Paula Radcliffe - A Great ?

[sojournermike]

Don't expect it to get any better with Seb Coe as the president of the IAAF.

I don't.  As ex member of the Fifa ethics committee things aren't looking good.

[sojournermike]

Don't expect it to get any better with Seb Coe as the president of the IAAF.

I don't.  As ex member of the Fifa ethics committee things aren't looking good.

And now we await the WADA report with bated breath... Seb's chance to prove what he is made of


Image reposted from tonireavis

[simonp]

So, as I understand it this says that the Russians have been at it for years, and they should be banned from international competition until they sort themselves out.

[sojournermike]

So, as I understand it this says that the Russians have been at it for years, and they should be banned from international competition until they sort themselves out.

A bit more than that really. Although this looks at Russia. That's the only nation in scope at present. The report goes on to say that there are other nations with similar problems, that there was corruption at the highest levels in the sport, that other sports are also affected.  Oh and the 2012 Olympics were 'effectively sabotaged'.

Fwiw,Kenya admitted to having issues with doping control I'm the last few days as well...

[Mr Larrington]

"It goes without saying that this is all a conspiracy orchestrated by Amerika and the fascists in Kiev" - V Putin, Moscow

[mrcharly-YHT]

What Paula has said in interviews:

I am truly shocked by these allegations and it is important that the sport proves itself clean

(paraphrasing).

What Paula actually wanted to say:

Every time one of those doping bitches beat me I want the medal back and they should be forced to take picolax and stand in front of the press for 4 hours.

[Hot Flatus]

What Paula has said in interviews:

I am truly shocked by these allegations and it is important that the sport proves itself clean

(paraphrasing).

What Paula actually wanted to say:

Every time one of those doping bitches beat me I want the medal back and they should be forced to take picolax and stand in front of the press for 4 hours.

Or alternatively:

"Shit. I broke the world record right in the middle of all of this. How long have I got before they come for me? Better get some tears ready."

[sojournermike]

What Paula has said in interviews:

I am truly shocked by these allegations and it is important that the sport proves itself clean

(paraphrasing).

What Paula actually wanted to say:

Every time one of those doping bitches beat me I want the medal back and they should be forced to take picolax and stand in front of the press for 4 hours.

Or alternatively:

"Shit. I broke the world record right in the middle of all of this taking over 3 minutes out of the very doped Lilia Shobukova. How long have I got before they come for me? Better get some tears ready."

[Tigerrr]

I think yesterday's revelations have changed the game, given they are merely the tip of the pyramid. The whole sports establishment has been implicated, not just Russia. Coe has said things that sound like blatter at his finest in denial, given that as number 2 in what was clearly a corrupted criminal organisation it is hard to imagine he was so incompetent as to be unaware of the bribery and corruption all around him.
Nobody should believe on trust anything that athletes earning huge sums of sponsorship dependent on winning says, as is becoming clear.
Believing Paula is a act of faith in the face of other more obvious choices. How long before the British cycling successes of the Hoy era start to smell too?

[Hot Flatus]

They already do.

Geert Leinders.

[mrcharly-YHT]

"Shit. I broke the world record right in the middle of all of this taking over 3 minutes out of the very doped Lilia Shobukova. How long have I got before they come for me? Better get some tears ready."

Either Paula was doping, in which case two doped up athletes raced each other and one took 3 minutes out of the other.

OR Paula wasn't doping, in which case she thrashed someone doped to the eyeballs.

In either case she is the better athlete.

[Wowbagger]

The only difference between me and Vasily Alexeev was that I couldn't afford his drugs bill. When I hit Munich [1972 Olympics] I'll weigh in at about 340, maybe 350lb. Then we'll see which are better - his steroids or mine.

[Tigerrr]

"Shit. I broke the world record right in the middle of all of this taking over 3 minutes out of the very doped Lilia Shobukova. How long have I got before they come for me? Better get some tears ready."

Either Paula was doping, in which case two doped up athletes raced each other and one took 3 minutes out of the other.

OR Paula wasn't doping, in which case she thrashed someone doped to the eyeballs.

In either case she is the better athlete.

This is the argument that if everyone dopes then it is a level playing field and OK. If the public accepted that all athletes are doped, we could enjoy such things as the Olympics, Rugby World Cup, and so on honestly, as the freak shows they are. Like 'World's Strongest Man' or Wrestling and Stallone movies - they wouldn't be mistaken for real life and when the deformed and deranged competitors are crippled or die of drug related side effects we could accept it as the cost of the entertainment. It is all rollerball already but people think it is 'sport'.
I suspect that the huge money factory of sponsorship based on phoney life affirming fantasies of people transcending through determination would evaporate. Sports and sportspeople are held up as a model for human endeavour and achievement - a model which increasingly looks like a shabby scam to sell overpriced 'trainers' and dangerous fatty food and sugar laden drinks, or phoney nationalist nonsense.
Under this view Lance Armstrong was robbed. Maybe he was - he believes he was the rightful winner and perhaps history will end up acknowledging that.

