From Little League to the Olympics, sports are supposed to build character and teach integrity. Yet at every level, there are players, parents, coaches and officials who would just as soon cheat and lie in pursuit of fame and fortune.
Elite athletes, asked if they would take a pill that would help them win an Olympic gold medal even if it could eventually kill them, overwhelmingly said they would, Wichita State University sports psychologist Greg Buell said.
"The whatever-it-takes-to-win mentality has overtaken any sense of fair play and ethics," Buell said. "What Sammy Sosa did was nothing less than cheating. He said he made a mistake but people are always going to say, `Yeah, right, but how many of those homers were hit with an illegal bat?'"
In 2001, 14-year-old Little League pitcher Danny Almonte stole perhaps the most glorious moment in the lives of players two years younger. His father had falsified his birth certificate so he could play, and he helped take his Bronx team to the US final before being caught.
All the Olympians who got caught blood-doping or taking steroids and other banned drugs.
"The world has become so competitive," said Richard Lapchick, chairman of Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, "that an athlete sometimes will take risks that are obviously ill-conceived. They think they won't get caught or people won't care if they do get caught."
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