Which sport is the most corrupt?

[Barrel of Fun]

Football - See FIFA.

 

[zefarelly]

Curling, I see teams out there with HAIRDRYERS pre-match to alter the ice characteristics....all very dodgy.

Thats harsh

Zefarelly and Sons

Manufacturers of hairdryers


by appointment for her majesties quim
and curling type stuff
since 1963
honest!

 

[zefarelly]

Canasta . . . sketchy at best, too many cards to start with, and only shifty people play it

 

[KZNSeagull]

Golf only started testing in 2008, after Gary Player, stated he knew of players who doped.

The argument that KZN puts across has come up a lot while searching golf/drugs.
But there is a lot conjecture and inuendo.
Performance Enhancing Drugs in Golf

As yet I've not found the actual numbers of tests carried out on golfers, but I did note Padraig Harrington has been tested only once.
Compare that to Le Tour, where the top 3 of each stage are tested, along with 2-10 other random cyclists, as well as the leaders of all the 4 individual competitions, every day.

It's easy to NOT find performance drugs, if you don't look for them.

Thanks for that.

It appears that golfs drug testing policy came into being partly because of golf being included in the Olympics and also because it was noted that players such as Tiger Woods had bulked up considerably in a short space of time. There does appear to be a desire to have a drug testing policy and to catch any wrongdoers, but golf is one sport that abhors cheats of any kind so from that point of view, I would personally be amazed if any top golfer is using drugs. They are happy to call penalties on themselves (and lose large sums of money as a result) when their ball moves when it shouldn't or they illegally touch the sand in a bunker etc but at the same time are popping pills to boost their performance? It does not make logical sense to me.

Ok, so Gary Player knows players that have used steroids to bulk themselves up (which if true, is of course wrong). The question is, does bulking up in golf make you play better? Has Tiger got better from bulking up? No. Does he hit the ball further? No - he hit the ball much further as a teenager. When Monty loses weight he plays worse. Golfers are looking after themselves physically better than they used to, but I would not describe many of them as athletes. The only advantage to bulking up in golf is that you can hack it out of long rough a bit easier. The bigger and stronger you are does not mean that you will hit the ball further. Woosnam was one of the longest hitters in the game in his day and he is 5 foot 4. Plus, any good golfer will tell you that golf is not about hitting the ball miles, it is about getting the ball in the hole and bulking up is not going to help with that.

Golf is more a mind game at that level since on their day, top pro golfers are all as good as each other. They could, I suppose, be taking drugs to improve their concentration and control their nerves but if that were the case, why has there not been any player recently whose game has suddenly improved enormously and then stayed at that level? Or are they all at it? I see there was a guy banned for using beta blockers on the USPGA tour, but he was hardly a household name. That obviously shows that some players will try it, but I repeat that I would be utterly amazed if any top golfer was using drugs.

Like I said before, golf abhors cheats. If golf is rife with drugs they would have been found by now. No, they may not have been looking for very long but maybe that is because there is not much to look for. At least I hope that is the case. Naive? Maybe, but I will stay that way until proven wrong!!