Saturday Roundup
News
The LA Times Michael Hiltzik, who has written extensively about the Landis case, points out that Marion Jones' confession of steroid use, after years of denial, stains every athlete who has an exceptional performance and creates even more cynicism towards athletes who deny they have used PEDs such as Floyd Landis:
Indeed, the case against Jones reflects a sea change in doping prosecutions: Increasingly, the most significant victories are being scored not by the sports anti-doping authorities, who rely on laboratory tests of urine and blood samples, but by law enforcement agencies, which occasionally find illegal steroid use while investigating other crimes.
The NY Times George Vecsey is angry, very angry and discouraged by the cheating in sports and feels that athletes are "scamming" for dollars and for our souls. He "comments" on Floyd Landis:
Landis is turning doughy out in California, on a training regimen of ice cream and beer, after testing positive for artificial testosterone.
The Boulder Report muses about some recent cycling and non cycling events in the news, and has a couple of interesting quotes on democracy from UCI boss Pat McQuaid:
Speaking to the UCI Congress in Stuttgart last week during the world championships, president Pat McQuaid admitted that doping is the main issue in cycling, but says that the lack of unity in the sport “could render irrelevant any initiative taken to fight it.” Quite possibly true, but Pat wasn’t done. “Everybody has the opportunity to express their disagreement,” he said. “The UCI is a democratic institution. But far too often this right is twisted into an act of insubordination…This is why insubordination cannot be tolerated.” In totally unrelated news, McQuaid announced a new Tour of Democracy, hosted by Myanmar and the DPRK.
The CyclingNews posts a piece about organizations other than the UCI who hope to bring the cyclists themselves into the process of reviving the sport of cycling. So on Friday the CPA (Professional Cyclists International Association) with the IPCT and AIGCP announced that they have requested the European Commission create a special "Committee for European Social Dialog" for professional cycling.
The VeloNews also talks about the UCI and its' planned event schedule for next season, and gets interesting comments from T-Mobile's Bob Stapleton
The San Francisco Chronicle's Gwen Knapp thinks Floyd Landis sounds a lot like the now admitted drug cheat Marion Jones used to.
The Philadelphia Inquirer asks the question on many people's minds, if Marion Jones was lying how can we believe any athlete who denies doping?
Blogs
I am a Cancerman has finally had it with sports, that is AFTER the Yankee series.
The Buddah Diaries comments about lying athletes and makes assumptions that those listed are all liars.
Gordon's Notes speaks about lying and throws all kinds of people into the good and bad "liar" category, including himself.
LA Girl says "whatever."
Brian Beckstrom feels cheaters in sport need to understand the concept of grace.
The Athlete's Footnotes find it's just so sad when sports news revolves around doping news. He also feels proclamations of innocence are merely wasted breath.
Bala's Ramblings wonders what happened to playing fair.
GMR notes that tomorrow the Mt. Diablo Challenge takes place with some interesting participants rumored to be riding.
9 comments:
Good luck on Mt. D., TbV. Have a great time. It is a majestic setting indeed.
If Floyd does ride, tell him to appeal if there is any way he can. The majority opinion is illogical and skips over both the testimony of Dr. Amory (two metabolites traveling together, no LH irregularities) and the TD2003IDCR violations.
syi
The Philadelphia Inquirer asks the question on many people's minds, if Marion Jones was lying how can we believe any athlete who denies doping?
So, after the Duke U "rape" scandal, no rape accusations are credible, and all prosecutors are liars, all the time.
Makes as much sense.
Good luck on Mt. Diablo, TBV. Looks to be a great ride.
- Rant
TBV,
Ride on! I am with Mike (syi) on encouraging FL to go the next mile with an appeal to CAS.
GMR
+1 syi (aka Mr. Idiot)
+1 mman. Interesting leap of logic/non-logic from the Inquirer.
gmr, I'd love to see him appeal and win. Floyd's already made a substantial point. An appeal is expensive. In the end, it's his call on what is best for him and his family. A terrible decision to have to make.
FWIW, I wasn't ready to brand Marion Jones as a doper unless it was proven or she confessed on her own. The alphabet soup just "knowing" someone is cheating isn't enough. The process matters if there is to be any respect for the system. History is rife with totalitarian/near totalitarian entities punishing the innocent along with the guilty.
There was some strong
circumstantial evidence against Marion Jones and she didn't hango out with the best company in terms of people proven to hav problems with PED's, yet that was not a sufficent standard of proof. Her confession is.
Also, FWIW, Floyd doesn't come with that baggage. Sceptics might lamely point to former team members as that sort of baggage, but the correlation falls apart on all but the most superficial level.
My only advice to Floyd, for what little it's worth, is to take care of whatever business that is most important to you. Cheers and a wish for happiness.
I'd like to see the lawyers for the ex-Duke La Crosse players get involved in this at the samne time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six
Defend both white and black boys against run away prosecutors.
MLK Jr. had a dream where society would be color blind and people judged on the content of their character.
justice for all is the goal.
People of color deserve the same rights, protections, and level of representation as anyone else.
A false assumption on the part of many is that the (3) charge Duke lacrosseplayers were rich white boys able to purchase the best representation. It's true they are all "white", but it is untrue that they are all wealthy or have means that rate them as rich. Putting family property and business assets on the line, as well as substantial fundraising efforts was required to acquire the representation they hired.
Duke University "settled" early with the players. The City of durham and Mike Nifong are now staring at serious lawsuits from the players.
There are plenty of talented attorneys that did not represent/are not representing the "Duke 3" that have the capacity to work for the Jena 6. Before pointing at the Duke 3 attorneys, who did not work pro bono, where is the fund raising from those concerned with the Jena 6, and where are the other qualified attorneys?
With respect.
FWIW, I have a very close friend who was a good friend of Marion Jones when she was in college. We've talked about the accusations against MJ in the past, and my friend (with no direct knowledge of PED use) says she is not at all surprised by her long history of denial and finally (sort of) confession. It fits with the nature of her personality and her relationships.
Remember that MJ still has only confessed she thought she was taking, what was it, fish oil? She's hardly taking responsibility for her actions yet.
And has she ever testified under oath before? I don't know. People take things a little more seriously when real perjury is at issue. I think PED use in (at least some level of) professional sport should be criminalized (with a much more serious burden of proof, of course). That would wake up some people. It's stealing from other athletes, and, in a sense, fans.
syi
Good wishes and fun for those riding Mt. Diablo. I saw the weather report for 34 degrees and the instructions for marking your warm clothing -- ii yi yi yi! On the other side of the country, we in the DC area are looking at 90 degrees and at our warm clothing still packed away.
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