Icarus

From reading the title of the documentary, I believed it was a documentary about the figure of

Greek mythology, Icarus. A man, who wanted to become equal with the Gods, and so he flew

as high as he could, ignoring his father’s warnings not to fly too close to the sun. He did, and his

wax wings melted, and fell to his death. This documentary is very similar, as it is about athletes

who failed illegal enhancing drugs, who are just like Icarus. As people who wanted to be the

best they could, even if it was illegal, and when they caught, they much like Icarus, fall and die.

This documentary shows that there are actually many athletes who dope and are not caught.

The person who hosts the documentary tries doping to see the effects of it in his athletic

endeavors. He consults many people who assist him in this process, and try to make it

completely unnoticeable from the authorities.

Though the process is extremely tedious, with many tests, and complications that may occur on

the way, the effect is all too real. There is an extremely noticeable improvement in performance.

This made me realize that no one plays fair. Many of the athletes in many sports dope, and

most of them go away unnoticed.

This documentary reminded me of Rafael Nadal, a Spanish tennis player who was accused of

doping. As his physique is extremely well for a tennis player. He is muscular, and is still fast on

the court. Of course, he tested negative in the doping test, and stands by anti-doping. I also

believed that he did not dope, as it is out of his character to do so.

From this documentary, I learned that though there are times when people don’t play fair, but

they’ll eventually get caught just like Lance Armstrong. So it is better to play fair because when
you play fair, you have nothing to fear. Furthermore, if you play with what you have, and you

succeed, you feel better, rather than winning with means that are not within your reach.