RIO DE JANEIRO — The brothers Dan and Anthony Rigney of Australia attended the Olympic weight lifting competition on Sunday and were not exactly mortified that the sport is more polluted than Guanabara Bay.

里约热内卢——澳大利亚的丹和安东尼•里格尼(Dan and Anthony Rigney)兄弟去看了周日的奥运举重比赛。对于这个项目的受污染情况比瓜纳巴拉湾更甚这一点，他们并不觉得难堪。

Sure, they want athletes to be drug free, but they also want to be entertained by raw human power. So yes, they would have preferred to see the Russian and Bulgarian teams, which were barred for doping. Likewise with Ilya Ilyin, a suspended two-time Olympic champion from Kazakhstan, who is the Barry Bonds of the clean and jerk.

当然，他们希望运动员远离药物，但他们也希望从赤裸裸的人类力量中得到娱乐。因此，没错，他们是乐于看到因兴奋剂问题被禁赛的俄罗斯和保加利亚队参加比赛的。哈萨克斯坦被禁赛的两届奥运冠军得主伊利亚•伊雷因(Ilya Ilyin)也是这样。他是挺举项目中的巴里•邦兹(Barry Bonds)。

“You like to see world records,” said Dan Rigney, 28, a physio therapist and competitive lifter from Sydney. “It’s like baseball. People just want to see home runs.”

“人们喜欢看到世界纪录，”来自悉尼的28岁理疗师、举重运动员丹•里格尼(Dan Rigney)说。“就像棒球一样。人们只想看本垒打。”

There has long been a wink-and-nod pragmatism about weight lifting. Drugs have been a hushed but vital part of doing business. If there is an argument to be made that any sport should permit doping, or even make it mandatory, that sport is weight lifting.

长期以来，举重一直存在一种心照不宣的实用主义。药物是举重比赛中默默无闻但至关重要的一部分。如果说这世上有什么运动是应该允许使用兴奋剂，甚至强制要求使用兴奋剂的，那就是举重了。

“Maybe it already is,” Dan Rigney said with a laugh, adding that, in his view, doping “is what’s keeping the Olympics going.”

“也许已经是这种情况了，”丹•里格尼大笑着说。他还表示，在他看来，兴奋剂“是使奥运会能够继续下去的原因”。

Let’s be honest. We don’t want to see anybody lift a keg. We want to see someone hoist a Buick.

让我们坦诚些。我们想看的不是一个人举起一个小桶。我们想看的是有人举起一辆别克(Buick)。

We are nostalgic for champions like Vasily Alekseyev, the great Soviet superheavyweight who won gold medals in 1972 and 1976. He set 80 world records and was the first person to lift 500 pounds in the clean and jerk. He was so massive that his uniform fit like a chin strap on a bowling ball. And those sideburns — great thickets wide and deep enough to plant potatoes.

我们怀念像瓦西里•阿列克谢耶夫(Vasily Alekseyev)那样的冠军。伟大的苏联超重量级举重运动员阿列克谢耶夫曾分别在1972年和1976年获得金牌。他创造了80项世界记录，也是在挺举项目中举起500磅（约合230公斤）的第一人。他的身型非常魁梧，以至于比赛服穿在他身上就像一根颏带绷在保龄球上。还有那鬓角——一片茂盛的灌木丛，宽度和厚度足以种土豆。

Oh, sure, we say we are against doping in sports. But we don’t care enough to stop buying tickets or watching on television. And let’s ask ourselves this: Would anyone stay tuned if the Olympic champion ran the 100 meters in 15 seconds instead of nine? Who would watch the N.F.L. if linemen were built more like Gilligan than the Skipper?

哦，当然，我们嘴里说我们反对在体育运动中使用兴奋剂。但我们对此的重视程度还不至于停止买票或是停止在电视上看比赛。并且我们自问：如果奥运冠军跑100米的用时是15秒而不是9秒，你会不换台吗？如果锋线球员长得更像吉利根(Gilligan)而不是船长（两人都是六十年代美国情景喜剧《吉利根岛》中的人物，前者身形瘦削，后者则非常魁梧。——译注），谁还要看国家橄榄球联盟(NFL)的比赛？

Most fans seem to view doping in the same way they view special effects in “Star Wars” movies, said Charles Yesalis, a retired Penn State professor and an expert on performance-enhancing drugs.

