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Are other sports as dirty as cycling?

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Alpe d'Huez said:
Don't completely blame them. The DDR had most of their athletes on a mandatory doping program where they had no choice, and in many instances the athletes had no idea what they were being doped with. Pretty good Frontline episode on PBS a couple of years ago about the women American swimmers going over to Germany and visiting some of the DDR women - many of whom have had serious health issues since then, and I believe one of them has since died. Pretty sad stuff. (Not to imply the Americans were squeaky clean, but at the time the American women weren't on steroids, or too much of anything. Now, God only knows.).

I saw that Frontline show. It was truly sad.

Given the huge amount of gear modern athletes are on these days, I think it is likely that we will see a lot of bad outcomes in ten or so years. Flo Jo died ten years after her heyday before she was even forty.
 
Apr 1, 2009
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Alpe d'Huez said:
Good call on Kratochvilova and Koch's records, Zoncolon.

I guess being an American I focus more on my own compatriots. To me FloJo stands out not only because it's painfully obvious to many that she was doped, but how she died young, and how many people cannot accept that her record was PED aided during an era of heavy doping and had to have been from "great talent" and wind aided with faulty equipment (which would make it the only time in history this was accepted), when it's simply not so, and as an American for me to see this it's almost painful; as embarrassing as Barry Bonds home run records. I watch it, and want to look away.

I know someone may come on here and argue with me, or chide me for speaking ill of the dead, but watch that race again. FloJo ran .16 faster than a doped Marion Jones (who ran wind aided +1.1), and .24 faster than Chris Arron (plus wind aided +2, the limit). A lot of people like to talk about advancement in training and nutrition. Well, Tori Edwards ran the fastest time in years at last year's Olympic Trials, and only 10.78. This is a stunning .29 slower than Joyner, and it was heavily wind aided (+1.8). A third of a second is a lifetime in 100m sprints.
And it stands out even more if you compare the advances in men's 100m racing over the last 20 years. The WR was improved by how much? A quarter of a second?
 
Snake8 said:
Wondering if you all think other sports are as dirty as cycling? Why or why not?

If as some allege on here that cyclists are so sophisticated with their doping and that it is still rampant, and that they have essentially found ways to elude the tests, why wouldn't other athletes be doing the same things?

Lastly, are there any other sports that test as much as cycling?
Bodybuilding is far worse than cycling. At the national Belgian champs, 90% of the competitors even fled for the doping control :eek:

Actually most professional sports like football (soccer), baseball, basketball etc are far worse, but they simply protect the big guys ;) or simply don't control right at all.
 
Yes, thanks for the links. Still, sad.

The men's 100m had improved about .1 through last June over the last two decades. Then Gay, Powell, and Bolt each lowered it last year on whatever new gear they were on. I think Lewis (likely mildly doped) ran a 9.85 in 1991, and last year Bolt ran 9.69 (no wind!).

Also keep in mind that FloJo's best her entire career had inched to 10.96 (wind +1.2) before 1988 when she suddenly became way more muscular and defined in the off season, and ran the eye-popping 10.49. Then promptly retired when new drug testing was implemented.

:(

Eki tells a story about being a young Soviet rider and how right before they got on the airplane to head to Seoul for the 1988 Olympics, a General in the military spoke to the athletes and told them that the country was counting on them, and those that didn't perform well could expect to be drafted and sent to Afghanistan to fight in the then Soviet-Afghan war!
 
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Alpe d'Huez said:
Eki tells a story about being a young Soviet rider and how right before they got on the airplane to head to Seoul for the 1988 Olympics, a General in the military spoke to the athletes and told them that the country was counting on them, and those that didn't perform well could expect to be drafted and sent to Afghanistan to fight in the then Soviet-Afghan war!

holy crap

I'd never heard that...boggles the mind!

How could an athlete not dope (or at least seriously consider it) under those circumstances?
 
