Sanya Richards and Lauryn Williams had superb blog comments at the WCSN.com site-http://wcsnblogs.com/track-and-field/. Check it out and then read this blogger’s comments.
Both Richards and Williams just finished long seasons. Sanya won $500k at the Golden League and ran a super 4x 400 meter leg in Osaka. Williams took the silver in the 100 meters ( I still think she should have been higher), and ran on the winning 4 x 100 meer relay team. Both are class acts.
Their comments on Marion Jones show several things-one their different personalities and also the different ways they view the world. Sanya seems to be quite positive, and feels the best way to deal with Jones is to focus on the great athletes who are NOT using. Good approach, but with a 500 channel TV media and instantaneous commments on the web, the media will not let it happen.
Williams ( and I am sorry, I do like her approach) admits she was not a track is all the world person. She is trying to confront the difference between the public and private figures of Marion Jones. On one side, a women who calls Lauryn for her 21rst and on the other, someone who lies for most of her adult career.
The world is a strange place. Just like I believe that Marion Jones was sincere in her greetings to Lauryn Williams, I believe she bought into the detrius surrounding her lying about drug use. The rationalization process that goes when someone violates the law, cheats on taxes, cheats on a spouse, cheats in sports by using drugs, is all encompassing. After a time, the lying become so large, that one does not remember when they were not telling the lie. The lie becomes a reality to them, and they will do anything to protect it.
Marion Jones’s was suspected of using banned substances for the past eight years by many in the know, but no one had proof. Marion’s press conferences were superb theatrical performances. But, for someone to act that well, the rationale has to be complete. Such an athlete had to believe, at a certian level, that she was not cheating, and the lying sickens the rest of her life. Lying catches up with all of us at a certian point, and in the easy cases, the damage is short lived, but hopefully, the person learns from it.
Drug use and the cover up requires a level of lying that must permeate the athlete and their support groups’ entire lives. The sport, the athlete, their support group is caught up in the lie and all become dirty because of it.
Richards and Williams, in their own ways, reacted to the passion play that took over Marion Jone’s life last week. Marion has no one to blame but herself, but the number of people caught in the flotsam created from this sickening site is all encompassing-the sport Jones loved, the athletes who worshipped her and the young fans who feel betrayed.
I do believe that the shame that Marion Jones was made to feel last week will deter some young athletes from doping and perhaps shake up a few current athletes who are cheating. We can only hope. We can only pray.
For more on the sport of athletics, please check: http://www.american-trackandfield.com
For more on the WCSN.com, please check: http://wcsnblogs.com/track-and-field/.
