Doping Scandal and a Giveaway Winner!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Hope you had a marvelous week – I know I did, despite the fact that it feels more like it should be Wednesday instead of Friday.

Today I am giving away “As Good as Gold” by Kathryn Bertine and I am so excited to share it with you!

The winner is NR! I have contacted you and am so excited for you to read it!

I was quite impacted, although not shocked, this week as I read about the doping scandal of Lance Armstrong. Rather than “gift” you with my own two cents, I thought I would weigh in with some thoughts that actually have some klout in the competitive cycling world: Kathryn Bertine herself. I thought I would focus on a particular passage in the book from Kathryn that resonated in the news this week:

Tired of doping scandals altogether, be it baseball or cycling or track and field, we can get rid of them two ways. The media can step up their game and cover clean athletes and USADA and WADA can enforce new rules. The penalty system must be revamped. Enough of these one and two-year “soft” bans, these tiresome lawsuits and the time and energy spent on “punishing” cheaters. As long as there are sports, there will be cheaters. But there will be fewer if we crack down on them with more than a slap on the wrist. Here’s what USADA, WADA and all sports federations should agree to when it comes to catching cheaters:
1. Enforce a lifetime ban for a first offence.
2. Impose a minimum one-year jail sentence.
3. Make athletes perform a minimum 1,000-hours of community service in hospital wards where EPO and steroids are used for their true intention — to treat cancer patients and the terminally ill.
4. Force athletes to repay or reimburse their annual salary, prize money and endorsement contracts.
5. Forfeit all titles and medals earned during a career. Asterisks are for writers. Not athletes.
To read more, check out this link.
What was your reaction to the scandal this week?