Drugs, Tech, Ethics by Erin Carolina McGee

Source: Cultural Nuances: Doping, Cycling and the Tour de France

gracetzhou — 2024-01-30 23:05:14 UTC

Tour de France, an annual long-distance road cycling competition, challenges contestants to push themselves mentally and physically to the limits of human performance. The core values of long-distance cycling: “endurance, perseverance, willpower, competitiveness, survival instinct, loneliness, frustration capacity, [and] overcoming struggles” align with the benefits of doping (Schneider 213). This alignment helps justify the doping in cycling. Professional cyclers who depend on their success in the sport for financial support often resort to doping to maintain their competitiveness as cyclers. Many spectators even support doping, believing that the courage to dope makes the road cyclist “the only true hero in the sports world – pure will power” (Schneider 213). Heroizing the cyclers and further glorifying doping increases the societal and peer pressure to dope. However, not everyone agrees with the current state of the sport. Doping scandals have “threatened a sense of honour that some riders, officials and physicians take very seriously, so seriously they have left the sport” (Schneider 214). The media coverage of these scandals has tarnished the image of cycling as a transparent sport and the use of drugs twists the aim to push human capabilities. While doping continues to be an important issue in cycling, the health risks, mistrust, and peer pressure linked with doping make it an unsustainable solution to the sport’s goals.

Source: Under the Influence

gracetzhou — 2024-01-30 23:05:26 UTC

In this paper, Dickerson explores the intersection of sports, Blackness, marijuana usage and masculinity through different methods. He argues for the existence of a trope referred to as "Chronic Black male sporting-hood"(Dickerson 217) in which sports are used as a mechanism to control Black male athletes and deprive them of their humanity. He refers to a series of Above the Influence ads run to prove this idea, highlighting the differences between them. In Shadow a young Black boy is seen as leaving behind basketball for a joint, which presents a false dilemma of sports or marijuana, and when contrasted with the ads Shoulders and Pete's Couch, shows how he has been deprived of the autonomy to make the decision as compared to White teenagers (Dickerson 218-220). Additionally, using a unique annotation of athlete testimonials of marijuana usage, he advocates for the legalization of marijuana, highlighting instances of athletes using marijuana to help with injuries, sleeping, social connections, and other things they are going through (Dickerson 222-232). Through the uses of these sources, along with comparisons with white athletes who use marijuana, and analysis of systemic racism, he is able to successfully demonstrate the double standards that occur relating to Black male athletes who use marijuana.

Source: Ref, You Suck!

gracetzhou — 2024-01-30 23:05:30 UTC

In the Podcast, Micheal Lewis discusses the increasing tension between players and referees and the process of improving fairness in refereeing. The tension results in confronting behaviors toward the referees due to their dissatisfaction with their calls, even though the referees have improved their accuracy. Especially when famous players who are exemplars of other players and fans are pushing the issue, raging and abusive behavior towards referees has increased in the past four years. Since most calls are made subjectively, players intend to trick the referee with optical illusions to make bad calls. To maintain fairness in the court and correct referee’s mistakes, Adam Silver, the NBA Commissioner created the NBA Replay Center. Referees may send signals to the Replay Center if they cannot make a correct judgment, then the Replay Center referees could review the tape in slow-motion and at better angles and allow the referees on the court to change their calls (Lewis). The mistakes the referees made are also published at the end of the game to reduce the ref’s racial bias and calls inclining towards home players. With the technology in the Replay Center and the transparency enforcement that eliminates biased calls, the accuracy in refereeing increased and made the game more fair.

Source: MLB's Pitchcom

gracetzhou — 2024-01-30 23:05:33 UTC

This article shares information about a newer technology being introduced to MLB called PitchCom. Baseball and technology haven’t always been a match made in heaven and players have very different opinions on the matter. The increase of technology use in sports has started new conversations over what the future of baseball should look like.

PitchCom is a device used by the catcher and pitcher; one has a speaker device in their hat while the other wears a wristband looking device with buttons. This allows the catcher and speaker to communicate about pitches without the use of hand signals. In addition to preventing teams from sign-stealing during games, PitchCom is also supposed to cut down the length of games.

