It's the only size he can reach the pedals withLuka still rides a BMX.
I haven't watched any of it.Not watching this anymore.
I find it as hard to sit down and watch sport as others to sit down and read the complete works of WB Yeats.
It's the only size he can reach the pedals with
I don't think it's as clear cut as that. There was a bit in one of the articles @wild greens posted about a footballer who was pressured into having injections and whatnot by the medical staff and management at their club and how it wasn't presented as cheating, just what's done. The author even went as far as to say it isn't possible to compete at the highest level without doping.I'm fairly cynical about the drugs in sports.... but now when they can keep the sample and test it years later with new techniques that become available.... I would never be able to cheat in that way, knowing that I could still retroactively be disqualified at any time. I guess you need a certain type of temperament for that and it's not mine.
That's verging on saying professional athletics is unfair because it's biased towards very strong, fast or otherwise fit people, isn't it?I read an article a while ago that pointed out that a lot of sports aren't "fair" anyway because some competitors are born with genetic advantages. Different muscle twitch fibers etc...
What we are watching when we watch élite sports, then, is a contest among wildly disparate groups of people, who approach the starting line with an uneven set of genetic endowments and natural advantages. There will be Donald Thomases who barely have to train, and there will be Eero Mäntyrantas, who carry around in their blood, by dumb genetic luck, the ability to finish forty seconds ahead of their competitors. Élite sports supply, as Epstein puts it, a “splendid stage for the fantastic menagerie that is human biological diversity.” The menagerie is what makes sports fascinating. But it has also burdened high-level competition with a contradiction. We want sports to be fair and we take elaborate measures to make sure that no one competitor has an advantage over any other. But how can a fantastic menagerie ever be a contest among equals?
"It’s also not obvious that the advantages provided by doping should necessarily be thought of as unfair. ‘Some athletes,’ Rodchenkov writes,
are genetically gifted and can get to the top of their sport with natural training techniques; meanwhile, an athlete who seems unpromising can, after a modest doping regimen, show huge progress in developing skills and stamina, progressing to the point where he or she can challenge visibly stronger rivals. An average athlete might have more room for development and be more dedicated than the ‘natural’ competitor ... If sport was ‘clean’ that would be a reverse handicap, favouring naturally gifted athletes over their less advantaged rivals.
Without drugs, only a few talented athletes can ever compete at the highest levels of sport; by using them, those with unrealised potential are given their chance. Rather than seeking to make sport ‘clean’, Rodchenkov proposes that sporting bodies should try to inculcate a culture of sporting ‘honesty’: encouraging athletes to be explicit about the methods they use to improve their performance. A centrally administered, comprehensive and open doping culture in sport would allow for greater equality of opportunity for athletes. It’s an interpretation of fairness in sport that might be worth revisiting."
In Tokyo they have already faced questions about whether they should be running at all, and indeed (again, aged 18) whether they should be classing themselves as women at all.I read an article a while ago that pointed out that a lot of sports aren't "fair" anyway because some competitors are born with genetic advantages. Different muscle twitch fibers etc...