Anyone who enjoys athletics has, by now, been exposed (not literally, although it's starting to feel that way) to PEDs, or Peformance Enhancing Drugs: the new euphemism for what used to be called "steroids" or "greenies" or "injecting oneself with horse semen to add 2mph to your fastball".

There's all sorts of myths tied up with the stuff: that it just appeared in the last few years, or that the layperson is at all qualified to judge who is or isn't using, or that we even have the slightest idea of how a PED might impact performance.

In fact, it's arguable that we don't even know what a PED is. Defined as "the use of external chemicals to enhance athletic performance" has the unintended consequence of opening up all sorts of stuff to being potentially a "PED".

For instance, Olympic marathoner Zohar Zemiro tested positive for a banned substance shortly after acceptance into the London games. However, the IOC relented when Zohar showed the chemical was a part of his necessary asthma medication.

But isn't that also a PED by how we defined it above? So it's OK to take medications to overcome a physical condition. But then what about all those baseball players taking HGH to overcome injuries?

What a mess.

Well at least we'll get to enjoy the Ethiopian, Jewish marathoner run for Israel next week. And isn't that what really matters?