Jan Frodeno extolls values of sport in response to Collin Chartier doping scandal

Jan Frodeno, the three-time Ironman world champion and 2008 Olympic champion (OK, and two-time Ironman 70.3 world champion, too!) posted a heartfelt message on Instagram yesterday that emphasized the value of fair sport and all that it means to him.

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Showing a photo from 1995 in which he’s racing his father on a bike up the Suiker Bossie hill in Cape Town, South Africa, the German extolls the virtues of clean sport:

“Sport. You beautiful thing. You drive me, push me up, smack me down, allow me to see the world and meet so many good people,” Frodeno wrote. “The truest test, perceived as so hard and yet so easy. Black and white. You make it or you don’t. As a kid you gave me direction, as a person you give me values. Values that I’m passing to my kids because I believe they can help shape us in a good way.”

“Cheating in sport destroys any and all of the joy connected to it,” he continued. “It makes any result irrelevant. Drugs have no place in my world and neither do those who take them. It’s a privilege to live a life as an athlete and that feeling of racing my Dad 28 years ago up our local hill is still what it’s about to this day. P.S. Dad will tell you the story about me throwing my bike in the bushes the week before when he beat me!”

 

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Frodeno joins a number of top athletes who have spoken out about the news earlier this week that American professional Collin Chartier had tested positive for EPO.

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