Mar 10, 2009
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sherer said:
thanks for filling me in. I read about the DDR and also comments on how Ullrich grew up with this too. At a young age everyone was measured etc and if you fit into the scientific formula then you were selected for a specific sport. After that you had to ride or train for that sport and if you did you got extra food for the family and stuff. You got vitamin injections and i'm sure a lot of these also included extras and stuff too. Taking all this from a young ages gets athletes into the system so by the time team doctors start doing this stuff they don't even question it

Right after the Olympics I think I read an article about Australia, something to the extent that they had some ideas about directing youngsters towards a specific sport/discipline that would most likely suit their innate abilities. Ie that a 5'11'' 150lbs would be better suited to do sports x instead of sports y. In that case, I think, they are hoping that the process of 'harvesting' great athletes for the Olypmics will become a lot more efficient, because it would result (assumption?) in a decreased number of drop outs of athletes who max out too early and are not competitive at the highest level, due to their 'detrimental' physical make-up.
 
Alpe d'Huez said:
I know you don't want to get bogged down in doping talk Archibald, and I'd like you to keep posting. But we've discussed many times the pertinant question: If you knew everyone around you were doping - or at least almost everyone. And your choice was either to dope too, with doctor's supervision, or go back to painting houses, what would you do?
continue as-is. the sheer feeling of every one of them that you beat at any point would be brilliant in a real "f*ck you" kind of way.
if they're cheating and beat you, then who cares, but if you beat them...
 
My favorite body builder never tested positive He is clean. If you want to accuse these fine specimens of athleticism of cheating then you should provide facts. You have none. You guys are just haters. And you are jealous you cannot get huge. Pro body builders are dedicated to fitness. They would never put drugs into their bodies. Never. Haters! :mad:

2006europa210.jpg
 
Mar 10, 2009
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BroDeal said:
My favorite body builder never tested positive He is clean. If you want to accuse these fine specimens of athleticism of cheating then you should provide facts. You have none. You guys are just haters. And you are jealous you cannot get huge. Pro body builders are dedicated to fitness. They would never put drugs into their bodies. Never. Haters! :mad:

Humor. I love it, and it's a great way to liven up the thread! ;)

eagerly waiting in anticipation of new reactions...
 
Mar 18, 2009
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I think a pretty good example of just how far professional athletes go was the recent banning of a NASCAR driver. I'm not a fan of the sport so I don't really follow it but meth apparently gives enough of an edge for the drivers to risk getting busted. I've also heard that this guy was one of the stars of the sport.

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=4245969

This is a recent change in their sport's policy as they had a driver admit to herion use...EVEN while racing!!! Puts a little perspective into this I think...

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=6489855
 
Mar 10, 2009
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I think part of the problem is all the doping controls are run by the national associations. Why on earth would they want to ban their own top athletes. As we've seen with Sella, Vino, Valverde they don't want to ban top athletes and certainly not a high profile 100m runner so they can get away with it as much as they like
 
BroDeal said:
My favorite body builder never tested positive He is clean...

LOL. Post of the week!

sherer said:
I think part of the problem is all the doping controls are run by the national associations. Why on earth would they want to ban their own top athletes?

See the Exum report.

If you want the "extreme", keep in mind Gary Player saying he knows for a fact that several golfers were using steroids and HGH. Multi-million dollar "sport", and no testing. Is anyone really surprised?
 
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i read about the golfers before. Not up on what all the drugs do but I heard they take concentration drugs to help with the long rounds
 
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When they announce testing, they flee a lot faster in this 'doped to the core' sport. Another German is biting the dust, no oats for him!

DRESSAGE

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Maybe it has something to do with athletes having something big between their legs, like body builders, cyclists, horse riders...;)
 
Jun 16, 2009
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I am having a real good laugh about tennis.

Very few doping controls, and pros have the right to refuse 3 dope tests a year. I heard that Nadal was only tested 3 times in the off season. Yet still he whines about the controls.

You don't even need to bother using masking agents or cycling the dosage if you can refuse the tests.

Look at Andy Murray - last year he was a tall and skinny boy. He emerged this spring looking like Conan the Barbarian, and claims it was all down to bikram yoga and eating sushi. Like Nadal he then had a big whine about how out of competition testing was an invasion of privacy.

With his new muscle man body he is hitting the ball really hard, winning more and earning more. It ****es me off that the public and the media are too stupid to see what is going on.