Entire board of the Jamaican anti-doping agency resign

[Briant_Gumble]

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/nov/23/jamaica-jadco-resignations-wada-drugs

Ok so it's not cycling but I still think it's fairly big anti-doping news.

I don't imagine it will be too long before Bolt is exposed as a fraud, seems there is too many people in the loop.

 

[The Hitch]

I don't imagine it will be too long before Bolt is exposed as a fraud, seems there is too many people in the loop.

Imagine the lengths Richard Nixon was prepared to go to stop Watergate being exposed.

That is absolutely nothing compared to the lengths the IAAF, Puma, the Jamaican government, the IOC, London 2012, the BBC and any number of sponsors and fariytale story tellers are willing to go to make sure Bolt is never exposed.

 

[Briant_Gumble]

Imagine the lengths Richard Nixon was prepared to go to stop Watergate being exposed.

That is absolutely nothing compared to the lengths the IAAF, Puma, the Jamaican government, the IOC, London 2012, the BBC and any number of sponsors and fariytale story tellers are willing to go to make sure Bolt is never exposed.

That's a good analogy actually.

Remember it still happened anyway ....

I would say they are similar lengths and similar scale conspiracies.

 

[blackcat]

NBC have too much invested in the IOC for them to lose the media narrative.

Kenya, Russia, Jamaica, are easy to beat up on. The useful idiots. But when it comes to the gold medal every four years, everyone applauds the Bolt of their era.

 

[Briant_Gumble]

NBA have too much invested in the IOC for them to lose the media narrative.

Kenya, Russia, Jamaica, are easy to beat up on. The useful idiots. But when it comes to the gold medal every four years, everyone applauds the Bolt of their era.

I don't think many on here foresaw this, WADA have so far proved less impotent than many predicted.

It's not hard to imagine a Jamaican athlete accusing a trainer/supplier who also supplied Bolt.

 

[ebandit]

hot news

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/24966161

surprsing news! lets hope that it's a step to exposing the truth / improving confidence in jamaican athletics

I always watch when shelly ann fraser price competes 'my favourite' athlete .....but how did she get so strong/fast?

just recently she was threatening to withdraw from competition if her federation did not stand by her sufficiently

but fails to mention previously being sanctioned after failing a test

Mark L

 

[blackcat]

Fahey issues doubt over Bolt being in Rio

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-07/grandstand-thursday-7-november/5077612
prolly Geo restricted for non-Aussies. it starts at about 5.50min in.

 

[Bicycle]

Will be interesting to see how the top Jamaican sprinters perform next year.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Fahey issues doubt over Bolt being in Rio

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-07/grandstand-thursday-7-november/5077612
prolly Geo restricted for non-Aussies. it starts at about 5.50min in.

Thanks, it's not geo-restricted. I disagree with your assessment re: his comments about Bolt, though. Nothing newsworthy there, IMO.

 

[Briant_Gumble]

Thanks, it's not geo-restricted. I disagree with your assessment re: his comments about Bolt, though. Nothing newsworthy there, IMO.

Fahey is a politician and nowhere near as badass as **** Pound, he wouldn't want to incite the wrath of Bolt's fanbase.

However, it's difficult to imagine there was no pressure on these resignations and based on the public statements from Herb Elliot these resignations seem against the way the wind was blowing.

This gives me some faith in WADA under its current set up.

 

[martinvickers]

Fahey is a politician and nowhere near as badass as **** Pound, he wouldn't want to incite the wrath of Bolt's fanbase.

However, it's difficult to imagine there was no pressure on these resignations and based on the public statements from Herb Elliot these resignations seem against the way the wind was blowing.

This gives me some faith in WADA under its current set up.

Suggestions were that WADA, cleverly, went not for IAAF, JADCO or JamAthletics, but the Jamaican government a) 'cos they're the paymastes and b) because bad publicity hurts elected pols more than administrators.

I'm not too fussed if WADA talks the talk less than under Pound, so long as it walks the walk more. Reedie's a long time pol, hard to read. Some are far from convinced - but by the same token he was adamant in defending the BOA life ban up to CAS. Time will tell.

Russia, historically, has been a big problem, but they are coughing up dopers like smarties at the moment - well over 100 this year - something' improved. Turkey worries me more - they seem to catch few of their own, but their own are caught in batches if the venture out of the country; a whole dose of youngsters were caught at then universiade, i think - certainly some youth sports festival

 

[Clausfarre]

No more marginal gains for the runners... I wonder if Bolt will become involved though it is probably true that too many people are invested in his image, just like the Wonderboys of cycling.

