CAMDEN – When Paul Hamm’s gymnastics all-around gold medal came into controversy, national columnist Christine Brennan suggested that Hamm should give up his medal – because it would benefit his marketing and public relations.

Examples like this intrigue Rushworth Kidder about the world of sports. When it comes to ethics, dilemmas pop up and values get tested.

“Sports really brings out all kinds of things in people,” said Kidder, the president of the Institute for Global Ethics. “It cuts across all kinds of different backgrounds. It’s a great leveler in that regard.

“It helps us understand that ethics isn’t only for smart people. You don’t have to be able to reason in highly intelligent complicated intellectual ways. People look at something and say, That’s wrong.'”

In his upcoming book, “Moral Courage,” Kidder chronicles the story about a high school quarterback chasing a passing record. In his final game, his coaches worked out a deal with the opposition that allowed the quarterback to complete a lengthy pass for the record yardage.

“They all thought they were doing a nice thing for the kid,” said Kidder. “The kid (broke the record) and got thinking about it later. He realized that this wasn’t right, and that I don’t deserve to be in the record book.’ He finally wrote a letter to the organization in Illinois that kept the records and said, I don’t deserve this, please remove my name from the record books.'”

The trend in sports, however, is that moral courage and ethic accountability is lacking. There’s the onslaught of failed drug tests and scandals at the collegiate and professional levels.

He says the players looked upon as heroes years ago are nothing like those who are held up as heroes today.

“Is that the model kids are looking at?” he said. “You want to respect yourself, but you’re modeling yourself on people that are disrespectful.”

Much of the decline, he says, is the lack of a moral backbone. Some athletic boards and overseeing bodies hold a firm line on enforcing standards, but others fail. In the 1990s Kidder met with the NCAA about the issue of higher education being driven by its sports programs. The governing body thought about making significant changes, but “basically didn’t have the moral courage to do it.”

The same problems are seen closer to home. A coach is challenged by parents and the school waffles on the situation, which only creates a larger furor. Athletes are torn between what they hear from coaches and what they hear from home.

“People can think very well about their values and make very nice ethical decisions, but if they don’t have the guts to step up to that decision and implement it, that’s as good as not making a decision,” said Kidder.

It is a trend that is seen all over – the corporate world, families, the military, the non-profit sector and in education.

“I think we’re getting to the point where there’s been a general collapse of trust,” said Kidder. “If you don’t have trust in something, you’re not going to be courageous.”

Moral courage, he says, is the intersection of three things – principles and values, dangers and risk, and a willingness to endure.

People tend to trust their experience, character, faith and intuition. If they feel secure in one of those elements, they’re more likely to show conviction.

That is why the work of the Coaching Maine Youth to Success program is so critical to local schools and communities. If schools have standards it can trust, and all schools follow suit, it might help limit some of the problems.

“I’d love to see us get in there and work with coaches and community members and parents on these questions of moral courage, and help people think about their capacity to trust and building a community of trust,” said Kidder. “So they’ll realize that if they take this stand, there’s somebody to back them up.”