reconsiDer: TIDBIT
Last month, the card game bridge was turned down by the
Olympics and the World Bridge Federation doesn't like it. If you think
that's a silly story and wonder why it merits being the subject of a
ReconsiDer Tidbit, wait 'till you read the following brief story about the
WBF drug testing its bridge players.
Just say no to bridge
The
Gazette ( Montreal )
Thursday, September 05, 2002
Bridge players, it seems, never give up.
The rejection late last month of their bid to have their favourite card game
become an Olympic sport seems not to have deterred them in the slightest.
Ballroom dancing, surfing and bowling were turned down, too. But the bridge
players, determined to prove their worthiness for the five-ring circus, now
appear to have gone and staged their very own doping scandal.
The World Bridge Federation has stripped Disa Eythorsdottir, of Atlanta,
Ga., of the silver medal she won at the world championships in Montreal last
month, because she refused to undergo a drug test.
But Dick Pound wasn't fooled. No sir. The Montrealer who heads the World
Anti-Doping Agency was firm. Not even a drug scandal can transform bridge from a
soporific game into a sport. The ''higher'' in the Olympic motto refers to
jumps, not bids. And besides, Mr. Pound said, ''mind sports'' will never be part
of the Olympics. Mind games maybe, as any figure-skating judge can tell you, but
not mind sports.
We're with Mr. Pound. The prospect of fox-trotters on steroids was
frightening enough. Bridge players on speed would be unbearable.
We do have one suggestion: should the Olympic committee ever have a change
of heart and accept bridge as a sport, somebody might want to consider testing
the spectators for amphetamines. The ones still awake for the medal ceremonies,
that is.
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