Congratulations
..to the incredible 2004 Australian Olympic Team which finished 4th out of over 200 countries. 'Per head of population', this makes our team the most successful national sporting group in history!

So another Olympic Games has come and gone with the usual rush of elation, disappointment and surprise. Despite the fear of some kind of terrorist attack, the games were a fabulous success. The Japanese Male Gymnasts would be on top of the world as would the Aussie Swim and Cycling Teams as they savoured their day in the sun. For these and others, the countless hours of practice and personal sacrifice paid off and for many more it was a case of, as they sometimes say at JKA grading examinations - try again!

Predictably, despite the human side to which we can readily relate, the dark, destructive menace of doping prevailed. A Greek weightlifting bronze medallist was stripped of his glory after recording double the acceptable amount of a banned substance, while two highly fancied hometown heroes mysteriously withdrew with their coach being heavily implicated after a search by authorities uncovered some damning evidence.

And on it went - in a pathetic indictment of human frailty, dozens more were simply caught red-handed; Men's hammer champion, Hungarian Adrian Annus stripped of his gold medal after failing to take a drugs test. Colombian cyclist Maria Luisa Calle Williams stripped of her bronze medal after testing positive for a banned stimulant. Puerto Rican wrestler Mabel Fonseca tested positive for banned steroids. Another Hungarian, weightlifter Ferenc Gyurkovics tested positive for banned steroids. Russian 400m runner Anton Galkin expelled from the Games for alleged doping offences after finishing fourth in the semi-final. Russian Irina Korzhanenko, who won the Olympic Games Shot-Put before being stripped of her gold after failing a drugs test.

Some cheats admit their misdemeanours; The Irish athlete Cathal Lombard, a 28-year-old distance runner, who admitted taking the performance-enhancing drug EPO failed a test in Switzerland before the games and was disqualified from running in the 10,000m and 5,000m. He faces a two-year suspension from the sport. Lombard ran a time of 27:33:53 in the 10,000m at Stanford University in the US earlier this year, which was three minutes faster than his previous personal best. This guy would have accepted a medal, and it is highly likely that many more accepted Medals and minor placings in the full knowledge that they cheated.

Winners or not, Gold Medal or last place, if they managed to escape the testing protocols, they now have permission to live their lives as cheats because they shamefully participated against "clean" athletes, depriving them of a fair chance and taking a place they are not entitled to.

So what is it that these idiots take? What do they drink, eat, inhale, ingest and intravenously inject into their bodies to cheat their way to glory? Doping is classified, supposedly, for the sake of identification and control. Here are the categories of available nasties;

Stimulants act directly on the nervous system to speed up parts of the brain and body, increasing reaction time and slowing fatigue. Narcotic Analgesics are pain killers that allow continuous activity despite pain and injury. Anabolic Agents (steroids) are natural or artificial substances which makes muscles grow larger. Beta-Blockers stop trembling, reduce blood pressure, slow heart rate and have a calming effect. Diuretics increase the amount of urine passed from the body. They are used in sports with weight divisions by people who have difficulty keeping their weight down to qualify. Peptide Hormones & Analogues help the body to grow muscle and determine height. Growth Hormones encourage muscle growth and develop speed and strength.

There's something for everyone here, you can see how tempting this would be. So where does competitive sport go from here? Is it human nature to cheat? Clearly, doping is institutionalised, ingrained into some sports. Some people close to the action say that clean athletes are now the exception rather than the rule, imagine that - the clean guys are in the minority! How can honest athletes stay motivated to compete against cheats when they don't even know what they are up against?

Opinion on the subject is split. It is a perpetual struggle to define exactly what a drug cheat is, let alone catching and dealing with them. Ex Olympian Ron Clarke, who graced us recently at the JKAA Nationals on the Gold Coast where he is Mayor, advocates drugs as the only hope for the country's middle-distance track runners. Clarke, who broke multiple world records at all distances between two miles and 5000m during his impressive career, told the Fairfax news group recently that runners should be allowed to use performance-enhancing substances - as long as they did not have dangerous consequences. He said that until a treatment was available to even the odds between athletes born and bred at altitude and those at sea level, there could never be even international competition. "We'll never get a world record (in middle- or long-distance events), I can tell you that unless something happens chemically," Clarke said. "We'll never break another world record by our sea-level athletes from 1500m or above for another century."

