hodgy0_2

it seems that the new WADA availability rules have annoyed some high profile sportsman (Nadal Murray)


but is it because they are much harder to avoid getting a positive test

i.e. loads are currently cheating coz they know they can get away with it

Chambers seems to think so, has said that if the new regime had been around years ago he would have been caught long before he actualy was

Carotid

Lance 'cough' Armstrong

darts_aint_sport

But then it's no longer a matter of ability, the winner will just be the one who takes the most drugs, we have the WWE for that.

Carotid

Haven't you just described pro cycling?

hodgy0_2

fantastic and quite right too

Dedrater

Its always been alleged that the Olympics and so forth, are just a competition between country's on who can evade a drug positive per % athlete cought.

From what I have read, "drugs" are not not classified as "drugs" until defined illegal and there are people on concoctions that are not deemed illegal but massively enhance natural ability.

Its big business and to define a cheat is very hard.

jacrobat

I was talking to someone who knows something about this and they pointed out the abnormally large number of athletes in cardio-intensive sports who have taken medication for asthma at one time or another. It is, apparently, out of proportion to the general population.

JimmyBFC

Completetly agree with this, drug use in most sports is rife at the top, many have to resort to using to get to the level that other rival sportmen/women are at, and if anyone thinks otherwise then they must be very naive.

I actually think letting athletes/sports people make for better, more entertaining competition.

Mogsi

And your proof/evidence he was cheating/doping is ??

mamoon2

Ah yes clenbutenol!

hodgy0_2

Isn’t that why WADA's attempt to introduce the "whereabouts" scheme is coming under such fire from sportsmen

as I said Chambers (and Marion Jones) have admitted that the reason they could get around testers for so long was to use sophisticated ruses like filling their own SMS mailboxes so that they could claim they did not get messages (from tester) etc
Chambers has said that using the whereabouts system WADA would have caught him almost immediately -- or he would have been banned for failing to show up

Leslie

I think that all drug taking in sport should be stamped on very heavily.

Allowing people to take artificial substances to improve their performance completely negates the whole point of any kind of athletic competition.

Les

ronjeramy

iTrader: (1)

And it doesn't set a very good example to kids.

Floodboy

The problem the athletes have with the "whereabouts" rule as I understand it is that they have to give WADA a calendar of where they will be for the next 90 days and be availabe between 6am & 11pm. If the Athlete is then not where they originaly said then its classed as a missed test. 3 x missed tests = a ban.

So how many of you can tell me today where you will be in the next 90 days between 6 - 11 ????

This is the part they are complaing about.

Also FIFA want to change the law so footbalerls are not tested outside of their respective football seasons. FIFA have signed up to the WADA code because they want to keep football in the Olympics.

hodgy0_2

would most people say at work! say 11am

wrx-ian

Are you French???

JimmyBFC

more than likely bud yeah

The top level athletes know techniques to avoid detection that won't probably come to light for a good few years, and in some events im sure the dope testers must walk away with bulking pockets with bank notes falling out.

What the WWE used to do is get medical doctors to write scripts for testosterone replacement (legal in US) therapy, so in a way Vince safeguards all his top stars by knowing that leglly they cannot be touched.

JimmyBFC

But what happens when they are all using, it becomes a disadvantage if your not using doesn't it.

World's Strongest Man competitors arn't tested for steroids, they are tested only for rec drugs (which is why Mariusz Pudz got caught after taking cocaine and suspended) - if they tested them, i fear very few of them would pass a test.

WhatswiththeR

iTrader: (1)

ohhh i never knew this always suspected it but never knew it. and howcome most worlds strongest men look fat? i know its muscle but if i saw them walking down the road i would just think that there a right fat git. and as for testing for drugs who knows what they'll ban?

Mr Bat

Armstrong is an interesting case and of course he has never tested positive.

However, cycling is a murky sport, his former team-mates, Heras, Landis, Hamilton, Andreu (confession) have all tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.

Lance has somewhat orchestrated a French conspiracy against him and to a certain extent he may be right, but by wrapping himself in the 'cancer' banner seems to gain unequivocal support from the lay person.

Here is an IM conversation from 2 of his team mates in 99.
Cycle of denial: The dirty world of cycling | CBC Sports Online

Make your own mind up

JimmyBFC

A lot of these guys are so big, and yeah fat, although that trend is changing slightly, that underneath the blubber, many have tons of muscle, its just that many old skool types tend to basically eat, and eat and eat without regards for appearance, bit like powerliftiers, top ones are on more gear than bodybuilders, but primary concern is strength over appearance

If anyone has ever seen Glenn Ross, he used to be a competitve bodybuilder, now he's about 25-30 stones and very, very fat, total transformation, but being like that has made him competitve in what he does, although Mariusz Pudz and some of the Americans look more like bodybuilders nowadays.

andyr

The whereabouts scheme is nothing like as onerous as guys like Murray and Nadal are trying to make out.
You have to state where you will be for 1 hour only, each day. This can be updated at pretty short notice IIRC by txt, internet etc.
So the sensible ones would say taht between, say, 7am and 8am, they will be at home or at the hotel that they are staying at for a tournament etc. The requirement is NOT to say where you will be all day every day. Top-level sportsmen will have a good bit of the next few months mapped out with competition, training, recovery etc.

Iwan

He won the TdF repeatedly at a time when every team was openly doping, and his own team were amongst the most notorious cheats.

How could he not have been doping is a more appropriate question.

TopBanana

A friend of mine got to a pretty high level in cycling. To advance further, he had to start using performance enhancing drugs because *everyone* else was. He decided against going pro.

JRFRACE

a while ago there was a story about how the technology exists to re-test armstrongs old samples (they are stored somewhere) to prove if he was cheating or his innocence once and for all, but he had the power to refuse the test, no prizes for guessing what he decided

But, if they were all doing it, then he was still the best?

If you were a cynic you could look at the way murray has bulked up so much recently, and his determination to be the best at all costs? who knows though

Leslie

Did you read and/or understand the first line of my above post?

Les

JimmyBFC

Yes, but like the chances of it happening are like me winning the lottery, none luv

Its people like you, wet behind the ears do-gooders have no understanding of what goes on in the real world or what is happening.

My reply was to your second paragraph, "takes away all aspect of competition" - but how does it when they are all taking them (elite of their chosen sport)

Leslie

In the first place, your particularly rude remarks about me were totally unnecessary as well as innaccurate, and only go to show your lack of ability in self expression.

The whole concept of competition in sport is to try to win because of one's own personal abilities and the hard work which was put into training. These are natural attributes and that is what those who follow sport expect to see.

The use of drugs etc. to increase personal performance is unnatural as well as probably being dangerous to some degree. It would be a gross error for the sporting authorities to allow a free for all as far as the use of drugs is concerned. It would reduce the performance of the winners to that of no real significance in comparison to others who set records in the past.

Les