Drugs in Sport

[Stuttgart88]

Sorry, I didn't pick up on the player admitting it. I thought Francis had just assumed it.

[Spudulika]

Neil Francis column mentions meeting an old foe who had played for France and not recognising him because he was so much smaller. The explanation was simply that the guy stopped taking steroids on retirement.

I wonder what his reference to professionalism making it a level playing field now really means...

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/six-nations/neil-francis-not-the-men-they-once-were-but-france-are-still-a-threat-30985416.html

Interesting that Francis is one man who is pushing this, though his stable mate (Kimmage) also has pushed it. If they can solidify the link between the PED's - collisions - body and brain damage, this is the only way to make rugby sit up and take notice. Looking at the state of some players yesterday made me worry.

On an aside, last week I was talking with the uncle of one player I used to manage. She was one of the "great hopes", a leftie, who just went to seed. Her conditioning and mentality was terrible and it never improved when she was sent to a Spanish academy as a teen. Her uncle said that she was ostracised from the rest of the academy for refusing to drink "shakes" and go for special pre-season training. The same stuff as another former client was asked about, but did, and we dropped her like a hot, well, thing from your nose. And the reward? She made her Fed Cup debut for Russia! Yet her physical transformation has been immense - she works with the right doctors and yet everybody stays quiet.

Until kids start dying and autopsies reveal the real damage, nothing will change in tennis or rugby.

[Spudulika]

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/17/alex-rodriguez-issues-handwritten-apology-statement

Can someone explain why the doper just gets a year suspension, but the supplier gets 4 years?

And the lack of self-awareness in this:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/17/christine-ohuruogu-iaaf-lamine-diack-athletics-crisis

[Macy]

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/17/alex-rodriguez-issues-handwritten-apology-statement

Can someone explain why the doper just gets a year suspension, but the supplier gets 4 years?

I don't have a problem with the enablers getting longer suspensions. They create the environment that makes athlete's feel the need to dope.


And the lack of self-awareness in this:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/17/christine-ohuruogu-iaaf-lamine-diack-athletics-crisis
Lack of self-awareness is one thing, but it's a bit disappointing that the Guardian didn't point out that she'd also served a suspension for missed tests.

[Spudulika]

I don't have a problem with the enablers getting longer suspensions. They create the environment that makes athlete's feel the need to dope.


Lack of self-awareness is one thing, but it's a bit disappointing that the Guardian didn't point out that she'd also served a suspension for missed tests.

Macy, I am not against enablers - far from it, but they're more like pushers (in a gear sense), but the athlete is both the junkie AND the main person. It's just a bit too, I don't know, weird. And I was looking at some of the reasons for the prison sentence, like conspiring to pervert the outcome of games (this was a charge if I read it correctly), so it was a mafia type law used against him. But surely the athlete was doing the same thing, juicing up to mess with results.

The Guardian piece - it's so typical of journalism. The piece is basically targetted at "exposing" the IAAF or (in British speak) - dirty johnny foreigner. So the fact that the interviewee missed tests, can beat other doped athletes doesn't raise a question, or merit one. I just think it's a depressing reflection of our media.

[Acornvilla]

Wayne Odesnik off of tennis infamy, done for doping again, 15 year ban.

[Spudulika]

Wayne Odesnik off of tennis infamy, done for doping again, 15 year ban.

Amazing for a man who turned stoolie to help the ITF. He was ostracised by so many players (with some exceptions) and now this...

[BonnieShels]

Dr Bill Cuddihy just on Newstalk talking about the WADA reports.

[Charlie Darwin]

Very interesting BBC Panorama documentary by Mark Daly on doping in sport, focusing explicitly on Mo Farah's coach Alberto Salazar, just finished. Would seriously recommend playing it back if you didn't see it.

[Spudulika]

Very interesting BBC Panorama documentary by Mark Daly on doping in sport, focusing explicitly on Mo Farah's coach Alberto Salazar, just finished. Would seriously recommend playing it back if you didn't see it.

