Sport Ethics are Not an Oxymoron

Author’s note: Throughout the years I have written sport curriculum as a component of physical education, served as a life skills coach for collegiate athletic teams, and developed youth leadership programs. Each of these assignments required me to develop materials related to ethics in sport. Unfortunately, ethical issues in sport are more likely than not portrayed by the media in a negative way. Almost daily, one can tune into their favorite sports station and learn about the most recent professional athlete charged with doping, stealing, assault, infidelities – even murder. My intent in this article is not to single out one athlete for making a choice that surely she/he regrets, or one sport. The reality is, coaches, managers, and inner circles have supported many of these behaviors, and even encouraged it – for many years, and in many sports. All this negativity doesn’t sit well with me. I truly believe that, as TrueSport posts, “good sport has the potential to make a great difference”. Yet, I also realize that sport as we know it isn’t always ‘good’ by True Sport’s standards. As my mentor, Dr. Steve Danish reminds us, “Sports don’t magically teach life lessons” (2006). So when I came across an athlete whose story can undoubtedly help teachers, coaches, and parents link good sport to great lessons that will serve participants well in all areas of their life - I had to contact him.

A funny thing happened through the process of writing an article about a man’s career as a professional athlete, and its untimely ending. While I set out to tell a story that would help youth in their understanding of ethics in sport and how this relates to their lives outside of sport, I realized that it’s a story that can inspire anyone in society.

Without further adieu, I introduce you to Scott Mercier.

Scott Mercier

Mercier, born in Telluride, is a 45-year old married father of two who currently lives in Grand Junction, CO. The financial analyst is 6'3" and tells me that - these days - he likes to ride his bike to “clear his head”. At one time, Mercier rode his bike professionally and for Team USA in the Barcelona Olympics. Unless you have been a cycling fan for a while, you probably have never heard of Scott Mercier. And, while I am a loyal fan of the sport – (I bought my first road bike in lieu of a wedding dress the day I eloped) – this article is not about cycling. No. This article is about an Olympian who walked away from the sport almost two decades ago – just as he was reaching his prime.

When I spoke with Scott, it quickly became evident that the Cal-Berkeley graduate earned his degree. He is articulate, smart, and thoughtful. He told me of his childhood on the western slope of Colorado where he dreamed of being a professional ski racer. While he was “decent, but didn’t excel” in the sport, a torn patella tendon and shattered kneecap (which has been called the ugliest knee in the peloton) injury forced him to move on from that dream. After being admitted into Middlebury, UCLA, and Cal-Berkeley, he left Telluride to earn a degree in Economics in the Bay Area. A degree from a top college was no back up plan - at the time Mercier had never competed in a bike race – a solid education was the only plan.

During his years at Berkeley, Mercier admits that – like many of us – he probably could have studied harder and socialized less. He explains,

“School needs to be the first priority for all athletes, because that’s what going to give you options later in life. No matter how good you are, life goes on. It’s very unlikely that someone will be good enough in athletic endeavor to support themselves and their family financially forever. Even the most skilled athletes can end their career with a crash resulting in an injury. The hard work you put in the classroom trickles into other areas of your life. In other words, the habits you form in school will serve you well both in life in sport and life after sport.”

Lesson #1: Education is Key
Introduction to Cycling
Contrary to today’s popular believe that youth athletes should specialize in a sport at a young age, cycling came later in Mercier’s life than one would think. Much later. In 1990, Mercier’s step-dad Bill Kees ‘encouraged’ him to train with his 15-year old brother, Blake. Mercier was 22 at the time. Bill determined that it would be a productive way for Mercier and Blake to spend time together before the big brother moved on to graduate school or travelled the world – both were in his plans. Home in Telluride, the brothers hammered nails for Bill – a contractor. Bill remained supportive of the guys’ cycling and let them off work at 1 pm each day on the condition that they trained. During this summer, the two entered every race they could find. Mercier consistently placed in the top three of all cyclists – which included elite amateurs and pro’s – including time trials.

Even though the first part of this summer was spent rafting the Grand Canyon with Bill, Mercier found time to win nearly every race he entered that summer and quickly upgraded to an elite amateur status – only weeks into the sport. Needless to say, he was hooked.

To prepare for the summer racing, in his senior year Mercier raced on with Cal on the “B or C” team at Berkeley (he doesn’t remember which) and struggles to come up with on any particular cycling accolades from that time – perhaps a second or even one first place finish. Then, with a diploma in his pocket Mercier threw on a backpack and began his exertion around the world. He had a two-year plan that would take him to Bangkok, Nepal, New Zealand, and Australia during a time that would include an assortment of jobs along the way.

