舉重場沒了興奮劑，觀眾還買賬嗎？

RIO DE JANEIRO — The brothers Dan and Anthony Rigney of Australia attended the Olympic weight lifting competition on Sunday and were not exactly mortified that the sport is more polluted than Guanabara Bay.

里約熱內(nèi)盧——澳大利亞的丹和安東尼·里格尼(Dan and Anthony Rigney)兄弟去看了周日的奧運舉重比賽。對于這個項目的受污染情況比瓜納巴拉灣更甚這一點，他們并不覺得難堪。

Sure, they want athletes to be drug free, but they also want to be entertained by raw human power. So yes, they would have preferred to see the Russian and Bulgarian teams, which were barred for doping. Likewise with Ilya Ilyin, a suspended two-time Olympic champion from Kazakhstan, who is the Barry Bonds of the clean and jerk.

當然，他們希望運動員遠離藥物，但他們也希望從赤裸裸的人類力量中得到娛樂。因此，沒錯，他們是樂于看到因興奮劑問題被禁賽的俄羅斯和保加利亞隊參加比賽的。哈薩克斯坦被禁賽的兩屆奧運冠軍得主伊利亞·伊雷因(Ilya Ilyin)也是這樣。他是挺舉項目中的巴里·邦茲(Barry Bonds)。

“You like to see world records,” said Dan Rigney, 28, a physio therapist and competitive lifter from Sydney. “It’s like baseball. People just want to see home runs.”

“人們喜歡看到世界紀錄，”來自悉尼的28歲理療師、舉重運動員丹·里格尼(Dan Rigney)說。“就像棒球一樣。人們只想看本壘打。”

There has long been a wink-and-nod pragmatism about weight lifting. Drugs have been a hushed but vital part of doing business. If there is an argument to be made that any sport should permit doping, or even make it mandatory, that sport is weight lifting.

長期以來，舉重一直存在一種心照不宣的實用主義。藥物是舉重比賽中默默無聞但至關重要的一部分。如果說這世上有什么運動是應該允許使用興奮劑，甚至強制要求使用興奮劑的，那就是舉重了。

“Maybe it already is,” Dan Rigney said with a laugh, adding that, in his view, doping “is what’s keeping the Olympics going.”

“也許已經(jīng)是這種情況了，”丹·里格尼大笑著說。他還表示，在他看來，興奮劑“是使奧運會能夠繼續(xù)下去的原因”。

Let’s be honest. We don’t want to see anybody lift a keg. We want to see someone hoist a Buick.

讓我們坦誠些。我們想看的不是一個人舉起一個小桶。我們想看的是有人舉起一輛別克(Buick)。

We are nostalgic for champions like Vasily Alekseyev, the great Soviet superheavyweight who won gold medals in 1972 and 1976. He set 80 world records and was the first person to lift 500 pounds in the clean and jerk. He was so massive that his uniform fit like a chin strap on a bowling ball. And those sideburns — great thickets wide and deep enough to plant potatoes.

我們懷念像瓦西里·阿列克謝耶夫(Vasily Alekseyev)那樣的冠軍。偉大的蘇聯(lián)超重量級舉重運動員阿列克謝耶夫曾分別在1972年和1976年獲得金牌。他創(chuàng)造了80項世界記錄，也是在挺舉項目中舉起500磅(約合230公斤)的第一人。他的身型非?？?，以至于比賽服穿在他身上就像一根頦帶繃在保齡球上。還有那鬢角——一片茂盛的灌木叢，寬度和厚度足以種土豆。

Oh, sure, we say we are against doping in sports. But we don’t care enough to stop buying tickets or watching on television. And let’s ask ourselves this: Would anyone stay tuned if the Olympic champion ran the 100 meters in 15 seconds instead of nine? Who would watch the N.F.L. if linemen were built more like Gilligan than the Skipper?

哦，當然，我們嘴里說我們反對在體育運動中使用興奮劑。但我們對此的重視程度還不至于停止買票或是停止在電視上看比賽。并且我們自問：如果奧運冠軍跑100米的用時是15秒而不是9秒，你會不換臺嗎?如果鋒線球員長得更像吉利根(Gilligan)而不是船長(兩人都是六十年代美國情景喜劇《吉利根島》中的人物，前者身形瘦削，后者則非?？唷?mdash;—譯注)，誰還要看國家橄欖球聯(lián)盟(NFL)的比賽?

