marijuana alters your perspectives, the way things affect you, and the way you react to things. it's known to alter your reaction times and change your performance. think about it, guys. have you ever been so drunk that you can hit your head an it doesn't hurt? just imagine that in the olympics -- especially in a sport like ours. yeah, i'll just throw a bio nine and take this 20 feet past the tranny, but that's okay! i'm high, so i can just get back up and do it again! that isn't fair to the athletes who aren't smoking, and it doesn't really demonstrate what you can do on your own. yeah, the skiing is coming from you, but your gumby-like body can keep crumpling and crumpling, while other people have to stop because they cased. frankly, i support that decision.
additionally, doesn't it show a little dedication to the sport if the athletes can go long enough without smoking to pass the drug tests? going thirty, forty days without blazing isn't going to kill you. i think it shows respect for our sport, respect for the other athletes, and a more thorough understanding of what it means to be an athlete of olympic calibre. (not that a lot of our favourite skiiers could be olympic athletes, because the olympics is for amateurs, and they're all pros.)
and just for some perspective: in the sydney 2000 olympics, the gold medallist in women's gymnastics was disqualified for testing positive to having a drug in her system. it was only trace amounts, but it was enough to disqualify her. the amount of the drug that was found in her body is the same as the amount that's found in one advil -- an advil she'd taken for a headache the night before. but that drug, in large enough quantities, has been shown to inprove your reflexes and reaction times and suppress pain, thus is illegal in the olympics. think on it.
