media_artricles :: 2013

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Boldon condemns cheats in sports

FOUR-TIME Olympic medallist Ato Boldon has strongly condemned the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports, and is pleased that has not sullied Trinidad and Tobago’s name in the track and field arena.

The 39-year-old Boldon was speaking yesterday at the opening day of the annual Guardian Sports Desk’s Secondary Schools Leadership Symposium, at the Cascadia Hotel, St Ann’s. During a question-and-answer session with the students, Boldon was asked his view on the plague of drug cheats. “When I retired in 2004, after the Olympic Games (in Athens, Greece), I was an extremely bitter person,” said Boldon. “I felt like I was the idiot who had done it the right way and stayed away from drugs and everything else that would have caused shame and embarrassment to my family and to my country.

“I looked at some of those who had gold medals around their neck, who had titles, money and fame,” he continued. “Looking back at my career, I realised ‘you know what, it’s okay’, and it is okay because I have lived to see Tim Montgomery, Marion Jones, Kostantinos Kenteris, Katherina Thanou, countless of my peers who thought they had gotten away with it and now not only are they struggling in their personal lives but, for all of human history, the association with them is one of cheat (and) disgrace.”

Boldon emphatically stated, “I rather be a clean silver medallist than a dirty gold medallist, as simple as that.”

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