Sharapova is not an icon of courage – she is just a cheat

AMID the deafening silence from the tennis world about the Maria Sharapova doping scandal, Serena Williams was one of the few voices raised in her support.

She commended Sharapova, pictured, for being ‘upfront and honest’, saying she showed a lot of ‘courage to admit to what she has done’. Now perhaps Williams can be accused of taking a Pollyanna attitude to the crisis but she didn’t kick a rival when she is down and that speaks well of her character.

It’s a pity, however, that in doing that she succumbed to the trend for describing all non run-ofthe-mill behaviour as ‘courageous’.

I can’t see how admitting to using performance enhancing drugs when you’re caught red-handed has anything to do with courage. It’s just pre-emptive damage control, a reputation-saving exercise.

Along with generosity, courage is probably our greatest virtue but it is continually debased today. When Caitlyn Jenner outed herself as a transgender woman on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine she was hailed as an icon of courage. And when two of his supporters escorted a protester from one of his rallies, Donald Trump whopped: ‘I love people with courage.’

On Thursday, during the new Dáil’s first day of business, the red badge of courage was handed out like sweets at a children’s party.

Those who had lost their seats were applauded for their ‘courage’ in making tough decisions in government and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were urged to find the ‘courage’ to put historical divisions aside and form a government.

I don’t want to sound unnecessarily cynical but the only time I saw the noble hand of courage at work in politics was during the Northern Ireland peace negotiations.

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird gave as good a definition of it as any: Real courage ‘is when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what’.

Courage almost always involves certain defeat. Not exactly something practised by athletic champions, presidential candidates or stars of reality TV, is it?