The nagging issue of drug cheats won’t go away, but truly extraordinary athletes don’t need drugs to win.

Author Archives: Rob Hughes
Rob Hughes has written, broadcast and edited for four decades. His columns in International Herald Tribune since 1977 reflect the global phenomenon of soccer to readers in 180 countries. Unforgiving where sporting passion is abused, Hughes believes the game crosses boundaries of culture or religion – and has become a commercial and political tool.
He has reported every World Cup from 1974, and Olympic Games since 1988, drawing out sport in the wider aspects of human striving. The author of two books, he was a guest speaker at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town 2007, and at the Football and International Peace Congress in Seoul 2006.
His work has been published in more than 20 countries. In his native England, he was Chief Sports Writer for The Times of London for a decade, and a writer for The Sunday Times and Sunday Times Magazine for over 25 years. In television, Hughes reported and produced live sport, documentaries, and light entertainment.
Brazil’s government awarded Hughes its highest civilian decoration - The Order of the Southern Cross in 1990, citing: "Hughes belongs to those few writers who reach beyond the mere descriptive to find in sports a deeper expression of individual and national aspirations."