Ron Clarke is wrong. If sea-level runners are allowed to dope-up in order to match the endurance of their altitude counterparts and compete in the same race, that would be handicapping and it is not fair. It would be no different to lowering the high-jump bar for high-jumpers who are shorter in stature. Athletes present themselves for competition in a well-trained but natural state to compete against others with similar skills. A chemical advantage is very different to one gained by hard and intelligent preparation. If they can't compete in one sport, they should try another.

By contrast another Aussie Olympic icon Herb Elliot (an athlete from the same era) sees it as black and white. He believes that any athlete caught or found guilty of taking drugs should be jailed. Elliot, who won 1500m gold at the 1960 Games, was known for his ruthless approach to athletics. Recently on British television he said "I despise drug takers and I don't understand why they are not put in jail. I would not allow them on the sporting field ever again, whether their offence is inadvertent or not. They wreck what sport is all about." Elliot has also said "I detest it, systematic drug-taking in sport is outright fraud, they're cheats". Fraud is a strong word, let's consider it;

"Fraud" noun - (Source - The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary)

1. Deception; the use of false representations to gain an unjust advantage.
2. A person or thing not fulfilling what is claimed or expected of it.

By these definitions, the use of banned substances in sport is no different to the white-collar fraud that is capable of bringing down entire corporations by criminal directors who inflate the value of their company for short term - highly lucrative gain. The Enron's, Worldcom's and others who deceived markets and shareholders into believing they had wealth far beyond the truth.

Now the question must be asked, how many millions of dollars has been 'earned' by people who cheated in sport? Remember, we are not only talking about the Olympics - all professional sports are implicated. Considering the scale of this, we are talking about $billions. Winning a Gold Medal in a glamour sport these days is a gateway to a fortune not only for the athlete, but for the Marketing machine desperate to ignite a spending frenzy for branded images, clothes, footwear, accessories, toys, games, tutorials, books, DVD's etc etc. In other words, a ticket to a fast and very substantial dollar.

But Karate is a minnow in Marketing terms. Who wants to sponsor a JKAA National Champion? We doubt if anyone would. As we said in a previous eDitorial, JKA is free from issues with drug abuse, but our competitors go through the same range of human emotions to get themselves into a position where they become elite in their group, precisely what the high-profile guys do. The difference is not peer pressure, media expectations or anything like it, the difference is the "I don't cheat" mentality which comes from a decision taken for the right reasons, a lifestyle choice made easier by the culture of fairness within the group (in this case JKA Karate). It's that easy.

In a recent interview for this website, JKA national team member Ray Morcomb made his feelings clear when the subject came up; "No I would never use performance-enhancing drugs. I would never cheat to win, even if I knew I couldn’t win any other way. I know in my heart that everything I have achieved has only come from hard work, dedication, and a bit of good luck"

As we move forward in this increasingly complicated world, personal values are tested, temptation abounds and artificial gratification is everywhere. In the midst of all this stands the individual, the basic unit of humanity, fragile and vulnerable, often uninformed and a sitting duck for the marketing machines of popular culture to take in any direction it can. Where does he look? What can he do to avoid collapsing under the weight of temptation? Easy, he can choose to be the opposite; ie. strong, determined, informed and ready to openly reject cheating.

We can’t depend on the authorities, they’ve failed already. If the rhetoric of the powers that be is to be believed, there is a will to eliminate the scourge. Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the International Olympic Committee is on record as saying… "Doping is cheating by agreeing to cheat and conceal one's capabilities, by recognising one's incapacity or unwillingness to accept oneself, or to transcend one's limits by excluding oneself de facto from the rules of conduct required by all human society." Fine words, but this does nothing more than state the obvious.

All eyes are now on the IOC and other controlling bodies to eliminate drugs from sport. But as we’ve seen, that’s impossible. However, with their massive resources and worldwide influence, they are in a fantastic position to create a brand new paradigm that sets the conditions whereby people simply reject cheating, not drugs, cheating. Like disease, drugs will always be around. Sports authorities may from time to time get ahead of it, then what? Cheating is cheating and an unfair advantage is as far away as a bad choice.

On the other hand, there are no eyes on the individual, yet the whole thing begins and ends with him. A senior JKA Melbourne member made a great point when he said that the difference between JKA Karate (at a competitive level) and other sports was our Dojo Kun - the Karate equivalent of the 10 commandments. Without it we have nothing to ground us or guide us as we punch and kick our way towards our goals. But it’s one thing to have a set of rules and play to them, sportspeople do that all the time - it’s another thing to understand the real meaning of fair play and have the guts to live by it.

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