Daniella Mogilner
Contributing Writer
It has become commonplace nowadays to turn on the television or open a newspaper and read some sort of headline that documents the fall from grace of one sporting hero or another. This month it is Oscar Pistorius’ turn and, granted, though his fall is more dramatic than most, it still follows the same pattern. Those who we idolise the most, those who are at the peak of their career and those who perhaps see themselves as invincible being forced back to reality with a deafening thud. Whilst they may seem superhuman when they are competing, these heroes are no better than us mere mortals and in the cases of Oscar Pistorius, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods et al they appear to be worse.
The shocking reality of these athletes’ misdemeanours is particularly heartbreaking with men like Pistorius because these are the people that have conquered the seemingly impossible to become masters in their field. A double leg amputee before his first birthday, Oscar Pistorius defied all the odds when he won a court case to compete in the London 2012 Olympics. He reached the semi-finals of the 400m, not to mention the fact that he broke world records in both the 400m and 4x400m relay in the Paralympics of the same year. Pistorius’ current court case also features controversy surrounding his amputation with the question as to whether he was wearing his prosthetics when he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Lance Armstrong conquered similar obstacles when, after being diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs in 1996, he went on to win seven consecutive Tour de France victories between 1999 and 2005. Except that he did not actually win. Each of these heroic achievements was taken away from Armstrong after the doping allegations, which, after dogging Armstrong for much of his career, were finally confirmed in 2012. The man who had cheated cancer had, as it turned out, cheated cycling.
Cheating, although of a different type, was again the scandal surrounding Tiger Woods, the first African-American, and the youngest person ever, to win the Masters in 1997. Woods went on to become one of the most successful golfers of all time, no small feat considering the fact that the club where Woods won the Masters, the August National Golf Club, did not permit African-American members until 1990. This dominance of his field was lost in 2010 after the publication of his various infidelities and Woods was stuck in a losing streak of 107 weeks. These men, prior to their scandals, were role models and idolised worldwide yet in a matter of moments their perfect image lay tarnished.
Is it perhaps this very same adulation that has driven these sportsmen to act as they did? Our belief that they can achieve anything has made them believe they can do anything, that they are invincible and beyond reproach. Tiger Woods, himself, admitted “I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to, I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled.”
These men defied the boundaries of what they were expected to achieve, what had ever been achieved and this belief in their own accomplishments had potentially permeated into their personal lives. To be a successful athlete one has to have sense of arrogance, if you yourself do not trust your own abilities why would anyone else? It seems it is this arrogance on the track, field, course etc. that led these sportsmen to act as they pleased elsewhere; arrogance is a hard thing to leave in the changing room.
This egotism appears to be fuelled by the athletes’ positions in the media and our public admiration for them. Even after their scandals had broken there were still many people willing to defend these men to the end. Cycling fans are quick to argue that Armstrong was only acting as all men in his sport acted and whilst Tiger Woods was dropped from many campaigns such as TAG Heuer and Gillette, Nike and Electronic Arts continued to support him. Oscar Pistorius still has supporters that claim he is innocent and although these claims are still justified considering his case has not yet been concluded, the evidence appears stacked against him. In addition, regardless of whether he intended to kill his girlfriend, Pistorius shot somebody four times at point-blank range, burglar or not, is this something we can forgive? When it comes to our sporting idols it is hard to let go of this belief in the superhuman, we want to forgive them and find excuses because in spite of ourselves it is hard to criticize people that have achieved so much.
These ‘fallen heroes’ may well have lost their invincibility but apparently they have not lost everything. Arguably these men are idols because of their sporting accolades and, with the exception of Lance Armstrong, these accolades still stand. In terms of sport Oscar Pistorius is still the man that put Paralympics on the map, Tiger Woods is still the greatest golfer of his, and perhaps any generation and even Lance Armstrong can be seen as the best cyclist of his era. A hero is a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements or noble qualities and although these men may not have the latter quality they certainly have the first two. It begs the question: can you remain a hero if you have fallen?
