Benotti69 said:
IMO in the modern era the Yanks have always doped! They let Carl Lewis run after testing positive in the trials. He has been living off Seoul ever since Johnson was DQ'd, hypocrite!
I think the smaller sports, like sailing, hockey, fencing etc probably have some forms of cheating trying to get that edge but nothing like the major sports.
While TeamGB are getting a bashing, does not necessarily mean other nations are doing it clean, it just means the Brits for a change have the better programs in certain sports.
Maybe the Swimming coach at Sky has meant the Aussies have failed in the pool
Maybe right with the pool and Tim Kerrison. Stephanie Rice apparently has a hole in her bicep rotator cuff. Nasty stuff. She was down on Beijing. Had an injury ladden last four years. Leisel Jones is slower as well. They were really the only ones.
I have no doubt the USA team in major sports, swimming, athletics and cycling (road) doped to the rim. King Carl!!! Yeah, hypocrit. I don't mind athletes like Allyson Felix, Jeremy Warriner...the lower key ones for the most part. It's the brash in your face arrogant ones that I don't like. The Armstrong mould pyschologically...grates on me. Not easy to stomach. Personality plays a part to me putting up with it. Don't really mind Tyson Gay...obviously dirty though. Second fastest 100m runner in history. Fastest after the three Jamaicans Powell, Blake and Bolt.
Actually I thought the USA dropped a bit around 2000 in Sydney in swimming. Then a certain Michael Phelps arrived. He went almost unnoticed in Sydney. Come Athens he was a colossal giant. It took Australia's greatest ever male swimmer to beat him in the 200m free and he is hardly a beacon for clean performances. To their credit, I did like the USA swim teams sense of humour with their YouTube parody of 'Call me Maybe.' I blame FINA for the mess with the swimming. Sure they have a BioPassport system, but athletes know they're being tested hours before an event. This is at this years Olympics. Press releases for swimming! Then there is the whole super bouyant swim suits from 2008 and 2009. FINA had to step in. Now those records are going. Most of the record breakers in those suits dropped their times, especially Britta Steffen and the German male who smoked Thorpe's 200m and 400m free records. No where to be seen. But the USA are breaking the records, more so than the Chinese teenage girls.
I can't believe Aaron Piersol's backstroke record is being smashed. Or that Lochte and Phelps can swim so many events and dominate. Lauere Manadou did that in 2004. Came back crap four years later. Kirsty Coventry came back, but dropped wins.
Clearly the USA swimming program is the best. The USA track sprint program is second only to Jamaica. That says enough. Be interesting to see what USADA do after the LA fiasco ends. I wonder how protected Phelps is? GB's focus since 2000 has been mostly cycling and rowing. You pick your apple cart and you run with it. USA wanted to, they could do the same with cycling GB has done. Not worth it. Better pay off for swimming and athletics. Just like Australia focuses on swimming and cycling mostly. It's where our specialties in coaching, doctors and talent lie.
I'm also watching the smaller events without suspicions of doping. Most of my concerns come from rulings and judgements based on the rules. The dodgy calls annoy me. I still can't believe that USA girl won silver in the gymnastics vault by landing on her ****. Never would have happened on the old scoring.
Addition: FINA should have completely revoked all swimming world records prior to 2009 and the banning of the super suits. Implemented a very thorough BioPassport run by Ashendens group in the USA and maybe, just maybe people would have competed cleaner than the past. But they didn't. Seriously, the only chance of breaking WR's was to dope. They were literally that fast. FINA are stupid for what they have done. They had an amazing opportunity to change how the game was played and they messed up. Just like cycling did after Puerto and Festina. Poor leadership.