Viewpoint: Performance-enhancing vices — Does it take a bad person to be a good athlete?

Globally, there are 567 track and field athletes currently ineligible to compete in the sport due to doping infractions, and these are just the ones who were caught. There is an epidemic of cheating behaviours in athletics. Those who get away with it often outperform athletes who compete above reproach. Cheating makes them faster.

This might press us to wonder about the relationship between moral character and athletic performance, in broader terms. What if vices make us competitive? What if good character has a performance cost?

Performance-enhancing vices are defects of character, or traits that otherwise detract from a well-ordered, flourishing life, which help one become a more successful sportsperson. In general, we can identify them by asking ourselves whether certain traits that help us be competitive in sports also impede our ability to be loving friends or responsible citizens.

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[I]n trying to become faster or stronger, we might also find ourselves changing in ways that are at odds with the kinds of people we want to be outside of sport. I have already named dishonesty – regarding cheating behaviour – as a vice that can make a runner faster. I described selfishness, too – as a trait that enhanced my own performances yet eroded relationships. Additional examples are pride, intransigence and envy.

This is an excerpt. Read the full article here