband, perhaps, but nothing more. Hey, the Greeks competed skyclad, why not today's totally buff athletes? Re: pro sports, I side with secondhand's view. I don't hear anyone from the NFL discussing steroid use 'cuz really, it's all about the bucks. But naked, chemically-enhanced Olympics? Watch those ratings soar...
• Actually, if they competed buck naked, it might be just the impetus many athletes need to decide NOT to do steroids... The male ones, anyway...
• Naked ski jump??!? I'm so there!
• Not so much for the pole vault...
• Discus, hammer, and weightlifting might be worth skipping. Javelin should be funny though.
• Figure skating. How much more exciting when somebody falls! Basketball would pick up some fans. However, the Greco-Roman wrestling could get a little weird...
• Nude high hurdles would slap-happy fun.
• It would certainly open up some of the winter sports for those of us with a little extra natural insulation.
• Sounds like some of you were picked last in gym class...
• I'm still waiting to be picked for dodgeball twenty-five years later. Kristin? Lori? I'M STILL WAITING!
• MonkeyFilter: pre-emptively covering our muscular butts I like it. Hopefully the whole pointless edifice of professional sports collapses in the not too distant future. Secondhand, I hear you! Actually though, I have no real objection to the Olympics. It's professional "X-ball" that bother me. It's disgusting what pro ball players are paid.
• Probably similar to what the top 0.01% of many other fields are paid. Since the tickets are priced at what the market will bear (i.e. the stadiums are full), how would you propose that revenue get distributed between players and owners? I agree it's a lot of money, but I don't see any way to change the situation other than trying to convince billions of people to stop enjoying sports.
• Just in case you had any doubts still as to whether Olympic money trumps all: networks win rights to broadcast from Tiananmen Square, thus literally and figuratively trampling over the spot where hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators were slaughtered. Everyone's complicit. Yay.