Monday, August 11, 2008

Irregular Report 8

News
The New York Times citing the recent Nature editorial, along with other writings, says "let the Games be doped":

No one denies that there are risks in taking drugs like anabolic steroids, and there is wide agreement that minors shouldn’t be allowed to take them (or other performance drugs). But the popular fear of steroid use by adults is based in large part on a few sensationalized cases, like the news articles blaming steroids for the fatal brain tumor of Lyle Alzado, the former football player.

“You’d be on firmer scientific ground blaming his brain cancer on beer drinking,” said Norman Fost, a professor of pediatrics and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin. “The claims of the common fatal or irreversible harms of anabolic steroids are without any medical foundation. There’s no reason to think the risk of injury or death is as high as the risk from simply playing sports like football or baseball.”

Donald Berry, author of the Nature piece, makes his case with the Houston Chronicle.

The CyclingNews reports the first positive for EPO at the Olympics this year is a female cyclist from Spain:

Team Spain's Maria Isabel Moreno, 27 years old of Huesca, tested positive for EPO and became the first athlete of the 2008 Olympic Games to fail a doping control, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced this morning.

Also in this edition of CyclingNews, John Fahey, head of WADA, suggests that cycling and weight lifting may be excluded from the Olympics in the future due to doping problems past and present.

The VeloNews is also on the Moreno story with an AFP piece on her EPO positive.

Blogs

Rant wants to know just who is minding the anti-doping "store" as it were, and raises a couple of good points: just what is the sensitivity of WADA's testing, and where in WADA are the basic scientific standards that apply in the "real" world?

Outside All Day says Floyd Landis was at the Food Park Ride Saturday and that they offered him a "contract" which he is allegedly considering.


11 comments:

Eightzero said...

Moreno didn't participate in the road race. She withdrew before the start. Of course, it is easy to speculate the reason why, even in the face of the official explanation before the AAF announcement (and was the "B" confirmed before the IOC announced this?) "for personal anxiety reasons."

So, can UCI and/or the UCI enforce a penalty against her? She didn't race.

Or let me rephrase it - do the current UCI, IOC, WADA or Spanish ADA rules provide for a penalty against an athlete who does not *actually* compete? She never even signed in for the race.

bobble said...

More details...

The IOC said she was tested on the 31st then bolted town that night.

Hate to say it but if she was innocent she probably wouldn't have ducked and ran.

bobble said...

8-0,

That is a very intersting question, should we speculate about who/what might go down?

Since the antidoping org's aren't exactly beholden to any judicial standard, what would stop them from enforcing a penalty for something that didn't happen?

I'm sure somewhere in their regulations there's a catchall line for 'intent'.

Ali said...

Oh my God !

Floyd is Kid Rock ! I've watched a number of his (KR's) videos now and there's no doubt ... they could be twins !!!

Own up Floyd ... what's your relationship with Kid Rock ?

strbuk said...

Yes Ali, Floyd IS "Kid Rock". :-)

str

DBrower said...

Go read the lyrics to Rock's "Progidal Son", and the connection is even more clear.

TBV

Ali said...

Str, thanks for ignoring my sulk on dogs ... (even dog owners can be temperamental)

TBV, i read it and i'm convinced ... Floyd is Kid Rock !

Go Floyd/Kid !

Unknown said...

If Fahey gets his wish and the “movement” (double entendre intended) excludes cycling from future Olympics, then I’ll consider it a blessing.

I hope the irony is not lost on readers of TbV. Fahey heads an organization that is the semi-legitimate (probably illegitimate) spawn of one of the most corrupt sporting organizations in existence, the IOC.

I’m left to wonder if Fahey is aware of the origins of the Olympic rings, the running of the torch, and the pageantry related to the lighting of the Olympic flame, as they relate to the modern Olympics? Is he aware of the graft that was/is part and parcel of the process of winning a bid to host the games? That’s just the tip of the iceberg my friends and WADA’s house isn’t exactly in order either.

Guys who live in glass houses and the issue of throwing rocks………………………..

Laura Challoner, DVM said...

I see Mayo got bumped by CAS, finding 3 counteranalysis of an intial "A" met the letter and spirit" of the WADA Code. B sample now means C D E F etc on a single sample and B, C D E etc on samples other than non-negative "A"s as long as it catches a doper. that is the letter and Spirit of the WADA Code.

wschart said...

I think that Moreno is quite liable to be sanctioned. I don't think that it matters that she didn't race - EPO is banned totally. Remember from Boonen's case, use of cocaine out of competition is not prohibited, but many other substances are prohibited out of competition. In part, the idea is that one can use the PED to train harder and get in better shape than otherwise possible.

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