kuha wrote:...I've never quite understood the need to see pro athletes as "role models." They are performers, and we can and should applaud their performances. However, anything beyond that becomes a bit strange. I don't look to the great artists--Manet, Picasso, Jasper Johns, whoever--as role models. I appreciate their work...and the life story is what it is. I revere Secretariat but have a hard time figuring out how he might be a role model...
Excellent post, kuha.
Karas spoke for approximately 20 minutes during Jones sentencing hearing. Among the points he made was that she was, as an Olympian, a defacto role model. You may not agree with that, but recall from those 2000 Nike commercials: Jones called for athletes to be better role models. Privately, Jones not only accused her peers of not walking along a path as role models, but she also cast the first stone at them as well. She had a desire for women to be respected (and she used those Nike commercials as a platform for that), yet she was oblivious to the perception women had of her following her long string of very poor choices in men, managers, trainers, and, ultimately, in her poor choices when it came to taking drugs and lying to investigators. Craddock, her UNC trainer, would later say that Jones was a role model and a hero to many young people.
Bev Kearney would also state on previous occasion:
“You have a responsibility that goes beyond the playing field. You have a responsibility to teach and to inspire young people in terms of intellectual wisdom and not just academic wisdom. You teach life skills and how to be successful as an African American in our society and as a woman in our society.”
Jones stated she stood for being a role model, yet she failed to live up to her part. She took it upon herself to be one. Karas reminded her of her obligation.
"Six months in prison is a lot," Davies told Reuters by telephone from IAAF headquarters in Monte Carlo. "But you do hope that it will be a deterrent to others.
You just have to love people with vain hopes and little clue. Let's not forget that she is not going to jail for doping, she is going to jail for perjury. The doping is purely incidental and the same outcome could have been achieved with any manner of activities she had to lie about.
All this will do is to make dopers more careful about construcing plausible deniability or other get outs well ahead of time instead of after the fact. It won't be a deterrent just a very good training exercise.
Judge Karas said he believed a message needed to be sent to athletes who have abused drugs and as a result, have overlooked the values of "hard work, dedication, teamwork and sportsmanship".
I have to disagree with the hard work and dedication part. If anything the drugs allow them to work harder. He seems to be under the impression the strength is an automatic by product of steroids.
Yes, the great irony is that it has become chic to call "steroids" the easy way when in fact they don't deliver their magic unless you work harder. They just facilitate your ability to do so.
Lost in the news is what C.J. Hunter feels (spoken through his attorney):
"I certainly think it's fair to say that whereas C.J. does not relish anyone having to go through this, certainly not someone he was married to ... it is a vindication of the story he told the grand jury, and he testified truthfully."
EPelle wrote:Lost in the news is what C.J. Hunter feels (spoken through his attorney):
"I certainly think it's fair to say that whereas C.J. does not relish anyone having to go through this, certainly not someone he was married to ... it is a vindication of the story he told the grand jury, and he testified truthfully."
All but forgotten, those who testified truthfully in those grand jury hearings were smeared publicly by Marion and others here on this message board.
EPelle wrote:Lost in the news is what C.J. Hunter feels (spoken through his attorney):
"I certainly think it's fair to say that whereas C.J. does not relish anyone having to go through this, certainly not someone he was married to ... it is a vindication of the story he told the grand jury, and he testified truthfully."
All but forgotten, those who testified truthfully in those grand jury hearings were smeared publicly by Marion and others here on this message board.
Just so we are clear, even if CJ and VC were correct, that does not make them heroes in this little passion play . . .
You've got two consecutive posts there, malmo, one at the end of page 2 and the other at the top of page 3 and no, they don't say the same thing. The addition of the conjunction changed the meaning.
Who cares about what Jones says and whether she is contrite. The judge did the correct thing by sending her to PRISON. That is the important message sent to everyone, especially children. Not sure if the judge was altogether sensible in sending Jones to speak to children about PED's. Sort of like sending a convicted felon drug dealer to speak to kids about drugs. Makes me uneasy. If anything, she should be KEPT AWAY FROM impressionable young minds and she has done enough damage to the youth of the world.
WalkandJog wrote:Who cares about what Jones says and whether she is contrite. The judge did the correct thing by sending her to PRISON. That is the important message sent to everyone, especially children. Not sure if the judge was altogether sensible in sending Jones to speak to children about PED's. Sort of like sending a convicted felon drug dealer to speak to kids about drugs. Makes me uneasy. If anything, she should be KEPT AWAY FROM impressionable young minds and she has done enough damage to the youth of the world.
The charge of "lying to investigators" is what the feds stick someone with when they don't have a case. It could be called "The Martha Stewart Law." Basically if you don't tell them the story they want, you've committed a crime. It's also the charge they make suspects plead to when threatening them with other charges. Marion was basically guilty with hanging around with shady characters. Giving her jail time is just prosecutors and judges making a name for themselves.
I assume that she is telling the truth when she says she took PEDs. In that case she should be out of the sport, but not in jail.
malmo wrote: Just so your clear on this, being truthful isn't something to be applauded for, it's what you're supposed to do.
Unfortunately we can't ask questions of everyone in the power structure that hangs like a ball and chain over athletics - some know more than they ever have to reveal, and that's just the way the world turns. Up and down are highly relative notions which depend, among other things, on where you're standing, sitting - or even lying.