[rafletcher]

"Shit. I broke the world record right in the middle of all of this taking over 3 minutes out of the very doped Lilia Shobukova. How long have I got before they come for me? Better get some tears ready."

Either Paula was doping, in which case two doped up athletes raced each other and one took 3 minutes out of the other.

OR Paula wasn't doping, in which case she thrashed someone doped to the eyeballs.

In either case she is the better athlete.

Just like the Lance Armstrong situation then? Except Paula's a nicer person so it doesn't matter so much.

[mattc]

"Shit. I broke the world record right in the middle of all of this taking over 3 minutes out of the very doped Lilia Shobukova. How long have I got before they come for me? Better get some tears ready."

Either Paula was doping, in which case two doped up athletes raced each other and one took 3 minutes out of the other.

OR Paula wasn't doping, in which case she thrashed someone doped to the eyeballs.

In either case she is the better athlete.

Just like the Lance Armstrong situation then? Except Paula's a nicer person so it doesn't matter so much.

Hardly like it; unless you have some evidence against Paula?

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Repeated use of dodgy doctors doesn't raise your eyebrow?

[simonp]

Repeated use of dodgy doctors doesn't raise your eyebrow?

Plenty people overlooked that in LA's case, until it was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was a dirty athlete.

In all of this, you have to feel sorry for the clean athletes who haven't been protected by the doping authorities.

[Tigerrr]

Repeated use of dodgy doctors doesn't raise your eyebrow?

Plenty people overlooked that in LA's case, until it was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was a dirty athlete.

In all of this, you have to feel sorry for the clean athletes who haven't been protected by the doping authorities.

I think the essence of the emerging picture is that 'clean' athletes might be rather less common that most of us might have thought or want to believe, and that the incredible performances by athletes over the years ought to be regarded with much less of a benefit of doubt. Time and again it has emerged that incredible performance is exactly that. Individuals and teams that outperform other, known dopers, are flying in the face of human physiological capability. The apparent sincerity of sportspeople simply shouldn't be taken at face value.

[rafletcher]

"Shit. I broke the world record right in the middle of all of this taking over 3 minutes out of the very doped Lilia Shobukova. How long have I got before they come for me? Better get some tears ready."

Either Paula was doping, in which case two doped up athletes raced each other and one took 3 minutes out of the other.

OR Paula wasn't doping, in which case she thrashed someone doped to the eyeballs.

In either case she is the better athlete.

Just like the Lance Armstrong situation then? Except Paula's a nicer person so it doesn't matter so much.

Hardly like it; unless you have some evidence against Paula?

Nothing to do with Paula - it was the assertion that she was the better athlete, and the implication that it didn't matter if she doped or not, she was still better.

50 years ago my wife was going out with a Belgian guy. His brother was a cyclist. His brother was open about "doping". Why are we so surprised? Armstrong seems to have been pilloried because he was a thoroughly unpleasant individual. He lied about doping, yes. So what. What would you expect? So did the (IMO) majority of all the other cyclists of that era. I believe most of the current crop are lying too. I still enjoy the spectacle.

I was wondering about one of my son's heroines last evening - triathlete Chrissy Wellington. Who knows. And why, exactly, do we care?

[simonp]

[Nuncio]

"Shit. I broke the world record right in the middle of all of this taking over 3 minutes out of the very doped Lilia Shobukova. How long have I got before they come for me? Better get some tears ready."

Either Paula was doping, in which case two doped up athletes raced each other and one took 3 minutes out of the other.

OR Paula wasn't doping, in which case she thrashed someone doped to the eyeballs.

In either case she is the better athlete.

Or a better doper.

[David Martin]

Different folk will respond differently to doping. For some it will have a minimal effect. For others the effect will be quite substantial.

[Ham]

....or you could interpret that graph to say that with or without doping, performance results for the last 45 years are all within 10%

But then you wouldn't have a story or a theory.

[simonp]

The theory that athletics is clean isn't a very good one, though.

[bikenrrd]

It's all about the trend, the deviation from the trend in 1992, the return to the trend in 2000, and the lack of the return to the trend in 2005->2013.

The biological passport is like the 50% haematocrit level, it allows doping within parameters.