Posted by Gleb Epelbaum on October 3, 2009, 3:08 pm, in reply to "The Other Side of The Coin"
166.137.134.35
Jackson,
I am both flattered and inspired by what you said. Many points that you have brought up are pretty much in line with how I've been looking at it. Ideally, I would LOVE to have everybody lift raw, drug free, and to strict standards. I would love to have all the best powerlifters in the country (or world) get on the platform under those conditions to see who truly is the best without any "artificial ingredients," be it gear, drugs, or loose judging.
I am, however, a pragmatist. I understand the reality of our sport and how rampant drug use is. And not just our sport. Look at all the steroid scandals that have become a hot topic in today's news. Of course, with millions of dollars on the line, one can certainly understand the temptation that these less-than-legal supplements may present to someone involved in one of the more lucrative sports. Why someone would choose to subject his body to these "chemical enhancements" and spend big chunks of change to do it just so they can boost their little egos and say "look at me, I can lift more than you, look at my first place trophy" is beyond me. But many do and will keep doing it regardless of what the sport, the society, or the government do about it.
I suspect that Eric has a similar approach to this issue. He wants to reinvigorate raw lifting, have more of the elite athletes take off their gear to see what they can do without it, while bringing some semblance of unity to this fragmented sport. Unfortunately, a large portion of the elite lifters will not do it at a tested venue for obvious reasons. So he chose to do what needed to be done to bring the the top lifters to his venue.
The older I get, the more the pragmatist in me takes over the idealist. I just want to lift. I have never run from competition, never avoided a challenge. If my competition is clean - great, let's see who the strongest lifter with the playing field being even. If they are juiced to the gills - no matter, I'll step up to the challenge all the same. If I lose, I lose to someone who had an advantage; if I win, then the victory is that much sweeter. At the end of the day, I will walk away knowing that I have gone up against some of the strongest lifters out there.
I really appreciate the words of encouragement. I have a few months to get my numbers up, then, come January 30, we'll see if I can hang with the big boys. Now, if I could only get my schedule to cooperate and get more quality time in the gym...
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