When is an award not really an award, but an afterthought?
Of late, the International Olympic Committee was stripping medals away from athletes found to have been using banned substances in the 2008 Beijing Games, catching the perpetrators with improved testing methods applied to samples that are stored for 10 years.
Many other sporting events seem to be following a similar trajectory in that the results are not final until all the adjudication proceedings are completed, which was the case in a recent V8 Supercars race where the final finishing order had more lead changes than the actual race did.
We would point out the recent announcement of Sam Mitchell and Trent Cotchin receiving dual Brownlow Medals for the 2012 season after it was determined that Jobe Watson was to be stripped of his Brownlow for his participation in the Essendon supplements scandal of that season.
Cotchin and Mitchell tied for second in the voting from 2012. The two appeared publicly together and soft-pedaled their reaction to the delayed gratification of winning Aussie Rule’s biggest individual award, perhaps due to the realization that if this were an individual award, why there were two of them being given out?
They probably experienced some degree of relief that their recognition did not take 59 years to arrive, as it did in one other notable instance.
Now about that 2005 Melbourne Cup. Did Makybe Diva really win? Perhaps we should have another look.
