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Doping In Athletics

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it was all about trying to stay sane during covid lockdowns. No mention of another other potential enhancements during covid. Goddamn, I guess people just want to overlook PEDs, makes things easier.
I read that article a few days ago and wondered what the hell was going on. First, the pachyderm in the pantry wasn't even mentioned, when obviously it needed to be. But then, when shoes were mentioned, that was just glossed over as if it had no role at all in explaining things. Then - and here my recall of the article may be failing me, I admit that it lost me that easily - the story seemed to be that the old orthodoxy of pacing was being thrown out in favour of time trialling through races, only for the story to more or less dismiss that too. At the end, I really don't know what was meant to be the point of it.
 
I read that article a few days ago and wondered what the hell was going on. First, the pachyderm in the pantry wasn't even mentioned, when obviously it needed to be. But then, when shoes were mentioned, that was just glossed over as if it had no role at all in explaining things. Then - and here my recall of the article may be failing me, I admit that it lost me that easily - the story seemed to be that the old orthodoxy of pacing was being thrown out in favour of time trialling through races, only for the story to more or less dismiss that too. At the end, I really don't know what was meant to be the point of it.

Ah ha ha. The writer definitely ignored the pachyderm!!
 
I read that article a few days ago and wondered what the hell was going on. First, the pachyderm in the pantry wasn't even mentioned, when obviously it needed to be. But then, when shoes were mentioned, that was just glossed over as if it had no role at all in explaining things. Then - and here my recall of the article may be failing me, I admit that it lost me that easily - the story seemed to be that the old orthodoxy of pacing was being thrown out in favour of time trialling through races, only for the story to more or less dismiss that too. At the end, I really don't know what was meant to be the point of it.
To sell Peloton subscriptions?
At one point, he kept himself motivated by attempting to finish first in as many online Peloton group classes as possible.

I enjoyed the article, but it (sadly) had no thesis. The headline was a clickbait.

I also disagree that the effect was apparent in lower levels like high schools. Of course, some records are going to fall every year, but there is really no evidence that this was accelerated by the pandemic.

What is happening at the upper echelons, especially in the distance races was remarkable. But, this was clearly a trend that started well before the Pandemic. Kipchoge's assault on the record book for example. Even on the track, look back to the 2016 olympics women's 10k where a WR and 8 NRs fell. Except for Sifan's brief hold of the WR this summer, all her PBs were from summer 2019 or earlier.

 
both are easy to ignore.....and have little impact upon pro sport......

Mark L
If you can't get around them the TV ads can be very annoying and repetitive (just like car ads), but on the general I agree, this shouldn't have any major impact on pro sports.

Of course, are you guys talking about the people who show up at the local crit or for the weekend ride and all they can talk about is how they've been training on Peloton without actually having ever touched a real bike? That would be different.
 
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American 18 year old runs 19.49 for 200m. Nothing to see here.
I don’t understand how anyone thinks any of the 100-200m times are legit these days. It’s incredibly easy to dope for strength/power based sports without getting caught and it’s the single most accessible discipline of any sport in existence, and you can get everything online anonymously, yet somehow the guys setting records are clean? At the very least there’d be untested guys setting records unofficially in backyard meets at this point, but there’s not. Either the drugs don’t work or because everyone is using them at that level.
 
He has a name by the way - Erriyon Knighton. Why would he dope? He was brilliant for the moment he started at 16. There is no point in his life (so far) where would have thought "I'm not good enough. I need to cheat". Bolt was similar - seen as the Messiah at 14.
Alejandro Valverde got the "El Imbatido" nickname because of winning every single race he entered for like a 2 year period as a cadet. I don't think he was doping at 11, but we know he was doping at 24 because that's when his bag at Fuentes' lab dated from. He always had the talent and he has been great at every level. I know he started doping somewhere on the journey from child prodigy to GT contender, but it's hard to say exactly where that took place.
 
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Alejandro Valverde got the "El Imbatido" nickname because of winning every single race he entered for like a 2 year period as a cadet. I don't think he was doping at 11, but we know he was doping at 24 because that's when his bag at Fuentes' lab dated from. He always had the talent and he has been great at every level. I know he started doping somewhere on the journey from child prodigy to GT contender, but it's hard to say exactly where that took place.


Valverde got his nickname for winning races as a kid. He did done little of note internationally as an u23. As an actual grown-up he didn't win a single race in his patchy debut pro-season. That's where he thinks maybe I'm not good enough.

This kid is the 4th fastest 200m runner ever at 18. The equivalent would be Valverde winning the Vuelta by five minutes in his debut season.
 
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Valverde got his nickname for winning races as a kid. He did done little of note internationally as an u23. As an actual grown-up he didn't win a single race in his patchy debut pro-season. That's where he thinks maybe I'm not good enough.

This kid is the 4th fastest 200m runner ever at 18. The equivalent would be Valverde winning the Vuelta by five minutes in his debut season.
Wasn't he actually still an U23 during that debut season? He was in the Kelme system so it may well have been before that though, probably after juniors but before he turned pro, would be a not unreasonable time to hazard a guess at.

I mean, it's kind of interesting hearing this take from somebody who has been so keen to defend Froome, who is at completely the opposite end of the bell curve to Knighton in terms of only discovering his super-talent after being established for several years, so would seem a major candidate for such a "lightbulb" moment, hence why I'm intrigued in your perception of this moment, what triggers it, and so on. I mean, it's not the 80s anymore when the Cold War arms race meant the US and USSR (and probably most notoriously the DDR, although that may have been more the product of the prohibitive cost of subtlety) were filling kids to the eyeballs with PEDs from the moment they got hold of them and there are other US child prodigies hitting the top of the world similarly in the last few years (take Sydney McLaughlin and Athing Mu as examples), but nevertheless the US does have a history of doping in its sprint corps which makes some people hesitant to buy what's being sold (even if that's not Knighton's fault), and it's not like people didn't raise their suspicions at Ye Shiwen either.
 
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