Andrew Mitchell: an apology

Andrew Mitchell: sorry.

Speaking of apologies, I was able to watch Oprah's interview with Lance Armstrong last night, and I could then see for myself his body language as well as his words. His words were unimpressive in so far as he felt sorry, though more for the fact that he got caught than anything else. He seemed to be saying he had to keep up his blood doping and EPO injections year after year in order to compete, and completely failed to appreciate that this gave him an unfair advantage over anyone who was not using drugs. And that, Lance, is why it's called cheating. His non verbal utterances were equally revealing. In particular there was his closed, pinched face, full of unexpressed anger at being placed in such an embarrassing situation; unable to accept the fact that he put himself in said position.

So it now seems that Armstrong was not the greatest cyclist in history; only one of the cleverest, in that he avoided being found out for so many years. Hence he is not the greatest drug cheat in history: that accolade really belongs to Florence Griffiths-Joiner. You'll remember in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Flo-Jo won gold in both the 100 and 200 metres, putting in world record times that no other woman has ever got even close to since. And she never got caught, though her sins came home to roost when she died too young, of heart disease which it is hard to argue was not a consequence of the huge doses of steroids her body absorbed, though they were never detected at the time. Drugs are illegal for 2 reasons: because, as we have seen, they offer an unfair advantage, but also because they can kill.