Mercier’s success in the summer of 1990 inspired him to cut his plans short and return home - with $10 to his name. At the end of this summer, Mercier moved to LA to live with his dad, Roger Mercier. Roger was very open with his skepticism regarding his son’s apparent career path – to be a career cyclist. He suggested acting might provide more stability – they were in LA, after all. This only fueled Mercier’s drive and it was then that Mercier vocalized his goal of representing team USA at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. [Note: Scott’s dad, Roger, later became – and to this day remains – perhaps his most consistent and ardent supporter. At one point he told Scott, “If you told you me you wanted to be an astronaut, I probably would have thought you could do it.”]

Lesson #2: Believe in Yourself
The Road to Barcelona
While it’s quite possible any of us who played sports growing up dreamed of being an Olympian, few actually experience the Games as an athlete. At 24 Mercier, who had only been cycling for two years at the time, found himself in the Olympic qualifier for the team time trial. And, what a race it was.

When Mercier speaks to youth, he is certain to share the lows of the career path as well as the highs. Without the work ethic and determination, his natural talent would most certainly not have been tapped. The following story perhaps exemplifies such passion much as any story could.

With about 20km to go of the 100km course, Mercier realized that the USA had it in the bag – they would be going to the Olympics. After almost two hours of wind sprints in the saddle, Mercier felt desperately ill. Fearing his teammates or coaches might view him as ‘weak’, he chose to swallow a mouth full of vomit while racing. Mercier shares,

“I tell this story because I don’t want people thinking that cycling wasn’t that important to me. Cycling, at the time I left the sport, was everything to me. I wanted to be an Olympian so bad – I wanted to represent my country in my sport so bad – that I was willing to swallow my own vomit to make sure that it happened.”

While not a tactic I would likely recommend, Mercier’s choice that day paid off. He earned the USA jersey for the 1992 Olympics and proudly represented Team USA. If only all past Olympians operated by the same moral code.

Professional Years and the Culture of Doping
The traveling spirit in Mercier was surely satisfied in the years to come. Even better was that his ‘jobs along the way’ were replaced with a contract that allowed him to race his bike for a living. It was during these years that he proved himself to be an up and coming star. For example, Mercier won King of the Mountain competitions (1993: Tour du Pont); stage wins (1995: Sun Tour of Australia; 1996: 2nd in Tour de Toona [PA]); and, earned podium positions (1993: Casper Classic; 1995: Sun Tour of Australia), and won the following events (1996 Tour of South Africa; 1996: Tour of the Cape, South Africa; 1997: Colorado State Crit Championship).

In 1994, while competing for a spot on the US team for the world championships in Sicily, Italy, Mercier pushed himself to a level that is incomprehensible for the vast majority of people – including elite athletes. During the 50 km time trial he averaged a heart rate of 191 beats per minute. (Note: that is not a typo) His clean efforts earned him an amazing 17th place in the world. During a time in which it’s plausible many of those ahead of him were doping, the math tells us that the 17th place finish could have been much higher if all riders chose to race clean that day. Let me explain. With a 1% improvement on Mercier’s performance that day, he would have finished in 8th place. A 2% increase would have put him in 3rd. A 3.25% improvement would have crowned him a world champion. Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and blood doping have been documented to give athletes a 5-8% performance advantage.

Mercier ponders,

“Would I have been the world champ? I wonder, but I’ll never know. I have thought about that a lot. My decision to leave wasn’t difficult at the time – but I have thought about this a lot over the years.”

I’m sure we all would have thought about this, and the complexities surrounding the situation, a lot as well. The time trial is a race against the truth. Mercier had only been racing for 3.5 years full-time and gave everything he had in this race. “It’s the race, perhaps, that I am most proud of” he shares. Only lately has he been able to comprehend placing 17th in the World at a time while completing clean, and just how remarkable this was – especially considering how short a time he had been racing.

