Joined Apr 2008
7K Posts | 3K+
Out of Nowhere
Purely posted for the purpose of a lively debate between myself and 'Son'. Feel free to interject/intervene
Anthony Gobert's wasted 'talent'
- Thread starter Arrabbiata1
- Start date
Gobert had a truly amazing amount of raw talent, that we got to see 50% of....
I don't think I blinked the entire second race at PI in 94! You just knew this guy was gonna be off in a massive way!
Thought Craig Jones was Goberts twin the way he rode.
I don't think I blinked the entire second race at PI in 94! You just knew this guy was gonna be off in a massive way!
Thought Craig Jones was Goberts twin the way he rode.
I am a little with son of doohan, I see drug addiction as a medical problem which is somewhat genetically determined, and don't see much difference between legal drugs like alcohol and other drugs of addiction which are illegal. Doesn't justify robbing little old ladies though.
Such drugs including alcohol should not be mixed with piloting vehicles including motorbikes, and even more so with competition motorsport.
Joined Apr 2008
7K Posts | 3K+
Out of Nowhere
But as Mick Doohan opined...very little racecraft.
The Bimota ride is my abiding memory...it was supernatural - no other word for it.
Craig was certainly reminiscant of Gobert in the entertaining way he rode. Stupidly quick, psychologically strong and one of the bravest riders in I have ever seen. We were cruelly denied a massive unfulfilled talent - Gobert meanwhile was repeatedly handed chance after chance and ultimately robbed himself of his potential. It is clear that he was predisposed to indulge in such excesses and psychologically prone to addiction. He had help, he was offered support...ultimately he was a hedonist that should have done his talking and sought his kicks on the track....is there a greater high than a GP raceday? I have no sympathy whatsoever.
Joined Aug 2008
6K Posts | 748+
Thailand
Not sure of your point above michael. Sure addiction is a medical issue with physiological and psychological implications, debatable nature/nurture determination and internal and external triggers. But as Arrab has pointed out Anthony was offered all the help and support an enlightened society can offer. Need we be so PC that we ignore his behaviour choices and proclivities and say, "Its alright Ant - its not your fault"?
Did I say he deserved to succeed?. I wasn't particularly judgemental in my youth, and have found no reason from my life experience to be more so as I have got older. If you are a lifelong non-smoking teetotaller, you are perhaps in a position to be more judgemental than I am.
Joined Aug 2008
6K Posts | 748+
Thailand
Did I say he didn't deserve to succeed?
Far from judgemental, I have lived a life guided by Bob Marley's "Judge Not", the writings of Robert M. Persig and a there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-go-I attitude. I have spent most of my life VERY close to severely addicted individuals and am constantly aware of my own flirting with addiction. Staying within the culturally defined limits of everything is the most difficult endeavour I have embarked upon. School was easy, athletics were easy, earning has been easy - not ingesting or injecting anything I can get my hands on... not so easy. So I am the antithesis of a lifelong non-smoking teetotaller, giving me, perhaps, a very different perspective from yourself, a self proclaimed enjoyer of a couple of glasses of good wine every now and then and a clinical outsider to the demons of addiction. The demons can be overcome but not without constant vigilance and enormous effort.
To me, when someone chooses the path of least resistance and gives in to their addictive nature - without really even trying, as is my personal impression of AG, it is a life and the gift of life wasted.
Joined Apr 2011
900 Posts | 4+
somewhere else
More power to you. This doesn't make the human tragedy of others less tragic.
My main hobbyhorse is those hypocrites who find alcohol and tobacco OK because they are legal, but "illicit"/illegal drugs a sign of extreme moral turpitude, when overwhelmingly the most health and social problems are caused by the legal drugs; I am pleased to know that you are not one of them, since I don't disagree with most of what you say otherwise.
I am an admirer of bob marley's music, but I wouldn't go entirely with the peter tosh/bob marley dictum of "legalise it, don't criticise it" either as I think marijuana is a dangerous drug also, particularly in that sort of quantity.
Joined Aug 2008
6K Posts | 748+
Thailand
This is where we will have to agree to disagree. To me the true tragedy of addiction is giving up on oneself and choosing the easy path of self medication and substance induced dissociation.
