Letter: Ancient Greece dealt with cheats

Friday, Feb. 22, 2002 | 9:51 a.m.

In ancient Greece, the integrity and sportsmanship of the Olympian athletes brought honor to them, their families and their communities.

Winning was important but winning wasn't everything.

During one of the early competitions it was found that 16 athletes had cheated. Not only were they banished from that and all future Olympic competition, they were immortalized and humiliated by life-size statues placed along the entrance to the stadium. Each statue had a plaque identifying the athlete, where he was from, and that he had been banished from the games for cheating.

Every future athlete and every spectator had to walk past these reminders to enter the games. The statues had to be paid for by the cheating athlete or his family. If the family could not pay, then the village that he came from had to pay. No one else from that village could compete until the statue was paid for.

This was very effective in ancient Greece. It might work for judges, too.

PATRICIA VAN BETTEN