At the end of the 1996 season Mercier was one of the top ranked US riders on the world stage. The International results gave him substantial points in the cycling rankings and he joined US Postal Cycling team to race in Europe. At their team’s training game that January, a Spanish doctor named Pedro informed Mercier that he had a hematocrit level of 40.5 – he was “too low.”  Pedro indicated to Mercier that to be a professional in Europe a 49-49.5 was necessary. Pedro – of course – was referring to EPO. Later that spring, after the Tour of Romandie in Switzerland, Pedro sat Mercier down and presented a very sophisticated and detailed calendar. A training regime. The training regime consisted of an average of 150-220 km/day for a very intense 2-week block training cycle. During the end of each day, Mercier was to complete interval efforts (e.g., motor pacing for 2, 3, 4, or 5 minute intervals). The logic of the plan was to help prepare riders for the hard finishes of stage races. It was a volume that Mercier never saw before, because when your body is broken down it’s almost impossible to consistently put out these types of efforts. Each day on the calendar had either two or three dots and some days also had stars. The dots represented how many pills to take and the stars were injections. When Mercier asked the doctor what they were, Pedro responded “these are steroids…you will go strong like bull...but no racing...for sure you test positive...” Mercier further explained that the drugs would have been out of his system within six days and he was to race on the 7th day back in the US.

Mercier (Center) racing for US Postal. SOURCE

Choosing not to take the ‘recovery’ on each day of a two-week training block meant that Mercier would lose 4-5% incremental margins. Mercier was training by himself in South Africa during this time. He still got very fit, but he was missing the extra gear. To him, this was the “bright line” he speaks about in his talks.

“I would do anything, including swallowing my own vomit, to be a cyclist. But, I was not prepared to cheat.”

Walking Away
As soon as Pedro offered Mercier the drugs, he went home and shared the encounter with his wife Mandie. The two had recently married and were living in South Africa. It was near the end of the 1997 season – a season where Mercier earned close to $100,000 for his cycling accomplishments. Mandie looked Mercier in the eye and told him that this was a decision he needed to make. She couldn’t make that decision for him. Mercier knew at that moment that he would choose to walk away. He finished up the season and when US Postal invited him back for the next season he declined. Mercier knew that if he signed a contract with Postal for another year, that he would dope. He says,

“I was no better or worse than my teammates and I did not see any other choice if I were to keep cycling. I just knew that if I raced again that I was going to be heading down a slippery slope and I did not know how I would get off. I knew that if I raced one more year that I was going to do whatever it took to be competitive. To this day, I struggle with this decision. It was expected that you would dope, and that all your competitors doped as well. It was the lying and the hypocrisy that went with it – I couldn’t reconcile them. In many ways I viewed this decision as weak – I wasn’t strong enough to lie.”

Mercier really didn’t have to think about doping, because he couldn’t get past the lying.

[I’ll be honest. At this point in my interview, I needed a moment to collect myself. I was emotional. (I didn’t major in journalism). How the hell have we gotten to a point in sport where those willing to walk away from the sport they love so dearly view themselves as weak? How the hell have we gotten to a place in sport where those who choose to cheat live in mansions and those who walk away wonder how they will provide for their family? How the hell are we, as a society, going to fix this?]

After I composed myself and hoped he hadn’t hung up, I asked Scott what was going through his mind at the time he chose to walk away. He paused, took a deep breath, and shared,

“At the time, it wasn’t really that hard. I was so fed up with having my butt kicked by others who were doping. More than that, I couldn’t imagine the hypocrisy that would accompany the doping. But, after I left the sport, it was hard. For sure.”

He pauses,

“It was hard in real life. Real life is hard. You have a baby and are trying to support your family. You’re trying to figure out who you are - now that your dream of cycling has ended. But, at least I knew I had my integrity and that’s something that you can’t buy back. People talk a lot about winning at all cost. But, the conversation should be complete – the cost is huge. The price is integrity. No money in the world can buy back one’s integrity. It’s not just about the health components when we talk about steroids – it’s about selling your soul.”

Mercier and his wife, Mandie, on a recent ride.

Lesson #3: You Can’t Buy Integrity
Mercier’s Thoughts on Fall Out

Mercier’s tone changed a little bit when he spoke about others’ who remained in the sport and competed with PEDs. I could tell he didn’t appreciate when people said that it “was a leveled playing field” or that “they didn’t have a choice”. Mercier explained how different people react differently to PEDs. Some are able to receive significant gains from them, while others not that much. That alone makes it an unfair playing field among those who are doping. Additionally, there are those who – like Mercier and Darren Baker (another professional cyclist who left rather than consume PEDs) – walked away. It was not a level playing field for them.

