Poll Shows Doping Muddies U.S. Sports Fans' View Of Olympics Feats
A USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted last weekend shows that "just over half of American sports fans believe that at least some Olympic athletes in track and field use performance-enhancing drugs," according to a front-page cover story by A.J. Perez of USA TODAY. The poll also revealed that when a track and field athlete sets a world record, "more than 1 in 3 sports fans are suspicious that doping helped." In addition, more than 1 in 5 fans said that they are "suspicious of doping when a swimmer sets a world record, and one-third believe that at least some Olympians in swimming use performance-enhancing drugs." Perez notes the results "reflect how scandals involving performance-enhancing drugs ... have created a credibility gap in the public's mind that U.S. and international sports officials acknowledge is a growing perception problem" (USA TODAY, 7/31).
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FIFA Rules Teams Must Allow Players
Like Messi To Participate In Olympics |
PITCHING A FIT: FIFA yesterday told soccer clubs that they "must release players aged 23 and under to play in the Olympics." La Liga club FC Barcelona and Bundesliga clubs Werder Bremen and Schalke have "refused to release their players" for the Games, and will argue their cases with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. All three clubs appealed to FIFA's Players' Status Committee, which yesterday ruled that the players must be released (N.Y. TIMES, 7/31). In San Diego, Mark Zeigler wrote the Olympics for men's soccer "aren't meaningful because they don't feature the best players, and they don't feature the best players because they're not meaningful." The men's situation "might be beyond repair," and the broader issue is "whether soccer should be in the Olympics at all." The men's teams are only allowed three players over the age of 23, and while the women "send their best teams," the Olympics come just 11 months after the FIFA Women's World Cup, and as a result "each tournament devalues the other" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 7/30).
BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT: In N.Y., George Vecsey notes men's cyclists on August 9 will compete in a 161.6-mile race around Beijing, in which they will "test the air for all their colleagues who plan to breath outdoors in the next two weeks." Vecsey: "If the cyclists start falling off their bikes gasping for air, or their stricken bodies take until Sunday to complete the course, this will be a context clue to the [IOC] that it miscalculated the pollution when it" awarded the Games to China in '01 (N.Y. TIMES, 7/31).
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