After complaining about Oscar Pistorius’s clearance to compete in the Olympics last week, I feel compelled to celebrate the reinstatement of another disabled athlete. (See? I’m a caring and sympathetic person. I’m also kind to children and small animals.)
After complaining about Oscar Pistorius’s clearance to compete in the Olympics last week, I feel compelled to celebrate the reinstatement of another disabled athlete. (See? I’m a caring and sympathetic person. I’m also kind to children and small animals.)
So congratulations to Jeff Adams, the wheelchair racer has been through a horrible ordeal over the past while, after he tested positive for cocaine. The governing body has rightly ruled that his positive test wasn’t his fault.
Now, I admit, I’m not much of a night owl anymore. But I have been in a couple of clubs in my day (you shoulda’ seen me groovin’ to this). But Adams apparently parties in an entirely different stratosphere from the one I’m familiar with. He was out at a bar a week before the 2006 Canadian championships when some unidentified woman shoved some cocaine into his face, and when Adams tried to demure (none for me thanks, I’m in training) a bunch of it ended up in his mouth. I can only assume this was intended as some sort of misguided pick-up attempt, or a bizarre act of generosity from a severely impaired partier. Nevertheless, when he was tested for drugs he was using a catheter that was contaminated after the coke-in-the-face incident.
It sounds bizarre. Too bizarre to be made up in fact. And given that the episode seems entirely at odds with Adams’ character, the sport is now giving him the benefit of the doubt. I’m not sure if the C.O.C. is going to give Adams the $18,000 in athlete funding he lost as a result of his suspension…but if fairness has anything to do with it, they should reimburse him.