The Steroid Record is Shattered. USA Brings Respect Back to Olympic Track.

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Published on Tuesday, 14 August 2012 08:33

Written by Anne Moss Rogers

Track at this year's Olympic games was not tainted with talk of steroid and drug use to enhance performance. But the memory of days when athletes did get by with illegal doping came to mind when I saw the 4 x 100-meter relay's former record set 27 years ago in the mid 80's by the East Germans.

This may be controversial but I don't see many German women today making it to the finals or on the podium in track events. It was in the 80s that East German women looked mammoth in swim and track events and talk was they'd had a little help. So when Carmelita Jeter pointed to that scoreboard, I was thrilled to see that record shattered. Those four women legitimately worked their butts off and blew a WR away that needed to go. For me, it erased a bad memory and gave rise to a new era of those who win because they are talented and work really hard.

In fact, the US women and men were all very humble, well spoken, and overall brought back respect to a sport that had been tainted with drug use and dropped batons for several years. I felt each athlete was gracious they were a the Olympics and had the opportunity to compete. They made the US proud.

Lewis, the interviewer at the track and field events, was also gracious. Not once did he say, "So are you disappointed in silver?" as Andrea did repeatedly at the swim venue. He started every conversation with, "Congratulations". Sometimes we take for granted how hard it is to make it to the Olympics in the first place. If you have a cold the day of the trials, it could seal your fate and you'd have to wait four more years due to poor performance. If an athlete was disappointed in gettting second instead of first, he allowed them to voice the disappointment. 

I think the USA got something more valuable than gold medals and world records at this Olympics. We regained respect.