One concept you may learn about in sports management education is integrity in sports. One of the most important aspects of sports is honesty, essentially meaning following the rules, and having integrity within the sport. However, ever since athletic competitions first began, people have been doing whatever they can to bend those rules and gain an advantage, because the goal of winning often comes with prestige and rewards.
Nowadays, it comes with money and fame. So, it has been the responsibility of the different sport organizations to try and protect the integrity of their games, and try to seek out those cheaters. Unfortunately, the tools for cheating have become far more sophisticated over the past 40 or 50 years.
Doping Dilemma
One part of this is the evolution of the doping industry within professional sports. Whether it be taking anabolic steroids or EPO to increase red blood cell count and improve performance in endurance events, or technological doping, such as inserting a miniature motor that can’t be detected into a bicycle. Over the last few decades, it has been an epic battle for the people who are trying to protect the value of these sporting events. They’re doing their best to create tools for tracking cheaters that are as sophisticated and effective as the tools the cheaters themselves are using.
One interesting milestone came in the early 2000s when cycling, which was one of several global sports generating a lot of interest, was singled out as one of the most rampant offenders of the doping world. The “Michael Jordan of cycling,” Lance Armstrong, was accused of doping by a number of his competitors, who were understandably tired of spending years losing to someone who was cheating. For them, the options were to cheat and be able to continue doing what they loved, or to not cheat, and most likely fail and eventually have to stop competing.
There were a lot of things riding on these events. This whole doping industry was exposed over a number of years and multiple investigations, and it ultimately painted a far more nuanced picture for the general public to understand. It showed them that it’s not necessarily about who’s good or evil, it’s more about the pressures athletes face to perform at the highest level. And it allowed them to see that the system was set up in a way that you had to either give in to the broken system, or not participate.
The hope is that events like these have helped pave the way for a purer industry that more people can respect and appreciate. There was a time in the early 2000s when the vast majority of people who took the podium at the Tour de France were doping—something in the range of 90% or more of them. So hopefully, the result of these investigations and the actions of the people who truly care about the sport have led to a much cleaner and safer industry.
Ideally, it’s an industry where people can compete knowing that their success is a product of both their talent and their grit, and not because they’ve found a way to skirt the rules. This would create an environment that provided much better role models for kids who want to someday compete at the highest level.
Unethical Behavior in Sports
There have been many examples of poor behavior in sports. We’ve had Olympic athletes who have been stripped of their medals due to drug use. We recently had Russia being sanctioned out of the Olympics because of a state-sponsored doping program. There are many opportunities to see where sports can go awry. At Baylor, for example, there was rampant sexual misconduct happening, and a lot of key people within the program helped to cover it up. They also didn’t support the victim, and it really blew up in their face, rightfully so.
Winning at All Costs
As you can probably see, sometimes with athletic competition, winning can become so important that the cost no longer matters, and we lose sight of some of the important social aspects that we value in life and society. This is why it’s so important to focus on positive reinforcement and programming, or it may really wreak havoc on the system. Young people need to be taught that winning isn’t as important as playing the game with integrity.
You can learn more about this topic and other sports management concepts by exploring online sports management education.