Many players argue that PitchCom and technology are unnecessary additions to the game. One player claimed, “it’s part of baseball, trying to crack someone’s signs…does it have its desired intent that it cleans up the game a little bit? Yes. But I also feel like it takes away part of the game” (Miller 2). Technology is more integrated into sports/baseball every year. Despite the strong opinions of the players, the future of baseball is still uncertain.

Drugs + Technology + Ethics

gracetzhou — 2024-01-30 23:05:56 UTC

Bibliography

gracetzhou — 2024-02-01 22:10:46 UTC

Brennan, Christine. “Russian Skater Kamila Valieva Banned Four Years over Doping, Ending 2022 Olympic Drama.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 29 Jan. 2024, www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2024/01/29/kamila-valieva-russian-skater-banned-four-years-doping-beijing-olympics/72393824007/.

Dickerson, Nik. "Under the Influence: Marijuana, the Black Male Athlete, and Alternative Understandings of Humanity." Sociology of Sport Journal, 2023, pp. 213-236.

Lewis, Micheal, host. "Ref, You Suck!" Against the Rules with Michael Lewis: The Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, 2 April 2019.

Miller, Scott. "Baseball Buys In on the Digital Age. But at What Cost?" The New York Times, 7 August 2022.

Potts, Michael. “Wimbledon Hawk-Eye: Is It Accurate? How It Works: Radio Times.” Radio Times, 2 July 2023, www.radiotimes.com/tv/sport/tennis/wimbledon-hawk-eye/.

Schneider, Angela J. "Cultural Nuances: Doping, Cycling

and the Tour de France." Sport in Society, Vol. 9, No. 2, April 2006, pp. 212–226.

Stef. “Tour de France : The Real Numbers of Doping.” Cyclisme, www.cyclisme-dopage.com/chiffres/tdf-vraischiffres-en.htm. Accessed 3 Feb. 2024.

Wladyslaw. "Spectators' banner during the Tour de France 2006." Wikipedia, 1 July 2006, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_at_the_Tour_de_France#/media/File:Tour_de_Doping.jpg. Accessed 3 February 2024.

Image + Caption

gracetzhou — 2024-02-01 22:35:48 UTC

At the highly anticipated Tour de France in 2006, tourists lined the race course to watch the cyclists bike by. However, a group of people expressed their disdain for the heavy doping culture of cycling with a banner that read "Tour de Doping". Media coverage of doping scandals in cycling has publicized the issue, making the public aware of its presence in the popular sport.

Podcast

gracetzhou — 2024-02-01 22:35:55 UTC

Data based visual + caption

emcgee36 — 2024-02-01 22:37:53 UTC

Doping, the use of substances to enhance performance in sports, has become a serious issue in cycling competitions. With the Tour de France giving rise to worldwide awareness of substance use, the anti-doping rule was established to prohibit illegal doping. The graph shows a significant decrease in the percentage of cycling riders who violate anti-doping rules from 52.8% in 2000 to 3.8% in 2021.

Topic Suggestion 1:

gracetzhou — 2024-02-04 03:46:56 UTC

Summary: It was recently ruled that Kamila Valieva, a Russian figure skater, violated an anti-doping rule while competing in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. With Russia's results disqualified from the Games, this ruling has shifted the placement of Olympic teams in figure skating pushing Team USA to gold, Japan to silver, and Canada to bronze. Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee believes the decision is not only significant for Team USA athletes but also for athletes worldwide who practice fair play and advocate for clean sport.

Research Question:

Doping -> Doping's effect on competitors -> How does doping in international competitions such as the Olympics affect international relationships?

Topic Suggestion 2:

gracetzhou — 2024-02-04 04:25:42 UTC

Summary:

The latest tennis technology, Hawk-Eye, can make split-second decisions about whether a ball is in or out of the court. Despite reports that have suggested the Hawk-Eye can be up to 10mm off, the Hawk-Eye's calls are still much more accurate than human umpires. The network of 10 cameras that capture 60 images per second and a team of specialists who repeatedly calibrate the cameras make the Hawk-Eye a costly but powerful tool in judging tennis games.

Research Question:

Technology -> accessibility/cost -> How will implementation of expensive technology affect the accessibility and culture of competitive sports.