Cheat, cheat, never beat?

After a summer away from this blog, much has happened to that one might write about. However, one significant and recurring theme has been the issue of cheating (or at least alleged cheating) in sport. James Lawton in The Independent has been trying to get to grips with the vexed question of cheating:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/news-comment/james-lawton-only-when-bloodgates-shamed-have-all-been-punished-can-rugby-move-on-1778897.html

In British rugby, the sport has been shocked to its core by an injury faking scandal in which a member of the Harlequins team feigned injury by breaking a blood capsule in his mouth to facilitate a tactical injury. The case has resulted in several high level resignations and bans (on both players and officials).

Before the women's 800 metres race at the World Athletics Championship in Berlin, gold medalist Caster Semenya recorded testosterone results that were three times higher than the normal expected level for a female, leading to a debate about whether 'she' is technically a woman or a man.

Last year's F1 Grand Prix in Singapore is now under scrutiny, with accusations having been made that a team may have instructed a driver to deliberately crash his car, thereby enabling the same team's lead driver to benefit from a saftey car intervention, thus boosting the lead driver's race position.

In there own ways, each is shocking for very different reasons, although they do raise one single question: why do athletes and sports teams cheat? Is it simply because money has helped corrupt sport, especially in the modern-era? Are the financial benefits of winning so great? Great enough to mitigate the potential costs of getting caught? Or is this a lazy and/or convenient way of explaining a phenomena that has deeper and more historic roots? Is the desire to win at all costs, covering oneself and one's team in glory, much more important than money? Or is it, and has it alway been the case, that cheating has taken place in sport, it's just that we are now more accutely aware of it and feel the need to address the issue: a) because of the commercial interests in sport; and/or b) because good governance seems to be on top of the agenda in a number of countries? And how should we deal with cheats and cheating? Through legal and regulatory means? By taking a laissez faire approach? And what might sport learn from agencies across the world that are involved in tackling crime, issues of malpractice and so on?