宾西法尼亚州立大学(Penn State)退休教授、研究提高成绩的药物的专家查尔斯•耶萨利斯(Charles Yesalis)表示，大部分体育迷对兴奋剂的态度，和对《星球大战》(Star Wars)系列电影里的特效是一样的。

“It enhances the enjoyment of viewing because you see bigger-than-life people doing bigger-than-life things,” Yesalis said in a recent interview. “If everybody looked like normal people, chances are the N.C.A.A., the N.F.L. and the Olympics would not be multibillion-dollar entities.”

“它会增加观看比赛的乐趣，因为你看到的是超越现实世界的人在做超越现实世界的事情，”耶萨利斯最近接受采访时说。“如果所有人看上去都和普通人一样，全美大学生体育协会(NCAA)、NFL和奥运会可能就不是身家数十亿美元的实体了。”

Before the Games, international sports officials tossed out assorted male and female lifters from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, North Korea, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, a Fodor’s guide through the world of banned substances.

奥运会开幕前，国际体育官员取消了阿塞拜疆、亚美尼亚、塞浦路斯、哈萨克斯坦、摩尔多瓦、朝鲜、罗马尼亚、土耳其、乌克兰和乌兹别克斯坦的众多举重运动员的参赛资格，其中有男有女，就像一本福多尔公司(Fodor's)出版的违禁药物世界旅游指南。

Olympic weight lifting without Russia and Bulgaria is like Harry Potter without Lord Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange (if those villains wore spandex and had necks the size of Easter hams). The competition will go on, but it won’t be the same.

奥运举重项目没了俄罗斯和保加利亚，就如同《哈里•波特》(Harry Potter)没了伏地魔和贝拉特里克斯•莱斯特兰奇（如果这两个坏蛋穿上斯潘德克斯弹性纤维做成的队服，并且脖子粗得和复活节吃的火腿一样的话）。比赛会继续，但不会是原来的样子。

Until recently, weight lifting officials had mostly turned the other way, keenly understanding that the final word of the Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, Stronger,” is not easily achieved over the counter.

就在前不久，举重官员大多仍对此视而不见，强烈地认为奥林匹克格言“更快、更高、更强”中的最后一项没有药方是无法实现的。

Of course, with the Rio Games upon us, the International Weightlifting Federation is suddenly affronted. It has called revelations of widespread doping in Russia “shocking and disappointing” and has said that the “integrity of the weight lifting sport has been seriously damaged.”

当然了，在我们迎来里约奥运会之际，国际举重联合会(International Weightlifting Federation)突然被触怒了。它表示，已经被揭露出来的俄罗斯运动员普遍使用兴奋剂的情况“令人震惊和失望”；它还说，“举重运动的尊严受损”。

Integrity? Now they worry about integrity?

尊严？现在他们担心起尊严来了？

There were 24 positive tests at the world weight lifting championships last year, and retesting of urine samples from the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2012 London Games revealed at least 20 additional positives, including four from Olympic champions, according to the news agency Agence France-Presse.

去年，针对世界举重冠军所做的尿检，结果呈阳性的共有24例。据法新社(Agence France-Presse)报道，重新检测来自2008年北京奥运会和2012年伦敦奥运会的尿样，让阳性结果至少又多出了20个，其中4份阳性尿样来自奥运冠军。

Essentially, comedy has become reality.

实际上，喜剧已经变成了现实。

Remember that “Saturday Night Live” sketch, with Phil Hartman playing a Soviet weight lifter named Sergei Akmudov at the All Drug Olympics?

