Doping athletes are no heroes

The doping scandals in competitive sport place a question mark over the role-model character of athletes, the daily newspaper Die Presse writes: "The reports of doping destroy their heroic image. ... However the violation of rules, the risk of damaging one's health or bringing about the end of one's own career can also become new values. ... But amidst the mantra-like repetition of demands not to criminalise sport and the desire to keep it beyond the parameters of penal law at any cost, people forget that it will indeed be necessary for the authorities to step in if the wirepullers are to be caught. The national anti-doping agency won't be able to single-handedly bring about the enactment of the law. Nor will a single police officer conducting the entire investigation for the public prosecutor's office be enough."

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