Most Suspicious Performances: All sports edition

[Irondan]

Carl Lewis 1988 Olympics.

The enitre Chinese delegation in the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Most, if not all Russian athletes in 2014 Sochi Olympics.

 

[Farcanal]

Re:

Bolt, without a doubt.
Reason being is he absolutely smashed records made by runners who ate steroids for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
100 metres is 100 metres. There can be no talk about race distance, stage of the race, weather conditions, quality of bikes, roads, etc. etc.
Guy made Ben Johnson seem like he was running backwards.

Not particularly picking on your post but I'm new to this and, from what I've read in the clinic generally, there seems to be a wide held belief that anyone who breaks records of previous dopers must themselves be doping. Can someone please explain the logic of this to me because it completely passes me by?

Is it really scientific fact that there can be no progression in athletic achievement, that all humans in the future cannot run, ride, swim etc better than there ancestors without the use of PED's? Your example of a runner some 25 years previously to Bolt seems a strange comparison. Anything factually enlightening would be appreciated.

 

[motty89]

Re: Re:

Bolt, without a doubt.
Reason being is he absolutely smashed records made by runners who ate steroids for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
100 metres is 100 metres. There can be no talk about race distance, stage of the race, weather conditions, quality of bikes, roads, etc. etc.
Guy made Ben Johnson seem like he was running backwards.

Not particularly picking on your post but I'm new to this and, from what I've read in the clinic generally, there seems to be a wide held belief that anyone who breaks records of previous dopers must themselves be doping. Can someone please explain the logic of this to me because it completely passes me by?

Is it really scientific fact that there can be no progression in athletic achievement, that all humans in the future cannot run, ride, swim etc better than there ancestors without the use of PED's? Your example of a runner some 25 years previously to Bolt seems a strange comparison. Anything factually enlightening would be appreciated.

The question is can those improvements be bigger than what doping gives you? Good article here for cycling http://sportsscientists.com/2010/07/cycling-performance-what-is-possible/

 

[The Hitch]

Re: Re:

Bolt, without a doubt.
Reason being is he absolutely smashed records made by runners who ate steroids for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
100 metres is 100 metres. There can be no talk about race distance, stage of the race, weather conditions, quality of bikes, roads, etc. etc.
Guy made Ben Johnson seem like he was running backwards.

Not particularly picking on your post but I'm new to this and, from what I've read in the clinic generally, there seems to be a wide held belief that anyone who breaks records of previous dopers must themselves be doping.
Can someone please explain the logic of this to me because it completely passes me by?

Is it really scientific fact that there can be no progression in athletic achievement, that all humans in the future cannot run, ride, swim etc better than there ancestors without the use of PED's? Your example of a runner some 25 years previously to Bolt seems a strange comparison. Anything factually enlightening would be appreciated.

I'm sure your intentions are good and it's just an accident, but such a blatant moving of the goal posts from one sentence to the next, will unfortunately, be by many interpreted as trolling.

The fact that clean athletes can't beat world records of dopers obviously does not mean that " that there can be no progression in athletic achievement".


Oh and your maths is way off as well. gatlin and Asafa Powell were most definitely not "25 years ago".

 

[Billie]

Ronda Rousey _0_

 

[D-Queued]

This is a funny thread. I'll play.

Bolt.

The old two orders of magnitude (or more?) better than everyone else ever, ever, ever thing.

That said, when thinking of Eddy type domination, additional nods go to:

* Vasily Alekseyev - 80 World Records. 'Nuff said.
* Einheit Dresden rowing four - Never beaten in international competition in 11 years; accomplished at the height of the East German doping program
* Teófilo Stevenson - One punch, you're out. Actually saw him live. Damn impressive. From Wikipedia: "The BBC described Teófilo as "Cuba's greatest boxer, once its most famous figure after Fidel Castro"."
And, speaking of Cubans,
* Alberto Juantorena - Only person to ever win both the 400 and 800m Olympic medal, having just taken up the 800m distance that year. Also actually saw him live. Also damn impressive. The 'Bolt' of his day. According to Wikipedia, "Juantorena was ranked among the best in the world in both the 400 and 800 m sprint events over the incredible spread of 10 seasons from 1973 to 1982"
* Russian figure skating (judges) - they fall down, they still win
* East German Women's Swimming - nightmares are made of less than this

Dave.

