Basta!

In Italian basta means enough. Let me use it in a sentence with emphasis for you.

We have had enough of these high profile governmental cases against sport athletes. Basta!

I am not talking about Roger Clemens but rather Lance Armstrong.

Armstrong is being charged along with many of his team support members by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA); for possession, conspiracy, administration, aiding and abetting and something called aggravated circumstance for use of a variety of designer performance enhancement drugs over the years from 1996 to 2004.

Tour de France - Yellow Jersey

In a June 23rd article written by Nathan Vinton in the New York Post “If there’s one thing Armstrong and Clemens have in common, it’s an allergy to conceding defeat.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/lance-armstrong-study-roger-clemens-trial-deciding-figthing-usada-worth-article-1.1101303#ixzz1yiCTkRt8

So now we have another pit bull fight. This all is within the context of the sports world brought on in part and supported by the Executive Office of the President.

Huh!

Yeah, you see the non-profit agency USADA whose charter is basically related to managing the world code for anti-doping as it relates to US Olympic and Paralympic athletes takes a funding grant from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), aka the Drug Czar, an office with the Executive branch.

Sports leagues such as USA Track & Field, USA Cycling, USA Swimming and USA Soccer adhere to the “independent” USADA policies on anti-doping in contrast to the major sports leagues like the NFL, NBA and MLB, who have all their own internal monitoring staff and policies. Basically, these lesser-funded Olympic sports can’t or won’t create their own anti-doping monitoring systems and thus adhere to this agency created in 2000.

So for now up through November 2012 there will be a possibility of a show trial board review (hmm, didn’t UVA’s Board of Rectors just go through this) passing judgment on a sports life ban for an athlete and his doctor friends – to prevent him/them from ever competing again, in any sport.

What will Armstrong do if he loses the “review”? Fight it!

Yep, I can see the day coming when instead of wearing yellow “Livestrong” wrist bracelets it will be replaced by red, white and blue wrist bands saying “Basta”.

About Phil Fabrizio

Phil Fabrizio is an event, news and sports photographer in the Washington D.C. Metro area. He lives in North Potomac and has operated Sugarloaf Photography since 1985. He is a member of the Gaithersburg-Germantown Chamber of Commerce and serves on the board of the Glen Echo Partnership for Arts and Culture, Inc in Glen Echo. Stop by Phil's PhotoLoaf site or follow him on Twitter @Photoloaf. Find Phil's blog on MyMCMedia here.

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