> > I guess too that Ron Clarke and his era--through to the John Walkers and > > Michel Jazys twenty years later--marked the end of that amateur kind of > > competing. It was the best of times, and I can't help thinking we've > > lost something more important than today's mind-boggling > > pseudo-accomplishments. > > Go on living in your flashback dream world ... who's to say the athletes > of that generation were any more or less clean than those of today who you > obviously distrust? Seems to me John Walker's health isn't the greatest > these days. Why not lump him in with FloJo?
While I strongly support banning drugs, let me note that Dan is indeed correct. The wildly popular 6 day races of the late 19th century tailed off for several reasons, but one of them was that runners were taking all manner of substances to keep themselves going and the fans got sick of it. There may or may not be an eventual fan backlash (not that there are enough fans in the U.S. to make a difference), but certainly taking drugs that are either illegal or questionable to some is not new to this generation or even this century. We should enjoy today's performances just as we (OK, those of us who are older than I) enjoyed those of 40 years ago, but we should not delude ourselves about the fact that both sets of athletes may have been taking drugs. - Ed Parrot
