Doping in other sports

[oldroadman]

While is half agree with your saying Oldroadman

"Sports have to WANT to be clean to monitor doping properly!

But if a sport is respected as clean then there is no requirment to monitor doping properly because there is belief the sport is clean, it only when issue arise on a consistant basis, then the clamp down is required.

The last few years in cycling it has been shown that doping is being beaten, it is the belief you can now win clean and as the cycle reiforces that doping is unacceptable, then i believe the problem will become less and less.

If not cyclist was found doping in the next 5 years, do you think they would countinue to the current regime or would the scale it back?

Continue - no reason not to do so. Sadly, cycling has to constantly prove itself innocent, an interesting view of the legalities.

 

[oldroadman]

I think that there is a difference in focus between sports where skill and teamwork play a larger part in success than strength and/or fitness. To an average man on the street, you win cycle races by being stronger and fitter than the next guy. OK, descending and team tactics play a big part, but non-fans don't appreciate this much. Whereas in football, guys like Messi and Ronaldo are admired for their footwork, ball control and intelligent positioning. The only footballer I can remember that was worshipped for his pace was Des Walker.
Tennis again is about putting the ball in the right part of the court. It is evident now that to beat the best (Nadal, Murray, Djorkovic) you need to match them for fitness too, and hence I can believe that there is a big drugs problem in tennis too.
Rugby is another big issue. In both League and Union, strength and speed pay an important role in how good a player is regarded. The only side issue is that without playing as a team, and without having the right positioning and reading of the game, a super fast or super strong player is going to be a liability.

Sports where strength and/or speed make the biggest focus include cycling, athletics and weight lifting. All these have had serious drug problems which have affected their credibility. Some other sports (e.g. boxing) are going to have the same problems soon, whereas more team / skill orientated sports will probably get away with lax controls for a lot longer.

Sorry but this is not something which hangs together. ALL sport requiring fitness and strength, plus skill, requires an excellent physical base and a recovery ability. Football is no exception. I will believe it is clean when there are a comparable percentage of tests and the percentage on non-negatives is close to nil. Until then it is not unreasonable to suspect sports of having a problem, especially when they like to contend they don't have one, despite a pathetic control programme. Even steroids (old hat really) make a big difference in strength, let alone messing with blood and "vitamin injections which made me run faster". Credibility zero, ignorance by players of what is being put into their bodies by "medics", stunning.

 

[BJH]

Having been critical on this thread of our most famous tennis player before, good to see his comments today around the refusal of the Spanish courts to release the blood bags.

 

[rich p]

I'd hate to come over as complacent but the moral opprobrium that is heaped upon dopers in the UK tends me to believe in vociferous anti-dopers like Murray, Paula Radcliffe, Bradley Wiggins are clean. If you were doping then why set yourself up as a hostage to fortune?
This - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/22363900

 

[BJH]

I agree, I find tennis extremely questionable.

In Murray's case, i didn't like moans from him in the past about drug testing. Just glad to see him opening his mouth in a more positive way towards cheats and cheating.

I have always held a similar belief as said above by Rich P - being very vociferous about drugs doesn't guarantee the person as clean, but I would certainly say it gives a very strong suggestion of it.

 

[Hont]

a lot of hinting that it's Nadal, he's having a pop at...not sure this is true.

Agree with that, Murray is quite friendly with Nadal so it would seem odd to now be pointing the finger at him, despite being the most obvious candidate.

 

[Strathlubnaig]

Olympic 1500m champion doped, and one of her compatriots (Turks)
http://www.sports247.my/2013/05/athletics-olympic-champ-alptekin-charged-with-doping-iaaf/

 

[Hip Priest]

Sorry but this is not something which hangs together. ALL sport requiring fitness and strength, plus skill, requires an excellent physical base and a recovery ability.

Agreed.

David Millar described being on EPO as having 'your best day as an athlete, every day'.

If football team A are all having their best day as an athlete every day, then they have a massive advantage over football team B, who are suffering normal levels of fatigue over the course of a game or a season, with the subsequent decline in performance and sharpness it brings.

 

[albion]

Yep, I've found it a bit questionable how certain football teams run the legs off everyone.
Such massive amounts of money and yet so little doping does strike me as more than a bit strange.

