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I think that it is, actually, and feel like the idea that it isn't represents a confusion of means with ends.
The objective of sport isn't to follow the rulebook like holy writ, and the "winner of sport" is not he who most religiously adheres to the commandments of the International Olympic Committee Good Practice Handbook Subsection 17 Paragraph C. The written rules are a means, not an end. The end is... some combination of showcasing human physical excellence, putting on a good show for the spectators, and getting from the start line to the finish line faster than others.
When the start line is (figuratively) "doped up to the eyeballs" and the finish line is "100km of French cycling routes away" then you are still competing 'fairly' against your opponent if he's as doped up as you. That both if you exceed the 14ppm blood oxygenation level stipulated by the IOC... who cares? Other than sports lawyers who want to carve out a permanent need for their own employment, I don't think it benefits anyone to be a rules-autist about this stuff.
Sport has a third tenet though, which Coubertin and his buds might actually have been convinced is the most important: it's supposed to foster good health and morality by rallying all around a universal human endeavour.
How wicked is it that the institutions setup to give good rolemodels to youth have become spectacles of hypocrisy?
Cheating isn't just about fairness, it is also about honesty and truth. So yeah if everyone does it, it's still cheating because I care that the people earning the millions and being on the posters are a bunch of fucking liars. Sodom was a wicked city, "everyone does it" is not an excuse.
At least wrestling had the guts to admit that it's all fake. But it's no longer sport then, just dynamic entertainment.
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The rules are indeed a means, not an end. But not following the rules is cheating, full stop. The rules may need to be amended if they aren't serving a good purpose, but if you break the rules then you are a cheater even if everyone else does it.
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