Watched this and the afters with Mo's "meltdown" and reports of his missed tests.....himself, Bolt and many others will come in for a land. The latest Sunday Times revelations should at least ring some bells. The IAAF, ITF, FIFA and many others should stand up and be counted now in just creating a path forward. I virulently object to doping on one reason - health! Forget cheating, it's health. And the health of kids especially. It's going to get a lot worse!

[DeLorean]

Vincent Hogan: 'It was obvious that a 26-year-old Irish girl was about to become the big story. The question for journalists was how they would interpret it' (http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/olympics/vincent-hogan-it-was-obvious-that-a-26yearold-irish-girl-was-about-to-become-the-big-story-the-question-for-journalists-was-how-they-would-interpret-it-34908713.html)

[DannyInvincible]

'Ewan MacKenna: We aim our rage at Russia when the real enemy is staring back at us in the mirror': https://www.independent.ie/sport/ewan-mackenna-we-aim-our-rage-at-russia-when-the-real-enemy-is-staring-back-at-us-in-the-mirror-36412183.html

Excellent article.

[DannyInvincible]

A good article here too by Paul Kimmage on the "bull****" served up by cycling (that is eagerly swallowed by fans) and the recent controversy surrounding Chris Froome and his adverse drugs test at the 2017 Vuelta a España: https://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/paul-kimmage-the-greatest-ever-or-just-another-drug-cheat-after-all-the-bull****-why-should-we-care-36414204.html


"I've never had an injection," Sir Bradley Wiggins assures us, in the chest-thumping autobiography that follows his triumph in the Tour de France. "This is one yellow jersey that will stand the test of time," Chris Froome pledges in a crois-moi speech on the Champs-élysées. And here we are, four years later, swamped in the mire of their dirty little secrets - the mystery jiffy bag, the mistaken testosterone patches, the unethical corticosteroids, the failed test for salbutamol - and returned to ground zero.

And what hurts most is that we saw it coming.

For six years now, since his extraordinary transformation at the 2011 Tour of Spain, Froome has been an accident waiting to happen battling five debilitating conditions - bilharzia, typhoid, urticaria, blastocystosis, asthma - in his march towards the summit. Forget the astonishing accelerations (Mont Ventoux 2013, La Pierre Saint Martin 2015) and multiple Tour wins, this is the Froome legacy.

He has redefined what it means to be ill.

[Real ale Madrid]

If you are interested in the specifics of Salbutamol in relation to Froomey - this is a good read:

(Warning - his definition of "Brief" is a bit different to the rest of us!

http://sportsscientists.com/2017/12/brief-thoughts-froomes-salbutamol-result/

[BonnieShels]

Nice decent read from ewan McKenna...

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/other-soccer/ewan-mackenna-murky-questions-surround-spanish-footballs-golden-era-and-people-might-not-like-the-answers-36943284.html

Not like it was ever suspicious.

[Mr A]

Cycling is so fecked. Froome cleared. Anti doping means feck all at this stage if you have the money and determination to fight the rare cases where people are caught. Scary to think what's going on in sports that have no interest in catching offenders.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/chris-froome-salbutamol-case-decision-is-a-big-moment-for-cycling/

[osarusan]

Truly Froome is one of the greatest humans in history. Able to overcome a barrage of illnesses that would leave lesser men in a hospital bed, while he instead climbs mountains, and now a level of dehydration that would leave mere mortals looking like, and with the energy of, a raisin.

[OwlsFan]

Does an illegal liver count as an illegal drug https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/barcelona-deny-former-president-illegally-bought-liver-for-eric-abidal-1.3554092 ?

[Mr A]

Interesting read, highlights the inconsistency in the system now: http://www.velonews.com/2018/07/news/cardoso-epo-case-highlights-inequalities-in-anti-doping-process_471394

[Mr A]

Well this is slightly disturbing.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/jurgen-klopp-giving-liverpool-players-13312980