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General Doping Thread.

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Sciatic

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I know I shouldn’t let this get under my skin. . . But this feature article in yesterday’s Washington Post (one of the biggest mainstream newspapers in the US) about Shelby Houlihan’s doping ban is frustrating on so many levels.

It’s lopsided in airing her claims and her team’s laments about the unfairness of her ban, and how she surely she deserves better because she’s obviously so honest and good. And obvious so innocent because despite competing at the top level of international racing for years she’d never even heard of nandrolone before. Meanwhile the article gives little context for how the doping testing system works and little attention to the extensive CAS review and 40-pp report it produced confirming her suspension. I lament that it helps further dumb down Americans’ understanding of doping and doping violations. They (Post editors) must know it will be easy bait to suck in readers who are ready to uphold clean U.S. athletes failed by those suspicious authorities. Even so, why not highlight some of the other, much-more believable cases of doping violations with athlete claims about food or supplement contamination? I mean, her story deserves a top ten in the best doping excuses thread.

Oh, but she’s pretty, and ever-so friendly, and has a big social media following. :(. Bah.
 
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Nick2413

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Sciatic said:
I know I shouldn’t let this get under my skin. . . But this feature article in yesterday’s Washington Post (one of the biggest mainstream newspapers in the US) about Shelby Houlihan’s doping ban is frustrating on so many levels.

It’s lopsided in airing her claims and her team’s laments about the unfairness of her ban, and how she surely she deserves better because she’s obviously so honest and good. And obvious so innocent because despite competing at the top level of international racing for years she’d never even heard of nandrolone before. Meanwhile the article gives little context for how the doping testing system works and little attention to the extensive CAS review and 40-pp report it produced confirming her suspension. I lament that it helps further dumb down Americans’ understanding of doping and doping violations. They (Post editors) must know it will be easy bait to suck in readers who are ready to uphold clean U.S. athletes failed by those suspicious authorities. Even so, why not highlight some of the other, much-more believable cases of doping violations with athlete claims about food or supplement contamination? I mean, her story deserves a top ten in the best doping excuses thread.

Oh, but she’s pretty, and ever-so friendly, and has a big social media following. :(. Bah.
Click to expand...
That’s mainstream media in a nutshell, especially because she’s a female. People are dumb.
 
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Bolder

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Toon Aerts gives "big middle finger to UCI" after receiving 2 year letrozole ban. Let us know how that works out.

To me the "contaminated supplement" excuse is particularly weak. How hard is it to find a high-quality supplement? I'd assume that most podium-quality riders can find a nutrition sponsor. And under what factory conditions could letrozole magically appear in a supplement meant for clean athletes?

Enjoy your time off, Toon.
 
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Bolder

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Sciatic said:
I know I shouldn’t let this get under my skin. . . But this feature article in yesterday’s Washington Post (one of the biggest mainstream newspapers in the US) about Shelby Houlihan’s doping ban is frustrating on so many levels.

It’s lopsided in airing her claims and her team’s laments about the unfairness of her ban, and how she surely she deserves better because she’s obviously so honest and good. And obvious so innocent because despite competing at the top level of international racing for years she’d never even heard of nandrolone before. Meanwhile the article gives little context for how the doping testing system works and little attention to the extensive CAS review and 40-pp report it produced confirming her suspension. I lament that it helps further dumb down Americans’ understanding of doping and doping violations. They (Post editors) must know it will be easy bait to suck in readers who are ready to uphold clean U.S. athletes failed by those suspicious authorities. Even so, why not highlight some of the other, much-more believable cases of doping violations with athlete claims about food or supplement contamination? I mean, her story deserves a top ten in the best doping excuses thread.

Oh, but she’s pretty, and ever-so friendly, and has a big social media following. :(. Bah.
Click to expand...
Yes, I read it too, and was stunned at how credulous it was, given that the WaPo in the past has been pretty aggressive on doping coverage. The "I'm clean because I would never dope" justification is the last refuge of the scoundrel. The contaminated burrito/steak/beef jerky/whatever excuse has been tried before and just doesn't fly.
 
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Tricycle Rider

Tricycle Rider

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Sciatic said:
I know I shouldn’t let this get under my skin. . . But this feature article in yesterday’s Washington Post (one of the biggest mainstream newspapers in the US) about Shelby Houlihan’s doping ban is frustrating on so many levels.

It’s lopsided in airing her claims and her team’s laments about the unfairness of her ban, and how she surely she deserves better because she’s obviously so honest and good. And obvious so innocent because despite competing at the top level of international racing for years she’d never even heard of nandrolone before. Meanwhile the article gives little context for how the doping testing system works and little attention to the extensive CAS review and 40-pp report it produced confirming her suspension. I lament that it helps further dumb down Americans’ understanding of doping and doping violations. They (Post editors) must know it will be easy bait to suck in readers who are ready to uphold clean U.S. athletes failed by those suspicious authorities. Even so, why not highlight some of the other, much-more believable cases of doping violations with athlete claims about food or supplement contamination? I mean, her story deserves a top ten in the best doping excuses thread.

Oh, but she’s pretty, and ever-so friendly, and has a big social media following. :(. Bah.
Click to expand...
The article reads either like a tongue-in-cheek troll or just something written by an ill-informed fangirl. I had to look up info on the author, turns out she is actually an esteemed sports columnist who has won all kinds of awards. This particular opinion piece on Houlihan I do not think deserves an award.
 