Most fans seem to view doping in the same way they view special effects in “Star Wars” movies, said Charles Yesalis, a retired Penn State professor and an expert on performance-enhancing drugs.

賓西法尼亞州立大學(Penn State)退休教授、研究提高成績的藥物的專家查爾斯·耶薩利斯(Charles Yesalis)表示，大部分體育迷對興奮劑的態(tài)度，和對《星球大戰(zhàn)》(Star Wars)系列電影里的特效是一樣的。

“It enhances the enjoyment of viewing because you see bigger-than-life people doing bigger-than-life things,” Yesalis said in a recent interview. “If everybody looked like normal people, chances are the N.C.A.A., the N.F.L. and the Olympics would not be multibillion-dollar entities.”

“它會增加觀看比賽的樂趣，因為你看到的是超越現(xiàn)實世界的人在做超越現(xiàn)實世界的事情，”耶薩利斯最近接受采訪時說。“如果所有人看上去都和普通人一樣，全美大學生體育協(xié)會(NCAA)、NFL和奧運會可能就不是身家數(shù)十億美元的實體了。”

Before the Games, international sports officials tossed out assorted male and female lifters from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, North Korea, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, a Fodor’s guide through the world of banned substances.

奧運會開幕前，國際體育官員取消了阿塞拜疆、亞美尼亞、塞浦路斯、哈薩克斯坦、摩爾多瓦、朝鮮、羅馬尼亞、土耳其、烏克蘭和烏茲別克斯坦的眾多舉重運動員的參賽資格，其中有男有女，就像一本福多爾公司(Fodor's)出版的違禁藥物世界旅游指南。

Olympic weight lifting without Russia and Bulgaria is like Harry Potter without Lord Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange (if those villains wore spandex and had necks the size of Easter hams). The competition will go on, but it won’t be the same.

奧運舉重項目沒了俄羅斯和保加利亞，就如同《哈里·波特》(Harry Potter)沒了伏地魔和貝拉特里克斯·萊斯特蘭奇(如果這兩個壞蛋穿上斯潘德克斯彈性纖維做成的隊服，并且脖子粗得和復活節(jié)吃的火腿一樣的話)。比賽會繼續(xù)，但不會是原來的樣子。

Until recently, weight lifting officials had mostly turned the other way, keenly understanding that the final word of the Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, Stronger,” is not easily achieved over the counter.

就在前不久，舉重官員大多仍對此視而不見，強烈地認為奧林匹克格言“更快、更高、更強”中的最后一項沒有藥方是無法實現(xiàn)的。

Of course, with the Rio Games upon us, the International Weightlifting Federation is suddenly affronted. It has called revelations of widespread doping in Russia “shocking and disappointing” and has said that the “integrity of the weight lifting sport has been seriously damaged.”

當然了，在我們迎來里約奧運會之際，國際舉重聯(lián)合會(International Weightlifting Federation)突然被觸怒了。它表示，已經(jīng)被揭露出來的俄羅斯運動員普遍使用興奮劑的情況“令人震驚和失望”;它還說，“舉重運動的尊嚴受損”。

Integrity? Now they worry about integrity?

尊嚴?現(xiàn)在他們擔心起尊嚴來了?

There were 24 positive tests at the world weight lifting championships last year, and retesting of urine samples from the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2012 London Games revealed at least 20 additional positives, including four from Olympic champions, according to the news agency Agence France-Presse.

去年，針對世界舉重冠軍所做的尿檢，結(jié)果呈陽性的共有24例。據(jù)法新社(Agence France-Presse)報道，重新檢測來自2008年北京奧運會和2012年倫敦奧運會的尿樣，讓陽性結(jié)果至少又多出了20個，其中4份陽性尿樣來自奧運冠軍。

Essentially, comedy has become reality.

實際上，喜劇已經(jīng)變成了現(xiàn)實。

Remember that “Saturday Night Live” sketch, with Phil Hartman playing a Soviet weight lifter named Sergei Akmudov at the All Drug Olympics?

