I’m sure that there will have been hundreds of column inches already turned over to the debate around Justin Gatlin and whether his gold medal at the world athletics championships should be celebrated. However, as I’m writing this from Fort Lauderdale airport ahead of my flight home and as I’ve just been reading quite a few dozen of those column inches in both the UK and US press, I couldn’t resist joining the debate.
I get that sport is not life and death and that cheating to win a running race doesn’t compare with life’s more serious crimes. If somebody robs a bank, we send them to prison as punishment but when their time is served, we consider them to have paid the appropriate price and expect them to move on with their life. Yet in sport, even though the crime is so much less, there are many who demand lifetime punishments for those who have cheated.
I am embarrassingly inconsistent on the issue. When it comes to our criminal justice system, I’m certainly not in the ‘hang em and flog em’ brigade. Instead, I believe passionately that prison must be about reform and rehabilitation for offenders so that they can leave prison with a new chance to succeed. And yet when I heard that Justin Gatlin had won earlier in the week, I was angry he was even allowed to be on the start line.
I adore sport because I marvel at the skill and athleticism of those competing. When an athlete cheats, they ruin not only the experience for their fellow competitors but also for those watching. Those who break that bond with their fellow competitors and with those watching around the world, should not be allowed to compete again and should find new careers instead.