The Last American Hero

Marian Jones. Say it and my heart sinks. I remember being glued to the TV as she won medal after medal that year. I remember my own heart racing as she rounded the corners of the track. I leaned forward as she crossed that finish line as if I was helping her win.

I wanted her to win. She is a female. She's and African American who is smashing boundaries. She believed in herself and she had a dream.

On Friday I watched as my heart sank. Marian Jones used performance enhancing drugs. Someone whom I looked up to.... admired, helped to teach me to have a dream and to live it.

Marian Jones is a lie.

She used drugs and she lied about it. But you had me at she used drugs. Of course drug users will lie about it. They have to be deep enough in the spiral to take the drugs... it isn't like they will have this momentary period of morality and be honest.

What she has taught every girl and every woman who cheered her on that day.... was that the only way to get ahead is to cheat. That she couldn't do it on her own.

I don't believe she didn't know that her coach was giving it to her. An athlete of her intelligence..... knows. I am tired of that excuse from athletes. Especially as an athlete you know what goes in and out of your body.

The worst part of all of this.... she is a parent.

So now what do we do? With cycling and track full of performance enhancing drugs..... we still have triathlon where it seems to be relatively clean. We can thank Nina Kraft however for casting the shadow of doubt on our sport.

If you believe in yourself enough, if you work hard enough, if you take good enough care of yourself ... there is nothing you can't achieve. You must be secure enough within your skin to win or lose the race. To succeed or fail.

I very much believe that athletes who use drugs, have a deep insecurity that they believe that only medal, the win, the point, will alleviate. A chink in their armour. Which becomes a crack.

And we are all only as strong as our weakest link.

The lesson in all of this? There is still one person to count on. There is one person who is capable of getting there the right way. The clean way. One person who is competent to be the next American Hero... if not to the world than to those around them.

Just look in the mirror.

Thanks for stopping by.

:-) Mary Eggers