Golf and tennis are certainly is similar. It like the establishments keeps it all under wrap.

 

[brodiej]

Agree with that, Murray is quite friendly with Nadal so it would seem odd to now be pointing the finger at him, despite being the most obvious candidate.

One thing I feel about Murray is he emerged with loads of talent but looked and acted like a teenager (which he was). It took him years to bulk up and get fit enough to win a major.

Contrast Nadal and Del Potro who appeared ready prepared in their late teens / early 20s, won a major and have suffered injuries since.

Murray got injured while still growing but doesn't now he's in his mid 20s.

It seems a much more natural progression

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Contrast Nadal and Del Potro who appeared ready prepared in their late teens / early 20s, won a major and have suffered injuries since.

see also Ronaldo (the Brazilian one).

 

[resal]

Olympic 1500m champion doped, and one of her compatriots (Turks)
http://www.sports247.my/2013/05/athletics-olympic-champ-alptekin-charged-with-doping-iaaf/

That is going to be interesting. 2 year bans across the board, this was the big thing that came in with the WADA code. About how effective a deterrent is that ? Well this girl had one in 2004 and look she's back at London. However on the face of it, this is one tick for the Bio Passport. I thought it was easy enough for anyone with the right sort of medical back up to get around it with mocrodosing. Did this girl get caught at London or did she not keep the lines flat afterwards in all her celebrations ? Let us take a guess.

 

[resal]

Continue - no reason not to do so. Sadly, cycling has to constantly prove itself innocent, an interesting view of the legalities.

oldroadman you obviously have no idea how this comes across, because surely if you did, you would not have written it !

Of course cycling has to prove itself innocent and it needs to do so for the next 100 years. The goons at the top during the last 20 years have just watched as it has destroyed itself with debacle after debacle. I don't get asked by my workmates, I get told - "that Bradley Wiggins, he's on drugs insn't he. They are all the same". Each event has been sad but even more sad has been the lies constantly fed to us that "we are in a new, clean era". The same record has been played each year from 1999. When is that useless board at the UCI going to issue a public apology to Kimmage and Landis ? Bringing the sport into disrepute ! Each day they sit on their hands whilst Pat takes them deeper into the swamp, they bring the sport into disrepute. They need to charge themselves.

The sport continues to attract critical comment because it has done very little to dissuade anyone that it is doing anything. It is progressing exactly as you keep advising it should, by incremental amounts.

So incremental that even put together, they add up to s*d all.

I have no doubt that other sports have PED problems the equal of those in cycling. Whether their governing bodies would be quite as inept as those in cycling is in doubt. We can all have our opinions. For cycling, we don't need opinions, we have it confirmed, year after year as each new dark story consumes us.

"Lance rode clean in his comeback - look the tests prove it." Why even Lance himself tells us he could not fool the bio-passport, so it just has to be true. I can sleep easily in my bed now ! Nothing to do with the SOL. Oh yes, another fairy tale for the fans to hang their dreams on.

 

[rich p]

The sport continues to attract critical comment because it has done very little to dissuade anyone that it is doing anything. It is progressing exactly as you keep advising it should, by incremental amounts.

So incremental that even put together, they add up to s*d all.

I have no doubt that other sports have PED problems the equal of those in cycling. Whether their governing bodies would be quite as inept as those in cycling is in doubt. We can all have our opinions. For cycling, we don't need opinions, we have it confirmed, year after year as each new dark story consumes us.

"Lance rode clean in his comeback - look the tests prove it." Why even Lance himself tells us he could not fool the bio-passport, so it just has to be true. I can sleep easily in my bed now ! Nothing to do with the SOL. Oh yes, another fairy tale for the fans to hang their dreams on.

Resal, you are beating yourself in the argument.
If you believe that other sports have "PED probelems the equal of those in cycling" then their governing bodies are already more inept than even the UCI by sitting on their hands and doing nothing.

 

[resal]

Resal, you are beating yourself in the argument.
If you believe that other sports have "PED probelems the equal of those in cycling" then their governing bodies are already more inept than even the UCI by sitting on their hands and doing nothing.

You are right. They, like the "wise" idiot are keeping quiet. Their idiocy is not confirmed.