EAMON Sullivan breaks 50 LCM FREE WR again in 21.28

It is a well known fact that Australian worship their swimmers. We have a relatively small population and our swimmers acquire star status. They cannot go anywhere in public without a mob af fans. I do not believe this happens anywhere else on earth, especially in the USA. Our swimmers can remain up there to be hero worshipped so long as they do nothing wrong. Even so we have a tall poppy syndrome and sadly take them back down again. Eamon's name would be mud, and he would be treated very badly by everyone here in Australia if it was found he was taking drugs. So much so that living here would be almost untenable. You have to understand us, our small population and the way we revere our swimmers, in order to understand that taking drugs to be number one in the sport is just not an option. My god, and Australian just HATE to be disgraced. Have there been any Australian steroids scandals? I honestly don't know. I do know that Tornado has a point in how Australians look at chemical enhancements in sports. I used to work with Australians, both ex-pats in the US and the bosses who would come through town 4x a year. They honestly couldn't imagine an Aussie on steroids, as the takedown in the press would be beyond brutal. Fair play is much more important there than in the US, where it's part of the game to work the refs and get away with as much as you can. (viz, the NBA) By contrast, when I was in Sydney a couple of years ago, an athlete (footy or one of the rugby games, can't remember which) got in trouble because he admitted taking caffeine pills before a game. Caffeine is specifically not banned, at least on the list I dug up (2006 Torino games - pdf is here: www.olympic.org/.../index_uk.asp ). That of course doesn't mean that every Aussie is always clean forever. However, the challenge for all of us outsiders is to assemble circumstantial evidence, then reach a conclusion. And the national culture is part of the circumstantial evidence.

It is a well known fact that Australian worship their swimmers. We have a relatively small population and our swimmers acquire star status. They cannot go anywhere in public without a mob af fans. I do not believe this happens anywhere else on earth, especially in the USA. Our swimmers can remain up there to be hero worshipped so long as they do nothing wrong. Even so we have a tall poppy syndrome and sadly take them back down again. Eamon's name would be mud, and he would be treated very badly by everyone here in Australia if it was found he was taking drugs. So much so that living here would be almost untenable. You have to understand us, our small population and the way we revere our swimmers, in order to understand that taking drugs to be number one in the sport is just not an option. My god, and Australian just HATE to be disgraced. Have there been any Australian steroids scandals? I honestly don't know. I do know that Tornado has a point in how Australians look at chemical enhancements in sports. I used to work with Australians, both ex-pats in the US and the bosses who would come through town 4x a year. They honestly couldn't imagine an Aussie on steroids, as the takedown in the press would be beyond brutal. Fair play is much more important there than in the US, where it's part of the game to work the refs and get away with as much as you can. (viz, the NBA) By contrast, when I was in Sydney a couple of years ago, an athlete (footy or one of the rugby games, can't remember which) got in trouble because he admitted taking caffeine pills before a game. Caffeine is specifically not banned, at least on the list I dug up (2006 Torino games - pdf is here: www.olympic.org/.../index_uk.asp ). That of course doesn't mean that every Aussie is always clean forever. However, the challenge for all of us outsiders is to assemble circumstantial evidence, then reach a conclusion. And the national culture is part of the circumstantial evidence.