Isn't this a bit of a Catch-22? You can't tell if people are cheating unless you test, but you don't want to test unless you know people are cheating.
Yep. We also can't tell if people are actually Cylons unless we test.
But my real question is: what good will testing do? Will it be a net positive? Of course cheaters exist, but is anyone really concerned that cheaters are getting all the Masters records? Does anyone think they got second place at Nationals because the first-place swimmer cheated?
What I see in all of these discussions about doping is a bunch of armchair experts who say "swimmer X dropped too much time", "swimmer Y's muscles are too big", "swimmer Z is too old to go that fast". These are not valid reasons to institute drug testing.
This is a solution in search of a problem, and implementing it will just cause more problems. There will be false positives, people who took stuff before it was banned, people with medical necessities, etc. And what happens when there is a false positive? Even if exonerated, that person's achievements will be tainted forever. Is it worth it?
Isn't this a bit of a Catch-22? You can't tell if people are cheating unless you test, but you don't want to test unless you know people are cheating.
Yep. We also can't tell if people are actually Cylons unless we test.
But my real question is: what good will testing do? Will it be a net positive? Of course cheaters exist, but is anyone really concerned that cheaters are getting all the Masters records? Does anyone think they got second place at Nationals because the first-place swimmer cheated?
What I see in all of these discussions about doping is a bunch of armchair experts who say "swimmer X dropped too much time", "swimmer Y's muscles are too big", "swimmer Z is too old to go that fast". These are not valid reasons to institute drug testing.
This is a solution in search of a problem, and implementing it will just cause more problems. There will be false positives, people who took stuff before it was banned, people with medical necessities, etc. And what happens when there is a false positive? Even if exonerated, that person's achievements will be tainted forever. Is it worth it?
