I simply couldn't care less

I should care ... I really should.

I should be shocked, stunned and saddened by another three elite track and field athletes testing positive for banned substances - particularly as two are from my adopted home country of Jamaica - but I'm not.

After more than 30 years in this journalism game I've just become numb to the seemingly endless cheating and lies that permeate every sport that requires power and/or stamina - and that's a whole heap of 'em.

Jamaican sprinters Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson have now joined compatriot Veronica Campbell-Brown on WADA's deep doo-doo list. Toss in Tyson Gay of the US, the world's fastest man over 100m this year, and that's quite a nifty haul for the world's premier anti-doping agency.

Of course, we will hear the familiar bleating from those athletes about their innocence or an innocent mistake but, really, can we take anything they say seriously?

The cold hard facts are that Campbell-Brown, Gay, Powell and Simpson have been competing on the international stage for a combined 50 years or so. Between them they have won 12 Olympic medals (including five gold) and reaped 18 medals at the World Championships (six gold).

Now, all of a sudden, are we supposed to believe these greatly experienced athletes, whose ages range from 28 (Simpson) to 31 (Campbell-Brown) and had, until this year, unblemished records, have had collective brain farts and don't know what they have been eating, drinking or injecting?

Apparently so. And the Tooth Fairy and Santa will be coming around to my apartment for a few brews this evening.

The aforementioned foursome, which could make up a pretty good mixed 4x100 team, is merely the latest in a marathon-length line of athletes who have willingly or unwillingly stepped out of the lane of fair play.

Gay has already admitted he took a banned substance while the Jamaicans and their respective camps believe their transgressions are relatively minor or trivial, and they could get off with a slap on the wrist from the local governing body.

Maybe this will all blow over and be little more than a storm in a syringe.

However, athletes throughout the world are required to know what they are putting in their bodies, or having put in their bodies, and that tells me Messrs Campbell-Brown, Gay, Powell and Simpson have been either duped, are simply dumb and negligent or are cheats.

I don't care which of the three it is, you take your pick.

Of course, I'll still watch the men's 100m final at the World Championships in Moscow next month when Jamaica's Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake and Justin Gatlin of the US are likely to battle it out for the medals.

But, you know what? Blake and Gatlin have also tested positive for illegal substances in the past and been banned.

Still, I don't care, I simply don't care.

Tym Glaser is a senior sports copy editor at China Daily who likes to imbibe performance-enhancing Red Stripe beer. He can be contacted at tymglaser@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/16/2013 page23)