For me, marijuana's relatively low level buzz has been a godsend helping to ease me away from more potent and dangerous indulgences.
Nearly everyone I know partook somewhat of marijuana back in the day, with little apparent deleterious effect. As I am sure you know , it can precipitate psychiatric problems in some predisposed people, and in the industrial quantities engaged in by some in jamaican circles has bad social effects and is as carcinogenic as tobacco etc. If I were to write a song about it, the title would be decriminalise it, and I am not opposed to mild recreational use in adults any more than I am to similar use of alcohol.
Your ability to use such things in moderation may well reflect your strength of character, but may also be at least partly reflective of a wise choice of grandparents.
Joined Feb 2009
3K Posts | 2+
siebenbürgen süße heimat!
good post mick
surely i don't have anything good to say about someone that robs old ladies but i have to say, maybe,just maybe, if in 1995 it had not been such a big deal that he smokes bud (as long as its away from the track of course!) he could have succeeded in gps and not have been devestated enough to find his cure in other drugs which can not be traced in your blood/piss as long but are much much worse
surely i don't have anything good to say about someone that robs old ladies but i have to say, maybe,just maybe, if in 1995 it had not been such a big deal that he smokes bud (as long as its away from the track of course!) he could have succeeded in gps and not have been devestated enough to find his cure in other drugs which can not be traced in your blood/piss as long but are much much worse
Joined Jun 2007
10K Posts | 1K+
Norah Head
I have never thought much of Gobert as a rider. As such I never really followed his progress.
Just then I looked up his record in GP:
First Grand Prix 1997 - ITA First pole position - First race fastest lap - First podium - First Grand Prix victory - Grand Prix victories 0 0 2nd Positions 0 0 3rd Positions 0 0 Podiums 0 0 Poles 0 0 Race fastest lap 0 0 World Championship wins 0
0
WhyTF do you folk idolise ( as is bother to even discuss ) Gobert. He was nowhere ........
This thread justifies 10 pump threads on its own.
This thread could be the first recipient of what will hitherto be known as:
"The Chilean Miner Award"
Award criteria .....
All kinds of boring going on, just to hear the words of a bunch of guys who have been in the dark for an era!
Just then I looked up his record in GP:
First Grand Prix 1997 - ITA First pole position - First race fastest lap - First podium - First Grand Prix victory - Grand Prix victories 0 0 2nd Positions 0 0 3rd Positions 0 0 Podiums 0 0 Poles 0 0 Race fastest lap 0 0 World Championship wins 0
0
WhyTF do you folk idolise ( as is bother to even discuss ) Gobert. He was nowhere ........
This thread justifies 10 pump threads on its own.
This thread could be the first recipient of what will hitherto be known as:
"The Chilean Miner Award"
Award criteria .....
All kinds of boring going on, just to hear the words of a bunch of guys who have been in the dark for an era!
Joined Aug 2007
11K Posts | 3K+
Pomona NY
Lives lost to addiction are a tragedy. It's a mistake to believe that addicts throw away their lives simply because they're lazy or careless or lacking in moral strength. Addiction like alcoholism is a disease. Some are genetically predisposed to it, while for others their home environment and circumstances of life such as poor physical or emotional health lead them to it.
Blaming addicts for living disappointing lives is folly. The ones that manage to overcome their addictions are a small minority, and from what I have seen - they do not triumph over addiction by their own will, but rather through the grace of fellowship with other like-minded addicts seeking recovery. I would no sooner judge an addict for his disease than I would a cancer sufferer, or someone with clinical depression.
Crack heads and smack heads who rob people to feed their habit should be lined up against a wall and shot imo.
I don't see how Gobert's ability at racing a motorbike has any relevance in this discussion. Everyone is good at something, and everyone has the potential to be happy. It is sad when anyone gets caught up in something like serious addiction, whether it is legal/socially acceptable or not, unfortunately this can easily lead to crime. I appreciate that we on this forum are more interested in the case of Gobert because he is did something that we have a passion for, but in the greater scheme of things going from a world class bike rider to a drug addict is no greater shame than any other person who goes down the same unpleasant route.
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