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9 comments

How Much Help is Too Much?

Posted September 05, 2008 8:00 AM

Science can measure the drag resistance of a swimsuit, allowing companies like Speedo to make suits that dramatically increase the speed of Olympic swimmers. And lighter arrows increase the distance of archers. This is fine and fair, according to the rules of the Olympic committee. But some performance-enhancing drugs are not acceptable, nor are the prosthetic legs that Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee uses for racing. Where do we draw the line between human achievement and technology achievement? Scientific instruments can help or hinder human performance — but how much is too much help?

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#1

Re: How Much Help is Too Much?

09/06/2008 7:18 AM

I'd suggest anything is ok as long as it's available to all participants else it becomes a budget contest.

Equipment only helps to a certain extent...I'm sure if Tiger Woods used my clubs he'd still play a pretty good round...whereas if I used his.

Del

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#2
In reply to #1

Re: How Much Help is Too Much?

09/06/2008 11:23 AM

GA, and so voted. About as well put as can be. Lessee, your handicap is, what, oh wait, yeah, I remember, it's that you're a crappy golfer...

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#3
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Re: How Much Help is Too Much?

09/06/2008 12:34 PM

You've obviously seen me play...

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#4

Re: How Much Help is Too Much?

09/08/2008 9:26 AM

American Baseball is to be commended on this one issue.

They have NOT allowed any changes to the equipment.

Contrast this with tennis,with high tech material,and over sized rackets it has changed the game from a serve and volley (plan and execute) to a game played from behind the baseline with the ferocity of a trapped animal.

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#5
In reply to #4

Re: How Much Help is Too Much?

09/08/2008 11:03 AM

MLB, at any rate - there's always the controversial aluminum bat, though...

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#6

Re: How Much Help is Too Much?

09/08/2008 11:59 AM

This goes for technical training as well. The bigger dollar wins.

Every athelete should have the opportunity to train full time and use all of the latest training equipment, nutrition and techniques.

This is not the case in every country.

If the endorsement/sponsor money for an event was pooled so that every athlete in that event had use of it equally, then we could start to say it is a fair event.

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#7
In reply to #6

Re: How Much Help is Too Much?

09/08/2008 12:15 PM

And yet the Jamaicans, from an island nation smaller than several of our COUNTIES, ran the legs out from under several of our best runners. Go figure, huh?

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#8
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Re: How Much Help is Too Much?

09/08/2008 1:07 PM

They don't do very well in bobsled though.

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#9

Re: How Much Help is Too Much?

09/11/2008 11:43 AM

If we were to ban products that enhanced a performance, then the athlete would eventually reach a peak that could not ever be beaten. The fact that swimsuits have been designed to move water around the swimmer and therefore make them a tad faster is immaterial, it is not that much and the fact is that in a race between athletes of the same fitness and power, it is the start or the tactics that will determine the winner. I am not proposing that performance enhancing drugs be used, but I don't think that a piece of clothing wins a race, the athlete does. If we were to go down the route of looking at the conditions of the event, then the long jump record that Bob Beaman set in Mexico would not have been allowed because of the altitude, let the athletes wear whatever works best, this allows innovation in design of garments and fabrics which is very human.

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