Mercier states,

“If my story helps young people to understand that they always have a choice, I am happy to share it. They need to understand that they have a choice and that each choice has a consequence. They need to understand the importance of thinking through their actions before they decide how they will conduct themselves. When you’re 25, you don’t think about what you’ll be doing at 45 – 50 – it’s hard to think past three weeks down the road. But, some of those actions can stay with you a long time. That’s important for young people to understand.”

Lesson #4: You Always Have a Choice, So Choose Wisely
How would you feel if you walked away from a sport to see a former roommate (someone who never previously beat you in a race) win an Olympic gold? Would you resent him/her? Would you regret your choice for walking away without any of the fame and fortune that your roommate achieved prior to being caught? Would you still speak to them?

“I don’t judge anyone who went on to have a career as a professional cyclist when I left the sport. They didn’t have some unfair advantage. They made their decisions and they have to live with them. I don’t judge them as people. I don’t know what cards they were looking at. I had an education. I knew I would be okay. I don’t know why they chose what they did, and I refuse to judge them for it. I don’t think I would feel good if I judged them. What always bothered me more than the doping itself was the blatant lying that went with it. I knew they doped to achieve success. The lying bothered me more than their winning.”

I have thought about this above statement a lot since I spoke to Scott Mercier last week. Many people have strong opinions about those who have cheated or conducted themselves in an unethical manner. Mercier’s right – by forming opinions without facts, we’re focusing our energy on issues that aren’t productive. The best thing we can do is look in the mirror, and ask ourselves if we are pleased with all choices we make on a daily basis. Are we patient? Kind? Honest? Loyal? Are these not messages we want our students, athletes, and children to learn? If we focus more on teaching and coaching life skills such as these, will athletes in future years be put in these situations? Or, would those who want to dope be forced to walk away because there will be zero tolerance rules in place?

Lesson #5: Don’t Judge Others
Mercier Still Believes in Sport

“We know that sport, if abused can be bad, but I believe that people will grow to be better men and women because they were involved in sport. Athletes learn how to suffer, sacrifice, win, how to work for yourself and others, how good it feels when someone works for you – you become a leader because you go harder so you don’t want to let your team down. Used wisely, sport can be such a great proxy for life. Skills learned in sport transfers over to everything– education, business, and family. You’re not always going to be a star, but you can always do the right thing.”

While Scott Mercier never road in the Tour de France, nor did he become a household name. Ironically, it is Mercier who personifies all we (as coaches, educators, and parents) could ever dream that sport would instill in youth. He is the consummate role model. Mercier applied all great life lessons learned in sport to his life. Mercier represents the life skills we should all strive to instill in our practices and our lessons – integrity, resiliency, humility, forgiveness, kindness, and grit.

If you are reading this article, you (like me) were probably never good enough in your sport to be in the same position Mercier was – you can’t really know what you would have done in his situation. If you are reading this article, you (like me) probably work with youth in some capacity. If you are reading this article, you (like me) probably agree that there may not be a better person in the country to speak to young athletes, at coaching conferences, and at college convocations than Scott Mercier. Just imagine the possibilities if youth grew up applying life skills like these with the courage of Mercier. How cool would it be to raise kids in such a world?

Mercier’s story is one that I hope will be told by folks with a far reaching audience. It’s a story that I hope will be told within the context of youth, elite, college and pro ranks for all sports – as I said, issues (a variety) with poor ethics certainly exists in many sports (not just cycling). He’s the sports hero we should invite to our corporate leadership conferences, national sports conferences, and to speak at college convocations.

My initial intent (as per my author’s note that proceeds this article) was to share a story that teachers and coaches could use to help teach kids life skills through physical activity and sport. When I learned more about him, I thought all adults could benefit as well. Yet, after interviewing Mercier, I most want to tell this story for two kids in Grand Junction, Colorado. Yep. Now, I find myself writing for Mira and Marius - Scott and Mandie’s kids. Mira and Marius deserve to read in print that their Dad is one of the greatest sports heroes of our time. While they already surely know that their Dad rules, I hope it brings a smile to their faces that many others in the world now know this too.

Mira and Marius with Olympian Scott Mercier (AKA: Dad)

If you are inspired by Scott’s story, please comment below. Together, let’s send him some of the glory that he adamantly refused to earn in unethical ways. Join me in telling him – quite simply – that he’s the man.

Scott Mercier today.

Note: If you wish to contact Scott to invite him to speak at your teaching or coaching conference, or your athletic event or college convocation, please follow him on Twitter @ScottMercier1