xizangstan

Big money in professional sports, product endorsements, etc. can sure corrupt simple sports like bicycling. I saw this in this morning's news...

*****

American Cyclist Landis Convicted in France Over Doping Lab Hacking
Published November 10, 2011
| Associated Press


Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/sports/2011/1...#ixzz1dJLe6Hgx

Dudelsack 

"Landis" and "ethics" don't seem to belong in the same paragraph.

Pete In Az

Professional "sports" is a business.

As for business ethics... Some have it, some don't.

Barrettscv 

Very sad in any case.

PatW

Is the term "business ethics" an oxymoron?

az_cyclist

seems kind of odd to give him a suspended sentence

Looigi

The use of performance enhancing drugs has been endemic in bike racing since the early years of the TDF. It's virtually certain that all the historic cycling greats doped. Many have said as much. And as many have said, if others are doing it, you need to do it too to level the playing field. What ever you think of Landis with all his foibles, he just happens to be one who got caught.

I'll mention that USAF pilots flying long missions are given and use amphetamines to maintain alertness and performance. That's doping in the name of national security.

Pete In Az

Ya got yer good ethics, and ya got yer bad ethics... Usually it's a crapshoot.

ijsbrand

Not only that, races always have been bought and sold. And the strongest rider in a race seldom is the winner.

I happen to like professional cycling because of this. Because the story of any race is never the story the television broadcast seems to show. Some may call this cynical. But I call the people who expect ethics, or fair play, naive.

Cycling is a very Catholic sport, in its origin as well, and Catholics simply have always been able to buy forgiveness for their sins.

Louis

Pete In Az

Personally, I think they should bring back indulgences.

BlazingPedals

Ironically, in the US, withholding relevant information from a case would be grounds for dismissal.

StephenH

As long as there are huge rewards associated with doing well in an event, you'll always have people willing to do unreasonable things to try to gain an advantage. The only real solution is to remove the reward associated with winning, and that's unlikely, at least not intentinally.

xizangstan

I see from the comments here that hacking into someone else's computer system to tamper with evidence is not relevant. Very odd.

BluesDawg

I have not read any reports that suggest there was an attempt to tamper with evidence, but rather to obtain copies of documents. According to this report and this one, Landis and his coach were convicted not of hacking, but of receiving documents which were illegally obtained by hacking. I wonder why he was not allowed access to the information legally.

gcottay

No. Our personal ethical obligations do not go on holiday during business hours. That an offense against ethical standards occurs on the job is no reasonable defense.

stapfam

Sportsmanship and Ethics do not go together---The higher up the sporting rung you go.

I remember many years ago when I started Karting. The higher up the rung- the less ethics you have. Difference was that you abided by all the rules--but just learnt to bend them better. Those that bent them too far got caught.

Dudelsack 

Recently someone wrote a little column in the WSJ about poaching marathons (running in them without paying the entry fee). They were soundly condemned by the readership.

Ethics are alive and well.

Altair 4

Following the Penn State scandal, I'd say that particular jury is still out.

xizangstan

I thought it odd that the students were rioting and overturning a TV van to demonstrate their support for the pedophile group. Interesting.

david58

Why would we expect sports to have any higher ethics than any other part of society? But then, I ain't turnin' no vans over because of no pedophile...

bruce19

Then there's this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzD9o...eature=related

bruce19

I guess because some of us think people in the public eye should help set the tone for behavior in society. Of course we are fewer every day.

DnvrFox

I thought one of the benefits of a college education was learning to weigh the facts before making reasoned decisions ad taking action. Guess that doesn't apply any more - at least at Penn State. What an absolutely idiotic response.

Well, any excuse for a riot, I guess. Even supporting folks so obsessed over winning they failed to report a 10-year-old being *****.

When I was teaching, the law was that if even ANY child abuse was suspected, the teacher had to report it directly to Social Services or the police, not just to the principal of the school. If you did not report it directly yourself, you broke the law.

bruce19

FWIW, my ex-wife was a school social worker at a middle school here in CT. One of her responsibilities was to act as the person to whom abuse of students was reported. One day a teacher reported that a custodian had come to her because he had witnessed a male teacher use excessive force on a student. My ex reported it to her Principal as required by school rules. The school did nothing. She ended up reporting it to a State agency after a very lengthy and contentious battle with school authorities. The long and short of it is that the State agency said it was too late to do anything and the school ended up phasing her job out via budget cuts. She had been there for 14 yrs.