还记得《周六夜现场》(Saturday Night Live)的一个小品吗？菲尔•哈特曼(Philip Hartmann)在《药林匹克运动会》(All Drug Olympics)里扮演名叫谢尔盖•阿克穆多夫(Sergei Akmudov)的苏联举重运动员。

“His trainer has told me that he’s taken anabolic steroids, Novocain, NyQuil, Darvon and some sort of fish paralyzer,” the announcer, played by Kevin Nealon, says earnestly.

“他的教练告诉我，他喝下了合成代谢类固醇、普鲁卡因、奈奎尔、达尔丰以及某种啤酒，”由凯文•尼伦(Kevin Nealon)扮演的主持人一本正经地说道。

“Also, I believe he’s had several cocktails within the last hour or so,” the announcer says. “All this, of course, is perfectly legal at the All Drug Olympics. In fact, it’s encouraged.”

“此外，我相信他在最后一小时左右喝下了若干种鸡尾酒，”主持人说道。“当然了，所有这些在‘药林匹克运动会’上都是完全合乎规定的。事实上，这种做法还受到了鼓励。”

Akmudov tries to lift more than 1,500 pounds, triple the world record in the clean and jerk, except for one small problem.

阿克穆多夫试图举起1500英镑的重量，是世界挺举纪录的三倍，但出现了一点小问题。

“Oh, he’s pulled his arms off!” the witless announcer yells. “He’s pulled his arms off! That’s got to be disappointing to the big Russian.”

“哦，他把自己的胳膊扯下来了！”吓傻了的主持人喊道。“他把自己的胳膊扯下来了！俄罗斯大块头肯定很失望。”

With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the Olympics lost a gripping appeal for many Americans — the rivalry between East and West. With Russia now absent from Rio in weight lifting and track and field, that enthralling tension erodes further still.

随着柏林墙的倒塌和苏联的解体，对许多美国人而言，奥运会失去了一种扣人心弦的吸引力，一种东西方相互较劲的意味。由于俄罗斯缺席了里约奥运会的举重和田径项目，那种令人着迷的张力进一步被削弱了。

“There was no one to root against,” Matt Futterman wrote last month in The Wall Street Journal, lamenting the parting of the Iron Curtain for international sport. “It was like watching a Bond film in which everyone was working for MI6.”

“没人可供喝倒彩了，”上个月，马特•福特曼(Matt Futterman)在《华尔街日报》上感叹说，国际体育界的“铁幕”正在消失。“这就好比观看一部所有人都为军情六处(MI6)工作的邦德片。”

One wonders whether medals won in Rio will be devalued in particular sports, as they were when the United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the Soviet Union reciprocated at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

有人不禁要问，里约奥运会某些特定项目的奖牌是否会贬值，就像美国在1980年抵制莫斯科奥运会，苏联在1984年还以颜色，抵制洛杉矶奥运会时一样。

“Weight lifting is so riddled with doping problems, it’s hard to call any medal devalued,” said Bill Mallon, an Olympic historian.

“举重项目被兴奋剂问题搞得千疮百孔，奖牌贬值几乎无从谈起，”奥运历史学家比尔•马龙(Bill Mallon)说。

And to be sure, many people in weight lifting have applauded the mass suspensions. “Rules are rules,” said Mika Tiainen, Finland’s Olympic coach. “Lifting makes the competition, not the country.”

而且可以肯定，举重领域的很多人都会为大规模禁赛叫好。“规则就是规则，”芬兰奥运教练米卡•蒂艾宁(Mika Tiainen)说。“举重所成就的是竞争，而非某个国家。”

Still, it would surprise no one if the retesting of urine samples from Rio led to the stripping of medals in coming years. Anthony Rigney, 33, a teacher, said he had seen a meme online: “I can’t wait until 2024 to see who won the gold in Rio.”

不过，如果在未来几年里，重新检测来自里约奥运会的尿样导致一些人的奖牌被剥夺，那也没什么好奇怪的。现年33岁的教师安东尼里格尼(Anthony Rigney)说他在网上看过一个米姆(meme)：“到2024年就知道谁在里约夺冠了，好期待。”