Madam, - Well done to Tom Humphries of your paper for drawing attention to Jimmy Magee's extraordinary recent performance on The Late Late Show. It is quite correct that a man who is held in high esteem like Jimmy Magee should be brought to task for taking a flippant and complacent attitude to the use of drugs in sport. On the show he gave the impression that "sport is dead" if we go down the road of looking back at past performances to see how they were achieved. I would suggest that if we do not take a strong line on cheats (past and present) sport as we know it will die.
Mr Magee appears to be of the view this course of action will get in the way of a good sporting memory. Is it not more important that people who get involved in sport should do so because it is good for their personal development as well as their health? If sport is to be associated with a "win at any price" attitude it is surely dead.
All that glitters is not gold. And, all that is gold does not glitter in the mind's eye. - Yours, etc.,
ALAN CUNNINGHAM, Drum, Sligo.
Madam, -Tom Humphries gets it right again. Right about Michelle de Bruin's inclusion in Jimmy Magee's video, right about what's wrong in modern sport, and so right about what is good, and what is important, in the organisation and priorities in kids' sport. Keep the torch lighting! - Yours, etc.,
VINCENT O'TOOLE, Leopardstown, Dublin 18.