Cheating at the Highest Level
I wrote this almost two weeks ago. While the Olympic Games have come to a close, I still wanted to post this.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll be aware of the drone spying scandal that has rocked the Canadian women’s soccer team in Paris. Personally, I’ve been all over the page with this one. My first response was incredulity, and frustration. I felt the team should be disqualified from playing. Then I was furious with Soccer Canada and the coaching staff…and that feeling still remains. However, my feelings about the players themselves are more complex. I so want to believe they didn’t know, but people from outside of Canada say they just don’t think that can be the case. I read Christine Sinclair’s post about never being part of any drone spying, and I want to believe her, because frankly she’s an international icon, and the most decorated soccer player in the world. When I saw Vanessa Gilles emotional post about the team not “being cheaters” it hit me hard: I went to the players corner.
I hate cheaters. That means that I think every coach, manager, person at Soccer Canada, and others, who knew about this should be fired. If the players knew, and continued to play, taking points, and the chance to advance, from other teams, they should be ashamed. And sanctioned. However, if they were shown video, (which I’m sure they were), without context, (“we cheated and took this”), then they epitomize the Canadian team slogan for these Olympics: “Be Brave”, because they were. Watching from a very outside view, this scandal may actually have helped the Canadian women: they closed ranks, shut out the outside noise, (because frankly it was all negative noise), and focussed on the job at hand. Isn’t that what they should be allowed to do, and protected to to, every time?
I’ve discussed this situation with friends who have either played soccer for Canada’s national team, or been high up in Sport Canada in a managerial role, and no matter how we cut it, it’s not pretty. I feel like this was soccer’s Ben Johnson moment. Sure, other teams cheat as well, but we always seem to get caught, and it doesn’t matter how you cut it, cheating isn’t okay. This scandal has tainted not just soccer, but the Canadian athletes across the board, and that’s not okay either.
Here’s to the Canadian women for being brave in the face of adversity. I just wish this was the end to cheating also.
After I wrote this, Canada went on to advance to the round of 16. I watched the game against Germany, and we played like lions. However I think the round robin play was where Canada felt they had to prove themselves, and although I was sad to see them lose in PK’s, I also think that any medal these games would have felt like a tainted medal.