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Sciatic

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Bolder said:
Yes, I read it too, and was stunned at how credulous it was, given that the WaPo in the past has been pretty aggressive on doping coverage. The "I'm clean because I would never dope" justification is the last refuge of the scoundrel. The contaminated burrito/steak/beef jerky/whatever excuse has been tried before and just doesn't fly.
Click to expand...
Well said. This year I canceled my online subscription to The NY Times because whereas I used to relish the science articles they ran, now half of them are pablum or simple clickbait. But I guess WAPo isn’t much better.
 
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Sciatic

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unamused1 said:
Houlin set the world record for the beer mile recently, no drug testing required, they expect to find at least alcohol in your system
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Ha! And when it turns out her BA isn’t high enough to qualify she’ll say someone must have handed her a non-alcoholic beer by mistake. And as with the burrito excuse, she’ll say “it didn’t taste right, and thought maybe I got the wrong order . . . But I ate the whole thing anyways.”
 
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ciranda

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Tricycle Rider said:
The article reads either like a tongue-in-cheek troll or just something written by an ill-informed fangirl. I had to look up info on the author, turns out she is actually an esteemed sports columnist who has won all kinds of awards. This particular opinion piece on Houlihan I do not think deserves an award.
Click to expand...
maybe I missed something but the byline in the linked article was someone called Adam Kilgore
 
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Sciatic

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Tricycle Rider said:
You're right, I was talking about the link Rob5091 had posted thinking it was the same one Sciatic had posted. My bad.

Here's the link I was speaking of: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/06/16/shelby-houlihan-wada-ban/
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That prior article (the one you linked above) was not quite as bad as the recent one dripping with the “ but she’s so honest . . . She’s such a good soul” victimization. But it was disappointing to read because the reporter Jenkins had in the past done reporting on doping that was more accurate and not as naive as most US journalists.
 
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Sciatic

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I know I should stop beating this dead horsemeat burrito, but it’s too hard to resist this additional bit. In a lot of the initial coverage of Houlihan’s suspension, her coach not only said he’d never heard of nandrolone (which is ridiculous), and several of her defenders went off about how it was crazy to think that she would take a drug used by bodybuilders not thin middle distance runners. Too bad this recent Post article couldn’t have included the following news for context— that a Ugandan 1500-meter runner, Chemuto, with one of top times in the world this year and qualifier for Budapest world’s (but didn’t go because of a sudden injury?) just received a suspension for . . . Nandrolone:

And interesting description of Chemuto’s success from earlier this year:
“Chemusto, a lanky 24-year-old from Uganda, clocked 4:01.79 to run away with the victory in a seven-second personal best — an almost unheard-of one-race improvement at this level of the sport. The time moved her into #6 on the 2023 world list and #2 all-time among Ugandan women,”
 
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BullsFan22

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Sciatic said:
That prior article (the one you linked above) was not quite as bad as the recent one dripping with the “ but she’s so honest . . . She’s such a good soul” victimization. But it was disappointing to read because the reporter Jenkins had in the past done reporting on doping that was more accurate and not as naive as most US journalists.
Click to expand...

Jenkins was one of the journalists that was close to Armstrong. Also helped him write his autobiography back in 2000.
 
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Barnacle Bill

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Saw a piece today on the expansion of testing methods in athletics (to apparently do a better job of picking up doping in the power events) and the comparison with other sports... no mention of cycling though:
www.thetimes.co.uk

Drug test could expose steroid use at World Championships

A significant advance in drug testing will help to expose more anabolic steroid cheats, with testers using the new technique for the first time here at the Wor
www.thetimes.co.uk www.thetimes.co.uk

extract:
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has been a key driver in developing the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) approved “blood steroid passport”, which for the first time will enable testing bodies to detect steroid use — and in the longer term substances such as human growth hormone — from data collected from blood rather than urine.
The AIU chief executive, Brett Clothier, predicted that the new technique would be “a very effective tool” in the build-up to next year’s Paris Olympics.
Clothier explained that the athlete biological passport (ABP), introduced in 2009, has been far more effective in identifying offences such as blood doping in distance running than the use of drugs more commonly abused in power events like sprinting. “Until now it has been much harder to detect things like steroids,” he said.
“The AIU already has quite a lot of data we can now analyse using this new technique. But it will become more effective over time, as more data is collected.”
Clothier also explained that there are two new modules attached to the ABP — blood serum and endocrine — which he hoped would significantly help the fight against doping.
“We are well advanced in blood serum, which in the short term will enable us to better detect steroid use among athletes,” he said. “In the longer term, the endocrine module of the athlete biological passport will hopefully help us better detect the use of human growth hormone.”
Click to expand...
Howman, a former director general at Wada, said: “Not many of the big sports have a robust anti-doping programme. Many people in team sports will go through their careers without being tested once. Golf, for instance, complies with anti-doping rules only at the time of the Olympic Games. All we can do is sit around the table and encourage them to do the things we do. We are engaging in the discussion.
“In football, there’s Fifa and the rest of the world. Fifa run a programme where they tick the boxes in terms of their in-competition testing. It’s the out-of-competition that they find difficult. I shouldn’t say any more than that.”
Click to expand...
 
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