Found this article amusing....also references some on-line boards wherein some
Masters were ripping Hellebuyck.
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Drug cheat winners are committing theft
By Steve Nearman (Washington Times)
Sprinter Michelle Collins and marathoner Eddy Hellebuyck received their
sentences last week for using illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
Collins was banned from the sport for eight years, effectively ending the
33-year-old's competitive career. Hellebuyck drew a two-year ban, interrupting
the 43-year-old's extension of a long and successful career.
Thus the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) marked two more successes in a
year when more than a dozen athletes have been temporarily tossed from
professional track and field and road racing. Some, like Regina Jacobs, have
conveniently announced their retirements rather than being appropriately
disgraced.
USA Track & Field's zero-tolerance policy appears to be working, as
evidenced by the lack of American drug cheats in the 2004 Athens Olympics
exposed thus far.
The bans, however, are not enough.
These cheating athletes should spend time in prison.
Collins, Hellebuyck and all the other guilty track and field athletes were
merely slapped on the wrist for stealing hundreds of thousands if not millions
of dollars in prize money and sponsorships — along with fame and records —
from athletes who played it straight and came up short.
And yet it doesn't seem like anybody is talking grand larceny here.
Immediately after USADA's announcement of Hellebuyck's suspension, there
was talk on the masters online list from athletes who had placed closely behind
the 1996 Olympian from Belgium who became an American in 1999.
Several athletes posted angry missives about Hellebuyck because he had
beaten them in competitions where the prize money was significant. Hellebuyck
was still able to earn a living in the sport he had competed in for more than
two decades — he said in an interview last year he earned $48,000 in 2002 —
because there is decent prize money for masters at major competitions.
Had I been a talented enough athlete to finish behind Hellebuyck and either
in or just out the money, you can bet I would have sued him for financial
damages.
Take, for example, his payday at the 2003 Twin Cities Marathon: $30,500 in
prize money and bonuses.
He was awarded $20,000 for first place overall, while the runner-up
received $12,000. He netted another $2,500 as the first American, while the
second American earned $1,500. He was the first masters runner and winner of
the USA Masters Marathon Championships, collecting another $4,000 and $3,000,
respectively, while the runner-ups earned $3,000 and $2,000.
Plus, he shattered the U.S. masters marathon record by four minutes with a
2:12:47 (he ran ninth in 2:19:59 the year before on the same course), his
sixth-fastest time in more than 90 marathons.
I don't see him giving back the money, or his American masters records (5K,
10K, 15K, 10 miles and marathon), or his numerous national championships. He
still does not believe he was guilty of anything.
"If I was the athlete to cheat, I would have been doing so 20 years ago,
not on the fumes of my retirement," he said in the interview with Runner's
World.
Retirement? The guy was still making a decent living in the only career he
knows, running nearly the same marathon times as a 42-year-old (2:12:47) he was
running as a 33-year-old (personal best 2:11:50). As long as that was the case,
I suspect Hellebuyck would have kept on racing well into his 50s rather than
working eight-hour shifts at some local running store in his hometown of
Albuquerque, N.M., selling running shoes to eight-hour marathoners.
Meanwhile, Collins' gold in the 2003 world championships is significantly
more valuable than her runner-up silver in terms of sponsorship dollars.
If you steal from your employer's bank account, you go to prison. If you
cheat the IRS on your tax return, you go to prison. There is no reason why
athletes like Hellebuyck and Collins and Jacobs should not go to prison for
stealing money from their competitors.
Zero tolerance is good, but for most athletes, the two-year ban is worth
the risk, especially if it is between Olympic years. If we look at the drug
violation as a financial crime with major consequences, it may not be worth the
risk any longer.