Rusvelo pick up 3 more positive tests

[Libertine Seguros]

- Why don't Russians learn from the past?
- Is it team-wide doping?
- Are the Russians in the WT also doping or clean or on another program?
- Does it fit in some nice conspiracy theory?

For example

It is interesting to see such a high number of Russian positive tests as their big winter games approach. Yes, the positives at present are summer sport athletes, but there's clearly some level of getting their house in order. Don't want a high profile positive for a key athlete in their home winter games, that's for sure.

Another possibility is that while there may be some more progressive voices at the top, there's still the same old people in the middle-management of Russian sport in some places. For example, German biathlon coach Wolfgang Pichler was brought in to oversee the Russian women's team; Pichler has been at times quite aggressively anti-doping and has in the past called out members of the team that he now coaches for suffering obvious form dips just after some of their teammates (Yaroschenko, Iourieva, Akhatova) tested positive. However, much of his philosophy has proven unpopular with regional coaches who have preferred to continue to go their own way, use their own methods, and with the size of Russia and the logistical difficulties of monitoring all the athletes all the time it's very easy to see how, especially with the history of endurance sports, old-school doping could continue to flourish. Remember, Serebryakov tested positive for regular old EPO.

 

[ToreBear]

Well done Rusada! Rusada has been getting guidance from Norwegian Antidoping under a WADA program for several years now. This was I think one of the issues the IOC wanted to get under control in relation to the Sochi games.

The Russians were under a lot of pressure by other national federations and the international federations in XC skiing and Biathlon.

Rusada started with focusing on these areas first, and now they have in the last few years also expanded into the summer sports, where pressure to clean up has not been as strong.

The reason there are so many positives is that there are so many dopers. They cheat each other to get into the national programs etc.

The reason there is so much doping is that this has been the standard practice for 20-30-xx years. If you have coaches having learned a lot about doping, and less about training, you have a problem. The Russians have a hole culture that needs to change, new coaches that need to be trained etc. It's a big problem for them. But with the set up of Rusada, and their continued work, it shows that there is a clear intention from the top to change this. But they have a long way still to go.

As for these three positives. I think a doctor giving out the wrong drugs sounds plausible.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Well done Rusada! Rusada has been getting guidance from Norwegian Antidoping under a WADA program for several years now. This was I think one of the issues the IOC wanted to get under control in relation to the Sochi games.

Thanks for this. Is there any chance you have a link describing this?

I speculated they are cleaning up before Sochi, but have nothing to back it up.

 

[TheBean]

- Why don't Russians learn from the past?
- Is it team-wide doping?
- Are the Russians in the WT also doping or clean or on another program?
- Does it fit in some nice conspiracy theory?

For example

Another theory could be that the Russians are better at testing - or more thorough - and that they donot cover up their internal affairs as much as other countries have been accused of.

Seems unlikely, but if we're stating ossible theories this one should be included.

 

[ToreBear]

Thanks for this. Is there any chance you have a link describing this?

I speculated they are cleaning up before Sochi, but have nothing to back it up.

Try this link, and there is also a brochure at the bottom:
http://www.antidoping.no/internett/english/international-cooperation/cooperation-with-nados/

 

[Ferminal]

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/1...-sad-by-four-RusVelo-positives-this-year.aspx

Good read, any idea who the new management is? Maybe some who have previously run the Itera team?