Thursday, 3 April 2008

Sportsocracy - 7th Edition - Tarnished careers and successful aftermaths

If you read the last edition (edition 6 - And if you did not see it scroll to the bottom of the right hand column and find Blog History and click on March), you will notice I rounded off with the mis-guided and drug mis-using baseball soul that is Barry Bonds.

This brought forward my own perceptions of some sports people and brought my views of sports people who rip apart their own careers to the forefront of my thoughts.

Barry Bonds career is obviously tarnished due to him bending the rules to gain an advantage via illegal use of substances, thus destroying his long career. This includes everything he had accomplished, baseball records and personal gains through the sport. Now at 42 his name has been soiled with his scandalous dwellings into drug use which helped him become successful.

This made me think he is not the only sports person who has done this. There have been many sports persons who have made mistakes in their careers by doing something which has overshadowed what they have accomplished and even some wrecking what they had achieved by being exposed as cheats.

Here are a select few : -

Marion Jones - Multiple gold medalist in the woman's 100 and 200 metres, prosperous athlete, seemed to be the consummate role model for young girls wanting to become athletes. She tarnished her career by being exposed as a drugs cheat, had her Olympic medals taken off her and now banned. It is yet to be seen what Marian will do next with her next career step.
Dwaine Chambers - A very good 100metre sprinter, had the world at his feet possibly and was in the form of his life. He Owned up to taking drugs and served a 2 year ban from athletics but continuously trained and even tried to take up American Football in the NFL Europe. He has had previous records revoked and even medals taken off him. He is currently banned from taking part at any Olympic or World championship outdoor event, but he is hoping to get another chance. He is now focusing on becoming a Rugby star with Castleford Tigers. He is currently serving a trial period with the tigers and we are yet to see if this works out and he becomes a true success for him.
Adrian Mutu - Superb Romanian striker, brilliant possibly the best player Romania had had for years. He was plying his trade at one of the biggest clubs in the spotlight, Chelsea, and he seemed to be doing very well until he was outed as a cocaine user. He served an 8 month ban for his drug use and then went on to move to another team, a team which was about to be involved in turmoil, Juventus, and the match fixing scandal. He is still playing football professionally for Fiorentina and appearing for the Romanian national team.
Martina Hingis - Again another cocaine scandal. Martina Hingis a wonderful young tennis star, she was the youngest ever Tennis women's world number 1 at 16 years of age. It was revealed in November last year that Hingis had tested positive for cocaine. Martina issued her plee of innocence and also retired at the age of 27 on the grounds of health problems and her age. It is yet to be seen what Martina does with her career she is still very young and has had an influence in Tennis which is now sadly tarnished.
Other select few 'tarnishers' and cheats include - Zinedine Zidane for his famous world cup final headbutt on Italian Defender Marco Materazzi, Maradonas drug abuse throughout his career peaking at the 1994 Olympics where he was under the influence whilst playing and finally the legendary George Best who retired professional football in his late 20's due to the party boy lifestyle taking over his life.

Anyway as per usual your voice of opinion is gladly accepted try and comment below this post by clicking the COMMENT link its free, simple to use and anonymous.

Posted by journodoherty at 23:42
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