Madam, - Lincoln Allison's defence of drugs in sport (Opinion, August 12th) is an important challenge to the popular view on this issue, and should be welcomed as that. However, his arguments are flawed.
He draws a distinction between the codes of behaviour relevant to amateur and professional sport, holding that since professional sport is about performance, professional athletes "are not gentlemen and cannot be expected to be". Ideas of gentlemanly conduct and "the Anglophone idea of fair play" belong to the amateur sphere alone.
This is far too simplistic a division. Sport of any kind entertains in part because it is about attempting to live up to ideals: being the fastest, strongest, the best team, and so on. A fundamental part of those ideals is that the participants be given as fair a chance as possible to win. It would be literally unsporting if one could buy success, say by bribing a referee. The same, I believe, holds for improving one's performance by means of drugs or genetic enhancements.- Yours, etc.,
DONNCHADH O'CONAILL, Highfield West, Cork.