 

[DirtyWorks]

However, it's difficult to imagine there was no pressure on these resignations and based on the public statements from Herb Elliot these resignations seem against the way the wind was blowing.

This gives me some faith in WADA under its current set up.

The story is kind of a tricky narrative because other reports suggest the NADO was essentially so poorly funded it was described as "they had a mailbox."

It gets complicated from there:
Was it so poorly funded there was no way anything was ever going to get done?
Was the NADO doing nothing with a meager budget and knew nothing?
Was the NADO doing nothing and knew athletes were on a light testing routine?

Any one of which was terrible news once someone broke the story of Jamaica's NADO. Bad doping controversy management.

 

[DirtyWorks]

No more marginal gains for the runners... I wonder if Bolt will become involved though it is probably true that the IAAF knows Bolt is the face of international track and field, just like the Wonderboys of cycling.

Fixed that for you.

 

[MarkvW]

The story is kind of a tricky narrative because other reports suggest the NADO was essentially so poorly funded it was described as "they had a mailbox."

It gets complicated from there:
Was it so poorly funded there was no way anything was ever going to get done?
Was the NADO doing nothing with a meager budget and knew nothing?
Was the NADO doing nothing and knew athletes were on a light testing routine?

Any one of which was terrible news once someone broke the story of Jamaica's NADO. Bad doping controversy management.

These are all things WADA knew, or should have known. Makes WADA look like a sham.

 

[DirtyWorks]

These are all things WADA knew, or should have known. Makes WADA look like a sham.

For the 44th time, WADA has no authority to DO much by themselves. They advise. I know it's not sold like that, but that's the reality.

This would be IOC/Government driven. My understanding is Jamaica's NADO is government funded.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

No more marginal gains for the runners... I wonder if Bolt will become involved though it is probably true that too many people are invested in his image, just like the Wonderboys of cycling.

Bolt doesn't seem bothered. A couple days ago he, once again, said that his goal for 2014 was to break his own 200m record.

 

[martinvickers]

For the 44th time, WADA has no authority to DO much by themselves. They advise. I know it's not sold like that, but that's the reality.

This would be IOC/Government driven. My understanding is Jamaica's NADO is government funded.

All NADO's are, to some extent, government funded, I believe - it's part of the set up.

WADA originally wanted global authority, but this smelt a bit too close to an international police force for some countries, so the NADO model was always a compromise, and the kenyan/jamaican issue is the inevitable result when a relatively poor country is relatively successful - nobody is overly concerned if swaziland or laos has similarly poor testing numbers (p.s.I've no idea if they do, I'm just trying to explain a point), because they are't dominating whole high profile areas of olympic sport, and people are also less wound up about germany or gb or the like because they are rich countries with reasonably comprehensive testing, however useful or not that may be.

It's one reason Pound and Fahey spent so much time doing 'media'. The bully pulpit and accreditation was really almost the only power WADA has - and it's why it'll be interesting to see if Reedie's more 'political' approach will pay dividends or make matters worse - certainly the JADCO flush suggests a long word was had with the Jamaican Government paymasters, a group particularly keen to avoid pr debacles.

Something along the lines of :

WADA "Jump"
Jamaican Gov "how high"
WADA "pretty f***ing high, as it happens"

well, one can hope.

 

[Briant_Gumble]

The story is kind of a tricky narrative because other reports suggest the NADO was essentially so poorly funded it was described as "they had a mailbox."

It gets complicated from there:
Was it so poorly funded there was no way anything was ever going to get done?
Was the NADO doing nothing with a meager budget and knew nothing?
Was the NADO doing nothing and knew athletes were on a light testing routine?

Any one of which was terrible news once someone broke the story of Jamaica's NADO. Bad doping controversy management.

Given that Dr Herb elliot was the team doctor at the 2008 Beijing games and oversaw an extremely doped performance, I find it difficult to imagine that when moving to his role as head of JADCO they were doing everything they could with the budget they had to stop doping.

Its hard to believe it was a coincidence that their budget ran out directly before the 2012 games at the optimal time for their athletes to use drugs and retain their gains.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Bolt doesn't seem bothered. A couple days ago he, once again, said that his goal for 2014 was to break his own 200m record.

Bolt has made enough money to take his doping program anywhere in the world: Private jets, islands etc.

It will be a problem for new Jamaican talents, at least potentially.

