SPORTS December 6, 2004 Issue

While his team practiced . . .

By Barbara Vining

I LIKE TO SEE PEOPLE EXCEL. It encourages me. It shows what is possible to achieve in life through singular effort, discipline, and training.

Grace. Skill. Teamwork. Perseverance. Good sportsmanship. These are the hallmarks of a good athlete — whether an elementary school soccer player, an Olympic diver, or something in between — which can inspire us all to feel capable of moving beyond our own present level of achievement in whatever we are engaged. It's especially inspiring to see an athlete break out of the bonds of physical limitation — something everyone battles with in some way.

What about the practice, though, of enhancing physical strength and performance through steroids or amphetamines? Or, consider the possibility that in the near future "an athlete could be injected with the DNA of an animal . . . and quickly become much faster and stronger," making "training seem trivial and more than obsolete" ("Will gene-altered athletes kill sport?" The Christian Science Monitor, August 23,2004, pp. 12, 13). Such shortcuts to victory would diminish the role of noble character traits in reaching high achievement. And were these traits to be benched, we would all be losers.