aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Dopes!

Stephen J. Dubner spotted this welcome perspective in a letter to Sports Illustrated:

As a scientist and a sports fan, I believe the current doping scandals compromise science as much as sports. The tests are performed by entities motivated by and funded to achieve the goal of detecting cheaters; their objectivity is suspect. Also, it is a scientific fact that there will be positive tests even when there are no cheaters. From my perspective, the puzzle is not the occasional prositive test, but why there aren’t a great many more. The system is broken, and I fear it is not always due to cheating athletes.”

The author, Brandon Gaut of Irvine, Calif., has a website is here.