pedaling squares said:
That we hold Tygart up as an example of ethics and achievement shows just how far into the muck sports have fallen. The man did a great job in the face of adveristy, but he just did his job. Sad that doing what you are supposed to do has become such a rarity in pro sports that we honour the few that do. There is honour in doing your duty, but I would rather we focused our efforts into exposing and removing the corrupt bums who occupy positions of influence. It was corrupt officials, journalists, politicians, and corporate leaders who chose profit over integrity, silenced the honest, and created this mess.
I disagree somewhat with this. Before Tygart proceeded against LA, there was a common belief that the only weapon anti-doping agencies had in their arsenal was the positive test. Why else would “never tested positive” carry so much weight? Yes, the non-analytical positive existed, but outside the Clinic, not many people took it very seriously. Yes, there were police actions against dopers in Europe, but again, outside of the Clinic, few suggested that WADA/USADA should use the kind of tactics that the police use.
This was—still is--a fairly novel approach, and it took a lot of guts to apply it, IMO, particularly against someone who wielded so much power in cycling, and who had so much public opinion on his side. Just think back to June and July, after the charging letter came out, when there were a lot of observers, not all of them fanboys, who were seriously questioning whether USADA could make a case based largely on witness testimony. For events that mostly occurred not only beyond the SOL, but even before the existence of WADA. Not to mention the jurisdiction issues, which the judge, let us remember, did not say were clearly on USADA’s side. He just said that they could be addressed if USADA were allowed to proceed.
In this respect, while Novitsky also deserves our thanks, he was acting much more within the tradition of his office. He was doing exactly what federal prosecutors have always done. Tygart has been a genuine pioneer, I think. He has done a lot of things that an anti-doping agent has never tried before.