Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Irregular Report 9

News
TAS-CAS has suspended Iban Mayo 2 years for EPO, having taken 3 tries to get the B sample to "confirm" the A sample. Press release. The full Award is in French. We've posted a machine translation separately.

As Bill Hue wrote in a comment,

Three counter-analyses of an initial "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.


Law.com puffs Landis CAS Arbiter David Rivkin's presence in Beijing.

Blogs
We expect racejunkie to be searching the closet for the Cranky Pants. Ah, found them.

Brian Carnell thinks Berry is right.

Steroid Nation looks at Berry, picks some skeptical responses, and makes reference to the "impossible feat".
It might be good for folks to do some debate there on the assumptions made in some of the quoted bits that seem questionable.

The Questionable Authority
is one of the blogs SN cites critical of Berry. It too makes some claims that could be, um, questioned.

TrueHoops at ESPN takes Berry at face value.

17 comments:

racejunkie said...

Duly searched. Why do I even follow this sport?

DBrower said...

Cycling = suffering = life

It's a recursive metaphor identity thing.


TBV

daniel m (a/k/a Rant) said...

rj,

"All the sleaze and glory of the peloton" right a bell? ;-)

whareagle said...

Ironic that they throw the book at another Spaniard right after the IOC/WADA/UCI get all huffy about busting the Spanish female cyclist.

First the Americans, now the Spaniards. They also seem to hate on the Kazakhs every couple o years.

WHEN is anyone going to hold these bastards accountable?

daniel m (a/k/a Rant) said...

BTW, the full award is in French.

I don't know if there are any plans for an English translation.

Chole said...

uhm... wow.
That's totally terrible.

The EPO tests pull false positives... This is nothing short of harrassment! Test enough and you will always find an anomaly.

Unknown said...

CAS doesn't mean anything anymore. It's just an extension of the UCI, WADA and the IOC's corruption.

They are just highly paid pawns that doen't care about the athletes.

The decision against MAYO just proves the point.

Sad, REALLY Sad!!

Laura Challoner, DVM said...

Rule:
My children must phone me if they will be out after 10:00 pm.

What is the rule about? Compelled use of a telephone? No, it is about required communication contingent on an event.

So, while the letter of the rule might be followed if my child leaves a message on one of my phones, the "spirit" might not if he calls a number he knows I will not answer.

Moreover, if he emails me and I reply, the letter of the rule has not been complied with but certainly the "spirit" of the rule has been fulfilled.

The WADA Code requires confirmation of a non-negative A sample by confirmation through retesting of its "twin" B sample.

What is the Rule trying to achieve? It is Richard Young's (he wrote the Code) wink at due process. The system affirms and confirms non-negative results twice and then the athlete and neutral third persons will be satisfied by that process.

However, Richard Young changed the lexicon in the Landis CAS case and the change has been set in concrete by further application in Mayo's case, by a particular and peculiar intrpretation of any particular Rule's "spirit".

WADA says an athlete can't have an independant examination of his or her sample because of two factors, one practical and one nefarious;

1) There isn't enough sample to set aside some for later independent testing ( a notion belied by multiple sample testing in the Mayo case,

2) The athlete cannmot be relied upon to honestly effecuate accurate testing on that "sample" causing a rather pristine due process system to be "muddied" by the athlete, his/her agents or non-WADA certified "independent" laboratory analysis.

However, when Young successfully urges his Arbitration Magistrate collegues to slant the "spirit" of the rule away from an athlete's "right" to have a system of due process adjudicate the controversy, to one which is purley result oriented, a "confirmation" of doping, not only is the "letter" of the rule changed but the "spirit" is changed as well.

I find it facinating that inconclusive results are now discarded, no test result can conclusively establish innocense and multiple samples (to which the athlete can have no access because there isn't "enough") is multiply tested at multiple locations until it confirms a non-negative finding.

Through all this the WADA certified LNDD lab seems to isolate itself from other WADA labs in the way it interpretes results. That is further justified by an observation, assertion and finding that LNDD's seeming inability to match its positivity criterea in some areas with other certified WADA labs meets the "spirit" of the ISL because the non-negative is confirmed.

TBV's "recursive metaphor identy thing" is such an elegant observation. Sadly true for athletes in this abomination and for all of us if such is a metaphore for life.

Eightzero said...

racejunkie, it is more than *this* sport.

Behold the Dancing Monkey in Bejing....

Unknown said...

Given all the news in the Olympics (cg-enhanced fireworks, lip-syncing), I think the CAS needs to rule that the olympics are guilty of "entertainment doping", since they are clearly not produced 'naturally'.

Eightzero said...

I need a little help understanding the jurisdictional issues in the CAS/Mayo decision. From what I recall, the Spanish Cycling Federation refused to penalize Mayo because of the testing discrepancies, but *UCI* (not a national ADA) appealed to the CAS. Now that UCI has won an award from the CAS against the Spanish Cycling Federation, how will it be enforced? UCI clearly can exclude Mayo from any race it has governing authority over, but I am rather curious as to the authority the CAS might have to require compliance by a National Cycling Federation. Suppose Mayo applies for a Spanish license, and wants to enter a Spanish race. How can UCI prevent his participation? By threatening them like the did FFC with "exclusion?"

Dont forget that ASO owns 49% of not only the AToC, but UniPublic, the owners of the Vuelta a'Espana. And we all know how well UCI and ASO get along. How cool would it be to see Mayo in the Vuelta *this year*?

And yet, we have this nifty quote from McQ: "The Spanish federation have constantly defended athletes who have been involved in doping cases,” McQuaid said.

How dare they defend athletes, indeed.

Larry said...

8-0, I think I understand your request for assistance. You and I are lawyers and thus do not have the training to understand what goes on in these cases. My best guess at the moment is that CAS has developed the jurisprudential equivalent of a random number generator.

There may be people on this forum with the requisite training, though I'm not sure what training would be required to decipher these decisions. At the moment, I'm leaning towards abnormal psychology, but I'm also OK with consulting an expert in the paranormal.

Eightzero said...

Larry, you and I must find time to drain a few beers and Jack Daniel's together. I'll buy the first round.

racejunkie said...

If they'd been honest in law school, and offered a course in "Obfuscating Weaselling and Gross Self-Justification for Professionals" third year, we'd have all been better prepared for the world of sporting jurisprudence I think.

Cycling Fan said...

rj

Perfetto! Forza e corragio.

Unknown said...

Larry, Now THAT was hilarious! I almost spit green tea all over my computer!

8-0, Can I come? ;-)

Eightzero said...

dailbob, of course! All those who have been "called to the bar" (teehee!) are invited.

But remember: you're strictly liable for what's in that green tea.

While we're at it, if you've been pondering just how to make the bastards responsible, imagine a scenario where a test sample from Michael Phelps from before the games is shown to have "inconclusive results."

And in the privacy of your own mind, imagine Tibetan Operatives (conspiring with nazi frogmen?) gaining access to Chinese gymnasts samples....