Friday Roundup
News
SJ Mercury News reports Tammy Thomas was convicted of perjury for denying taking steroid in the BALCO case.
The CyclingNews quietly notes Dick Pound's failure to attain the presidency of the CAS.
In more CyclingNews it appears that Astana is not unwelcome everywhere, it has a race to compete in in July in Austria. It has been invited to the Österreich Rundfahrt and the director of the race acknowledges that the team has done all it can to ameliorate past sins by cleaning up its and cycling's image. Since March Madness has spilled into April perhaps the analogy for Astana of getting an invite to the NIT, rather than the "big dance", is apt.
ESPN posts a Reuters story on the Greek weightlifting team and PED use, apparently cycling isn't the only sport with "problems".
The AFP reports Parric Clerc's response to accusations by Pat McQuaid that the ASO is attempting to usurp the UCIs position as the world cycling federation:
McQuaid recently suggested that Tour bosses had threatened riders with not being invited to the July race if they did not race Paris-Nice, which Clerc denied.
"ASO is not using the Tour de France as an instrument of blackmail to the riders, managers or sponsors," he added. "The Tour is the number one cycling event in the world and has always promoted strong values of equality and friendship.
In the meantime the CPA may have to sue the FFC for answers about why 2007 Tour de France riders have not been paid in full. And so it goes.
Blogs
Velo Vortmax read the recently published study by Dr. Jenny Jakobsson Schultz on genetic variants and their effects on t/e ratios and is appalled at WADA's stubbornness to accept that the standard ratio of 4:1 indicating use of exogenous testosterone may be faulty. But, Vv feels WADA's intractability on that issue is only one of many problems which usurp its credibility:No matter. WADA world can't even agree among the laboratories as to what criteria constitutes a positive IRMS result. The WADA Technical Documents are vague. Testosterone metabolites measured are selected at random. Uncertainty in measurement(s) are ignored. Laboratory personnel are unqualified in testing sequences, inexperienced, prone to make errors. But WADA will never invest the money needed to correct these problems. Why? Because WADA would rather budget to pay for prosecutions against athletes who appeal their bad lab results. WADA would rather defend idiots like Dick Pound from lawsuits. WADA would rather waste time with nonsense than to invest in hard science.
The Steroid Report is also highly critical of WADA's current testing practices and its apparent inability to adjust its thinking in line with new scientific implications:The unreliability of the testosterone:epitestosterone ratio test (T:E ratio) and WADA’s insistence on its infallibility only further undermines the credibility of WADA
NewmaForma has faced some incredibly awful injuries, one of which mirrors Floyd Landis' hip fracture.
Carlton Reid over at Quickrelease.tv wonders what poor Dick Pound will do now?
7 comments:
Re: Dick Pound (now called Richard Pound in most polite publications)
Last sentence from the Cyclingnews.com article;
"Pound, Briner and Werner will remain members of the court"
This apparantly confirms what a number of journalists suspected but could not write with absolute certainty because confirmation was always witheld ........... Dick Pound IS a member of the CAS Court and has been for some time, including the time during which he was Chair of WADA.
If Richard Young is also a member of that court, a distinct possibility, then CAS is hopelessly compromised.
That is sad but after all, there are only a few individuals who know the true joy of sport, its unique aspects and the application of sporting "fact" to skewed "principals" of legal due process as they choose to define it (because it is so unique and not understandable to non-sportsmen).
Their world is quite small. We have to accept their draftsmanship of rules, with their prosecution of cases they feel constitute a violation of rules they created and their judging of their own draftsmanship,decision to prosecute and application of "law" they created to cases they deem a violation of those "laws".
Now we understand that they also and finally review their decisions as appellate judges of their own draftsmanship, proscecution, and application of their law to cases they prosecute as violations of that law.
It is small wonder that Richard Young is so adament about the "guilt" of athletes he prosecutes to the point where he virtually testifies himself. He wrote the law. He knows the standards he wrote. He knows HIS laws and standards were violated.
As judge, he would know much more about the subject matter than pesky things like presentation of evidence and cross examination and credibility of witnesses and impartial evaluation of science.
How in the world can this system be accepted by ANYONE as fair and impartial???? The facts that an athlete "wins" on occasion cannot negate the appearance of and actual conflict of interest inherent in this bizarre adjudicative system.
Yeah!! The news about Pound kept me from a weeks long rant.
Judge, much as I hate to ask, could you copy that and throw it up on DPF? I know it's like kerosene on a fire, but they have GOT to understand that the argument IS the argument, and that due process really is being twisted. Heaven help me if I ever turn up a false positive.
Hi Richard,
My last and final post at DPF was on July 22, 2007. That post consisted of one word, after an absurd legal argument with one of the "smarts" there; "Fine."
I do not intend to post on DPF ever again. I have given Vaughn money to keep the site going so others may have an opportunity to be insulted and belittled there if that is their wish. There is no "good fight" to be fought at DPF, in my opinion.
That said (favorite "Lance-ism"), if you want to copy it and post there, under your name as yours or quoting me, feel free.
Just be prepared for any mean spirited reply that goes up instantaniously from one of the guys who live in their mom's basement and monitor DPF 24-7 waiting for such a post so that their life goal can be fulfilled.
Best of luck and one day I will be happy to go on a long ride and chat with you!!!!!
Bill
I don't know if I understood it correctly. But if it was a question if Mr. Richard Young is an CAS Arbitrator- here is the answer: http://www.tas-cas.org/arbitrators-genlist.
Mr Young Richard R. (1947)Attorney-at-law (USA) E
Colorado Springs / USA
A.B. and LLB Stanford University; Attorney at law in law firm Holme Roberts & Owen; Counsel to various national and international sports organizations; Chair of several doping appeals panels in the sport of tennis; member of the CAS ad hoc Divisions at the Winter Olympic Games, Nagano, 1998, and at the Summer Olympic Games, Sydney, 2000.
Bill:
Glad someone has that view of the back-biting useless cruelty and masturbatory arguing that is the DPF forums. There's no discussion there, just yelling and comparison of whose toys, as it were, are bigger. There are few there who actually want to be heard but rather want to be the last one on the pile of bodies screaming he was right all along.
It's a shame, because there is an important and relevant discussion regarding doping in cycling, all sport really, and the system in place that governs, tests, adjudicates and punishes those involved. I believe there are truly people out there who want a clean, fair sport from top to bottom and that cleanliness must apply to the people who make the tough decisions.
It's like it's always been said here, Floyd can get off on a "technicality." But this "technicality" is something called "Rules". If his ruling is upheld, then that is also on a "technicality".
The discussion is going sideways, but you are all correct - I said as much to Ali the other day, and now I'm a victim of the addiction-like attempt at education as well.
All of you, thanks from the depths of my soul. I ride because I ride, and the epiphany that comes with the exertion overwhelms the effective sadness of the littered words of hate and ignorance that fall in to the gutter of other forums.
There is no more education. It's now come down to the key words of the title of this forum - TRUST, But Verify.
Post a Comment