Is the USPS case the biggest doping conspiracy ever?

[spalco]

Almost a decade of the most advanced and complete doping program of all time, stealing the sport's biggest prize year after year, but is it the worst ever?

East German track and field, BALCO? Finnish cross-country skiing? Soviet weightlifting?

Where would you rank USPS among worst doping cases in the history of sports, and what cases did I forget to mention that are worth mentioning?

 

[Big Daddy]

ESPN, CNN, SI, literally all of thre major media outlets are saying that yes, the Armstrong doping conspiracy is the biggest doping conspiracy ever.

 

[ToreBear]

Almost a decade of the most advanced and complete doping program of all time, stealing the sport's biggest prize year after year, but is it the worst ever?

East German track and field, BALCO? Finnish cross-country skiing? Soviet weightlifting?

Where would you rank USPS among worst doping cases in the history of sports, and what cases did I forget to mention that are worth mentioning?

Right now I would say yes. But with a bit more distance perhaps not.

The whole East German doping program is perhaps worse due to the scale and the number of sports and athletes it affected. Especially regarding the health of the athletes themselves.

Balco? I don't know. To me it feels much smaller.

Finnish XC skiing? It was a shock to those who follow XC skiing. And XC skiing was shocked to the core. Not to mention Finland itself at an event that was supposed to showcase the country and people. It was traumatic and a huge scandal. I think most Norwegians thought the Finns were clean all along, they were our heroes too! We were suspicious of the Russians, but not the Finns. Though perhaps there were rumors in skiing circles. Difficult for me to be so objective about this one.

Soviet weightlifting? Cant remember that one.


USPS? It certainly is Huge. Depends how you look at it. That the best and most famous athlete in the history of a single sport actually cheated his way to fame is incredible. Others in the sports history did cheat, but before the 90s the cheating did not have the same effect. Those who won huge likely would have won a lot without cheating. But Armstrong? I have trouble seeing how he could have won even one tour without cheating, but 7!? And all the **** that went into covering that up?


All the cases are different.

I think USPS is the worst since the DDR.

Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service went postal at the Tour 7 times in a row! And they kept the conspiracy under wraps for the 7 consecutive years!

 

[Cookster15]

ESPN, CNN, SI, literally all of thre major media outlets are saying that yes, the Armstrong doping conspiracy is the biggest doping conspiracy ever.

Hmmm. Maybe the biggest doping conspiracy ever uncovered but not THE biggest. I suspect there are possibly much bigger conspiracies in better funded sports that we don't know about yet (e.g. Puerto still unidentified blood bags)?

The Armstrong case illustrates a sophisticated conspiracy that requires money, resources and influence over people (like the Mafia?). Now the money and politics of Professional cycling - even USPS surely pales in comparison to the NFL and soccer for example?

 

[pmcg76]

The difference between USPS and all the rest was that all other cases were purely doping related whilst the USPS case had the whole cancer cover-up story which on a humane level makes it much worse than the rest.

 

[Franklin]

I'd say the biggest doping conspiracies are in Soccer and as yet haven't been exposed.

It's unthinkable Man U, Real M, Juve etc. are not exploiting every means necessary. There simply is too much cash involved.