 

[del1962]

What about a fast bowler who puts on over 20kg in weight from his test debut in 1993 through to 2006, he says his coach waked him to feed in the middle of the night and he has the nickname pidgeon because he had spindly legs

 

[the delgados]

Farcanal:
Feel free to pick away. I am far from an expert. In fact, anything I say comes only from a background of riding at a high level in cycling (in Canada, so it's a relative term); and a general idea about why a top athlete might use ped's.
If you're reading this post, no doubt you have read responses by folks much much smarter than me about why modern day achievements are probably chemically enhanced.

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Re:

Honorable nod the the "Turtle Soup" Chinese women contingent by that coach whose name escapes me.

Ma Junren/ Ma's Army

 

[The Hitch]

I forgot Yelena from the mid 2000's.

A decade during which we recently found out the Russians were mass doping.

 

[Catwhoorg]

Re: Re:

Honorable nod the the "Turtle Soup" Chinese women contingent by that coach whose name escapes me.

Ma Junren/ Ma's Army

That's the one, he had half a dozen or so popped for PEDS from his stable and the party removed him from his post IIRC.

 

[SeriousSam]

One of his athletes set one of those unbeatable dodgy/Chinese/Eastern European world records in the 1500m. Well, actually Dibaba broke it this year at Monaco.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

I don't know about all sports for all time but dang that Armstrong fellow looked well dodgy.

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

Hard to beat weightlifting, essentially all the best performances of certain era are not just suspicious, but basically 100% certified PED-based (while in cycling we still have few riders enjoying benefit of doubt)....

Vasily Alekseyev, poster boy for Dianabol, breakfast of champions

Ben Johnson, body builder-cum-sprinter, poster boy for Stanozolol

 

[HelmutRoole]

Re:

Dara Torres. Olympic silver medalist, swimming, at 41.

 

[42x16ss]

A lot of great calls here, but I want to throw another name up that rarely gets mentioned:

Michael Jordan.

Yes, he had phenomenal skill and vision, but his fitness, strength, lack of injury and uncanny runs of form - too good to believe IMO. During his reign the physical attributes of players changed completely. Shooting guards started bulking, forwards started becoming man mountains and centres went from lean giants to almost blotting out the sun.

 

[etymology]

Re:

Major league baseball in the 1990's.

The performances were hilarious, much more fun than MLB of today.

bobby valentine agrees and predicts previously unimaginable hilarity in the future!

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2015-09-25/bobby-valentine-steroids-sports-hgh-ped-drugs-sacred-heart-athletic-director

 

[thehog]

Peter La Fleur

 

[More Strides than Rides]

For sure on Michael Jordan. It's dissapointing to realize childhood heroes were something less than. Even someone like Edwin Moses, who does so much good in his post track life had to be on something to win 122 races in a row. Same for someone like Jessie Owens. Doping wasn't doping then, but I'm sure he took whatever made him move faster.

 

[ray j willings]

Lady Di

 

[gunara]

The sports event that gave me word doping was Seoul Olympic which I followed closely when I was young, looking back at the performances now, I'm glad I have a good first show, what a fine doped field that was

 

[maltiv]

Doesn't really get more ridiculous than this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z8qe7YWDOQ

 

[Cake]

In general, people winning events at world level, when the athlete comes from a country with no background in that event. If your country hasn't the infrastructure, it doesn't matter how talented you are, it's odd to be beating athletes from countries that have specialised in the discipline for years.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

Re:

In general, people winning events at world level, when the athlete comes from a country with no background in that event. If your country hasn't the infrastructure, it doesn't matter how talented you are, it's odd to be beating athletes from countries that have specialised in the discipline for years.

Except any talent tends to move overseas asap.

 

[Red Rick]

The Dutch speed skaters, Sochi was hilarious