 

[Briant_Gumble]

Bolt has made enough money to take his doping program anywhere in the world: Private jets, islands etc.

It will be a problem for new Jamaican talents, at least potentially.

At this stage the chances of him testing positive are slim to none.

That said he can still get exposed like Armstrong if trainers he worked with on the way up get exposed.

 

[MarkvW]

For the 44th time, WADA has no authority to DO much by themselves. They advise. I know it's not sold like that, but that's the reality.

This would be IOC/Government driven. My understanding is Jamaica's NADO is government funded.

I'm sorry. I thought that WADA had some authority to audit the performance of its constituent agencies. Guess not. Thanks.

 

[zigmeister]

Is anyone surprised that another overwhelmingly impoverished island in the Caribbean, Bahamas and Antilles has mass corruption?

What amazes me, as they often run around preaching the unfairness of things, but many join in the charade to dupe and manipulate others with the facade.

Not sure how it continues on for so long and this doesn't happen once a year around these parts. Goes to show how deep it runs. Armstrong has nothing on these people when it comes to organized and systematic doping.

 

[D-Queued]

Is anyone surprised that another overwhelmingly impoverished island in the Caribbean, Bahamas and Antilles has mass corruption?

What amazes me, as they often run around preaching the unfairness of things, but many join in the charade to dupe and manipulate others with the facade.

Not sure how it continues on for so long and this doesn't happen once a year around these parts. Goes to show how deep it runs. Armstrong has nothing on these people when it comes to organized and systematic doping.

No, this is not surprising, but commenting on mass corruption within Caribbean nations is probably beyond the scope of this forum.

What we can focus on is that there aren't too many other impoverished islands in the Caribbean, Bahamas or Antilles that are so dominating track & field sprinting events. Thus, whatever other corruption exists it isn't topical here.

With respect to what is topical, hasn't Jamaica has taken over the decades-old dominance of the US in these events? That would mean that we are talking about global issues, and not banana republic concerns.

In that case, given the scope of their dominance, we probably don't have to restrict our concern over possible corruption to such an otherwise insignificant set of small island nations.

The Lance comparison is well-taken. Like Lance, they are dominating on a global level. Lance, however, still serves as an unimpeachable gold-medalist in the doping arms race.

To propose that the Jamaican track and field situation somehow bests Lance's achievements, and to try and strip Lance of this hard-earned distinction and deserved reputation, would require in-depth knowledge of the extent of doping within track and field.

Lance dominated by allegedly spending millions of dollars on doping himself in a sport renowned for the pervasiveness and sophistication of doping, along with the corruption of its institutions. Sports writers have been making a living discussing doping in cycling for decades.

It is possible that athletics/track and field is as bad or worse, but this is one title that will be hard to strip from Lance.

Dave.

 

[rhubroma]

No, this is not surprising, but commenting on mass corruption within Caribbean nations is probably beyond the scope of this forum.

What we can focus on is that there aren't too many other impoverished islands in the Caribbean, Bahamas or Antilles that are so dominating track & field sprinting events. Thus, whatever other corruption exists it isn't topical here.

With respect to what is topical, hasn't Jamaica taken over the decades-old dominance of the US in these events? That would mean that we are talking about global issues, and not banana republic concerns.

In that case, given the scope of their dominance, we probably don't have to restrict our concern over possible corruption to such an otherwise insignificant set of small island nations.

The Lance comparison is well-taken. Like Lance, they are dominating on a global level. Lance, however, still serves as an unimpeachable gold-medalist in the doping arms race.

To propose that the Jamaican track and field situation somehow bests Lance's achievements, and to try and strip Lance of this hard-earned distinction and deserved reputation, would require in-depth knowledge of the extent of doping within track and field.

Lance dominated by allegedly spending millions of dollars on doping himself in a sport renowned for the pervasiveness and sophistication of doping, along with the corruption of its institutions. Sports writers have been making a living discussing doping in cycling for decades.

It is possible that athletics/track and field is as bad or worse, but this is one title that will be hard to strip from Lance.

Dave.

This struck me even before I read your post. That is, in the balance of global image of which sport plays a propagandistic role, how is it possible that a Third World state is able to express a dominance of which not even the superpower has been capable? Given that capital has been the means by which hegemony has been ideologically established.

I admitedly don't know all the details, though what if geopolitics are intrests behind the scandal? Just a question, mind you. In this sense perhaps Armstrong might be a stain on US integrity to which lowly Jamiaca must not be immune.