Why Doug Logan Is Wrong

If you read the recent article by Doug Logan, former USATF CEO, on Speed Endurance and you feel like you are taking crazy pills, you are not alone.  Logan, who raised money well but was otherwise pretty unmemorable in two years at USATF, recently stated that he should give up the hunt for those who take PEDs (performance enhancing drugs).  Perhaps, because Logan has history with other sports as well as track, has forgotten than track and field is a sport that is based SOLELY on what one can do using only the human body that God has given us.  You can't call trick plays, you can't save time outs, you can't sub athletes out when they get tired.  This is a sport that is only about what one can do under normal circumstances, and one where the hardest workers can still come out on top.

Sorry Mr. Logan, but you have lost your credibility.  You spent your two years trying to "clean" up the sport, and now you are saying the sport should become flat out dirty?  I, as well as other coaches I have talked to, would rather walk away from the sport altogether and keep our dignity than be involved in mockery of the oldest sport in the world.  Do you want to clean up track and field?  Get rid of contracts, prize money, etc., except to cover the cost of travel and lodging for competitions.  Athletes who only want to be in the sport for the wrong reasons or who would spend large amounts of money to dope would no longer care to stick around.  Athletics may be the last vestige of this world where people who work the hardest rise to the top and there is a strong connection between the strength of the mind and the strength of the body.  If we give up on the preciousness of that relationship, and the appreciation of the finite resources of the human body, then we have given up on the last piece of our human heritage that hasn't already been taken away from us by modernity.

Do we want a bunch of Marion Jones's running around?