zero doping – cero dopaje

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The Righteous Living in Fear

Filed under: Athletes — Tags: , , , — admin @ 5:13 pm

Some athletes are clean. You can tell. Or can you?

I am sure many people have felt cheated when they pronounc any athlete is clean – to find their world collapse on the front pages of newspapers that “such and such” has been sent home following a doping failure.

I know i have put faith in some who let me down.
For all that I still believe.

I met Diane Modahl, and her personality was such I judge she could never have cheated. She would rather have come seventh in an honest race, than finish first by cheating. That was my opinion then, and it has not changed since – which makes it so much worse, that she was apparent victim of a testing disaster.

I believe in Paula Radcliffe too.

But I wonder whether her vociferously anti doping stance may become her undoing. Who can forget the images of Paula holding a placard at a track race, opposing a drug cheat who had escaped banning just on a technicality

I can think that very stance (and good on Paula for being outspoken) some have a grudge to settle with Paula and thats the trouble. A marathoner is more vulnerable than most.

There are those who would take the chance to spike a drink. With a marathoner there are opportunities. Or long distance cyclists taking drinks from the road.

A meal. A drink even a cup of tea at roadside catering trailer?

I hope for paulas sake those charged with the security
of her drinks and food do not have a bad day.
But she must live in fear of those with a grudge to settle.

She reminds me of the film gladiator: when the identity of maximus is revealed he worries about eating in case his food has been tampered

June 24, 2010

Splintered Testing Policy – An Ill Wind Blowing No Good

Filed under: Drug Test Policy — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 8:25 pm

When agencies compete for the right to test athletes it cannot be anything other than divisive for the sport as a whole.

WADA turned down a request from the French Anti-doping Agency who wanted to carry out their own tests at the Tour de France.

Claiming “that it has access to confidential information from police and customs that it cannot share with other organisations”

And with that hangs a serious problem.

Our sport can only suffer from the lack of a unified face.

Whilst I don’t want to come down in any direction on the Ramussen case a couple of years ago at the TDF – I can have sympathy with Ramussen’s contention over jurisdiction.

For as long as he was complying with testing from UCI, should he really have DOUBLE the calls on his availability simply because of being a Dane, where Contador had only UCI restrictions because of where he lived?

At the time it SOUNDED like very much like a grudge to settle by the Danish federation, for the unwillingness of Rasmussen to compete on a Danish stage, and whether or not that was actually so is almost irrelevant.

Open a crack, and the media will crowbar it out to a chasm.

It cannot help the image of sport when federations seem to be bickering over jurisdiction.

So please agencies – have these discussions behind closed doors, then pronounce a decision with a unified face

Surely if there is sufficient cause to suspect a crime is being committed under french law with proper evidence for the same then there are procedures that can be used to pursue that.

I have to assume the evidence is far more circumstantial than that and that the TDF is as much arguing from a “rights” point of view than prima facie evidence of crime.

I can understand of course how the TDF is concerned about the damage done to its name. Sat where I am the Rasmussen affair was not handled with nearly enough discretion by the TDF.

June 23, 2010

The Placebo Effect

Filed under: Controversy — admin @ 6:15 pm

It is a fact. The belief that a drug is doing you good, can manifest itself as the symptom that IT IS doing you good. Mind over matter. Trials have shown that chalk pills can work wonders if the person believes they are a beneficial drug.

Which brings an interesting problem

It is clear that many athletes respect religion, indeed regard firm religious belief as a corner stone of success.

One of the celebrated cases was “eric lidell” whose story was promoted by “chariots of fire” – the belief that his athleticisim was a gift of God, and he used it as a soapbox to promote faith.

But thereby hangs an interesting question.

If the placebo effect is know to achieve positive results.

If the athletes believe that their success is due to a higher power.

If athletes carry religious artefacts – take rosary beads and consider they have a positive value, then the placebo effect will make belief come true.

Is this using artificial performance enhancement to improve performance?

Is this doping by psychological means?

This blog aims to stimulate discussion. It cannot answer such questions. What do you think?

I am Angry at Floyd Landis

Filed under: Athletes — Tags: , , , — admin @ 3:28 pm

I am Angry at Floyd Landis.
Why did he drag on the fiasco so long – before so publicly “coming clean” or rather “coming dirty” and with it trying to drag others down.

Nobody can ride the way he did. To ride away from the peloton, on the back of a bad day seemed implausible.

I wondered when he was first caught – why did he try to justify high testosterone so early? The answer is because he KNEW

He writes a book, and spends years protesting innonence before coming clean.

His protests over many years gave me just a chink of doubt about his conviction. Not enough to vindicate, just enough to hope that one day it might be proven …

So I am angry at Floyd Landis. To think he could take the world for fools.

There is something of Marco Pantani in him.

Listen to pantani’s reactions to dope allegations and he seems to believe he was singled out, as if to say, the whole world cheats so why have you picked me? For sure cycling was endemic at that time.

But I cannot forgive Landis for compounding injury and insult.

You sir, are the one we must use all efforts to catch. And ban completely – Zero Doping, Zero Tolerance.

Motive. Means. Opportunity.

Filed under: Athletes — Tags: , , , — admin @ 3:17 pm

Motive. Means. Opportunity.

Sometimes it just does not make sense.
The nandrolone affair caught many athletes off guard.

It begs many awkward questions.

Should athletes take supplements? Are they natural? Does the fact that the body makes a chemical make it OK? Do you still think so with human growth hormone?

There will always be uncertain edges.

And since athletes dont have XRay eyes how can they know what is in a substance, if they buy it over a food counter?

It seems with 20/20 hindisight batches of a supplement taken by many athletes was giving positives for nandrolone. Sadly many otherwise respectable athletes got caught and banned. As for example mark richardson a promising 400m runner.

But let us examine the case of arguably one of britains best athletes.

Linford Christie.
Linford promoted the clean living athlete “pure talent, no additives”
and took part in the infamous Ben Johnston race.

I maybe naieve – but I am on Linford’s side. Who can remember hearing the words “pseudo ephedrine” a cold cure, being an extract discovered in ginseng tea. Those words all sound so chemical that surely they are cheating. Not so by intent, in my opinion.

Can pseudoephedrine really influence performance?

But lets look at this through detectives eyes. A crime needs means and opportunity, catching red handed always helps.

But intent also needs motive.
And it just is not there in the later case.

Christie had retired. He had not competed for many months. He only remained on the testing rota, because he saw he may have to compete for the club. Not for personal glory, and certainly by that time he could not care less whether he won or not.

THEN he was done for nandrolone.

It did not and does not make sense. Sure he may have been positive.
But clearly in this case, he is hardly likely to knowingly cheat just to
compete in a lowly club match.

So logic said he may be guilty of having a drug in his system. But was he guilty of using a substance to enhance performance? I don’t think so. The motive just is not there.

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