還記得《周六夜現(xiàn)場》(Saturday Night Live)的一個小品嗎?菲爾·哈特曼(Philip Hartmann)在《藥林匹克運動會》(All Drug Olympics)里扮演名叫謝爾蓋·阿克穆多夫(Sergei Akmudov)的蘇聯(lián)舉重運動員。

“His trainer has told me that he’s taken anabolic steroids, Novocain, NyQuil, Darvon and some sort of fish paralyzer,” the announcer, played by Kevin Nealon, says earnestly.

“他的教練告訴我，他喝下了合成代謝類固醇、普魯卡因、奈奎爾、達爾豐以及某種啤酒，”由凱文·尼倫(Kevin Nealon)扮演的主持人一本正經(jīng)地說道。

“Also, I believe he’s had several cocktails within the last hour or so,” the announcer says. “All this, of course, is perfectly legal at the All Drug Olympics. In fact, it’s encouraged.”

“此外，我相信他在最后一小時左右喝下了若干種雞尾酒，”主持人說道。“當然了，所有這些在‘藥林匹克運動會’上都是完全合乎規(guī)定的。事實上，這種做法還受到了鼓勵。”

Akmudov tries to lift more than 1,500 pounds, triple the world record in the clean and jerk, except for one small problem.

阿克穆多夫試圖舉起1500英鎊的重量，是世界挺舉紀錄的三倍，但出現(xiàn)了一點小問題。

“Oh, he’s pulled his arms off!” the witless announcer yells. “He’s pulled his arms off! That’s got to be disappointing to the big Russian.”

“哦，他把自己的胳膊扯下來了!”嚇傻了的主持人喊道。“他把自己的胳膊扯下來了!俄羅斯大塊頭肯定很失望。”

With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the Olympics lost a gripping appeal for many Americans — the rivalry between East and West. With Russia now absent from Rio in weight lifting and track and field, that enthralling tension erodes further still.

隨著柏林墻的倒塌和蘇聯(lián)的解體，對許多美國人而言，奧運會失去了一種扣人心弦的吸引力，一種東西方相互較勁的意味。由于俄羅斯缺席了里約奧運會的舉重和田徑項目，那種令人著迷的張力進一步被削弱了。

“There was no one to root against,” Matt Futterman wrote last month in The Wall Street Journal, lamenting the parting of the Iron Curtain for international sport. “It was like watching a Bond film in which everyone was working for MI6.”

“沒人可供喝倒彩了，”上個月，馬特·福特曼(Matt Futterman)在《華爾街日報》上感嘆說，國際體育界的“鐵幕”正在消失。“這就好比觀看一部所有人都為軍情六處(MI6)工作的邦德片。”

One wonders whether medals won in Rio will be devalued in particular sports, as they were when the United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the Soviet Union reciprocated at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

有人不禁要問，里約奧運會某些特定項目的獎牌是否會貶值，就像美國在1980年抵制莫斯科奧運會，蘇聯(lián)在1984年還以顏色，抵制洛杉磯奧運會時一樣。

“Weight lifting is so riddled with doping problems, it’s hard to call any medal devalued,” said Bill Mallon, an Olympic historian.

“舉重項目被興奮劑問題搞得千瘡百孔，獎牌貶值幾乎無從談起，”奧運歷史學家比爾·馬龍(Bill Mallon)說。

And to be sure, many people in weight lifting have applauded the mass suspensions. “Rules are rules,” said Mika Tiainen, Finland’s Olympic coach. “Lifting makes the competition, not the country.”

而且可以肯定，舉重領域的很多人都會為大規(guī)模禁賽叫好。“規(guī)則就是規(guī)則，”芬蘭奧運教練米卡·蒂艾寧(Mika Tiainen)說。“舉重所成就的是競爭，而非某個國家。”

Still, it would surprise no one if the retesting of urine samples from Rio led to the stripping of medals in coming years. Anthony Rigney, 33, a teacher, said he had seen a meme online: “I can’t wait until 2024 to see who won the gold in Rio.”

不過，如果在未來幾年里，重新檢測來自里約奧運會的尿樣導致一些人的獎牌被剝奪，那也沒什么好奇怪的?，F(xiàn)年33歲的教師安東尼里格尼(Anthony Rigney)說他在網(wǎng)上看過一個米姆(meme)：“到2024年就知道誰在里約奪冠了，好期待。”