Do cheats ever prosper?

Doping is back in the news. A new set of tests have implicated dozens of athletes from the 1990's of taking performance enhancing drugs. No names have been released but you can sense a scandal about to break.

Of course it's nothing new. Doping has been a problem for decades in many different sports. I've just finished reading a book on the history of the Tour de France. It's painful reading especially when you reach the 1990's with scandals surrounding the Festina team, Jan Ullrich, Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis and others. A decade of winners wiped out.

Then of course you have the most famous drug cheat of all Ben Johnson who 'won' gold in the 100m at the Seoul Olympic Games after taking anabolic steroids. Other drug takers were discovered including Marion Jones, and Tyson Gay.

Sadly clean athletes become tainted by the scandals. Everyone comes under suspicion especially if they achieve anything special. Witness Chris Froome in this years tour being spat on and accused of being a doper or Mo Farrah falling under the shadow of accusations levelled at Alberto Salazar.

It makes me wonder why people would choose to take that path in the first place. Surely even if you were never found out you would always know you had cheated your way to success? But then I guess if everyone else is doing it the playing field is levelled and the only way to have any kind of success is to join in.

I'm not saying I would be cleaner than clean; given the right circumstances, pressures and timing any one could make a lapse in judgment.

Part of me does feel sorry for many of those who have lost respect, titles, and money through doping, not so much for the Armstrongs of this world who show no sense of remorse or admission of guilt, but more for those who were pressured and bullied into it. However I feel more sorry for the millions of fans who have been let down and betrayed by their heroes and role models.

Obviously I have never been in the position of needing any kind of performance enhancing drug. I may have used an energy gel or a strong coffee to give me a little extra before a race but that's about it. But if I had found myself competing at the highest level would I have been able to stay clean?

There is so much pressure on athletes now. Millions of people watching, sponsors demanding results, team expectations as well as the personal desire to achieve. It is easy to judge. I'm not in any way excusing the negative impact their actions have had but I think some care needs to be taken in how this is handled.

The saddest part of all is the toll doping takes on the physical and mental health of athletes. So many suffer from depression, cardio and liver disease and premature deaths are common. Is it worth risking your life for a sporting prize?

It's hard to see an end to doping in sport when the stakes are so high. The likelihood is that we will never see a truly clean sport, just one where the drug takers and the drug enforcement bodies are playing a cat and mouse game to try and stay one step ahead.

That is the great thing about grass roots sport, it is free of the ugliness of modern elite sports. I know when I attend parkrun that there is no need for random drug tests. People are there for the fun of it and the opportunity to test themselves. No one will be pumping themselves with steroids to gain a few seconds and a PB that only they will notice.

When I was younger I dreamed of running in the Olympics or riding the Tour de France. Do I wish I could have done it? Of course. However I'm so glad that I have been able to find such enjoyment in running at a level that I'm suited to and in a way that is clean, fun and healthy.