olympic games

[Pursuivant]

wau! that jamaican guy really "bolted"
http://www.hs.fi/peking2008/artikkeli/U ... 5238799248

[MagicJ]

He's amazing, i don't imagine he'll be beaten for a very long time. Unfortunately he might not be pushed enough now to break the 100m and 200m records further. I just wonder how fast he could run flat out, in the 100m final he lit up a cigar and cruised home on autopilot. The 200m was closer but he still won by nearly 10metres.
Awesome sprinting.

[Pursuivant]

cool runnings, no klaat

[Salopian]

Unfortunately he might not be pushed enough now to break the 100m and 200m records further.

It seems now that times are the only thing left for him to race! He certainly wasn't racing the others by the time he was on the straight.

Michael Phil-, err, what was his name now?

[pierrot]

So a guy who could barely run the 100m last year in 10.03 now runs the same distance in 9.69, all thanks to training and good food... yeah right.
The Jamaican runners are barely tested for doping outside of competitions back in Jamaica, which could explain such huge increases in performance, and it wouldn't come as a surprise...
http://www.smh.com.au/news/drugs-in-spo ... 18313.html

[MagicJ]

I think performance enhancing drugs should be allowed in the 100m and 200m, i want to see their legs in a blur like speedy gonzalez or the road runner.

[ajdias]

So a guy who could barely run the 100m last year in 10.03 now runs the same distance in 9.69, all thanks to training and good food... yeah right.
The Jamaican runners are barely tested for doping outside of competitions back in Jamaica, which could explain such huge increases in performance, and it wouldn't come as a surprise...

And that (the one timed at 10.03) was his first competition in the distance, at the age of 20.
May well be that you have a case but for the moment there's nothing, other than suspicion, pointing on that direction.

(...)Further 200 metres honours on both the regional and international scale awaited Bolt in 2007. The young Jamaican yearned to run in the 100 metres but coach Mills diverted his attention, stating that he could run the shorter distance if he broke the 200 metres national record.[14] In the Jamaican Championships he ran 19.75 seconds in the 200 metres, breaking the 36-year-old Jamaican record held by Don Quarrie by 0.11 seconds.[15][3]

Mills complied with Bolt's demand to run in the 100 metres and he was entered to run the event at the 23rd Vardinoyiannia meeting in Rethymno, Crete. In his debut run he set a career best of 10.03 seconds, winning the gold medal and feeding Bolt's enthusiasm for the event.
wiki

[ajdias]

Ignorance fuels misinformation: IAAF: Bolt Tested At Least 11 Times in 2008 (Bolt was tested four times out-of-competition by the IAAF and three times in-competition)

[otyikondo]

Having witnessed both of Mr. Bolt's performances - very different in their ways, but equally gobsmacking - I'm crossing my fingers he's the real deal, because it will be the end of track and field if he flags up positive. We've been burned so many times before, but this thing with the 200 metres was a force of nature - it got hardened cynics like me almost believing again. I had no idea of who took the other places in the race. Just couldn't take my eyes off the guy out in front.

There are a couple of things that have come up at the athletics in the Olympics that I have found interesting: the U.S. domination of the two big sprints (male and female) being broken so soon after the Balco incident makes me wonder if the USADA has finally grown a set of teeth, and the British Diana-like obsession with HRH Paula Radcliffe and her travails makes me wonder what the hell has happened to that society; they coldly ignored a woman who'd run her heart out to finish sixth, and focused almost completely on a drama-queen who'd selected herself to run when she wasn't fit. And of course, if one follows the response to the Christine O. case (no good arguing if she did or didn't; only she and her confessor know), it does paint an intriguing picture of national euphoria vs. instant suspicion of any foreigner who runs fast times.

Anyone for ginseng tea?


P.S. Oh, and then there is this....

Todellinen sprinttereiden hyökyaalto lienee Karibian mereltä vasta tulossa. Tulevaisuudessa jamaikalaiset sprintterit saattavat olla yhtä kysyttyjä vahvistuksia muiden maiden joukkueisiin kuin kenialaiset kestävyysjuoksijat muutama vuosi sitten.

I guess Qatar and Bahrain will be the first to divvy up a big wad of dollars - the Bahrainis bought Rashid Ramzi from Morocco, and Qatar has been collecting potential medallists like cigarette-cards.

[pierrot]

Ignorance fuels misinformation: IAAF: Bolt Tested At Least 11 Times in 2008 (Bolt was tested four times out-of-competition by the IAAF and three times in-competition)

11 times

And how many times by the Jamaican "anti-doping agency"? None? Maybe because they didn't even have a real anti-doping agency until shortly before the games?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 551396.ece

And the regional doping agency, the Caribbean Regional Anti-Doping Organisation? Well, Jamaica is not a member ... I wonder why.

"Clouds do still remain on the Jamaican horizon, however. Perhaps the biggest concern for outside observers is the lack of a fully functioning anti-doping body on the island.

First mooted in 2005, the Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission (Jadco) remains an organisation with more good intentions than testing kits. Repeated promises have been made to fast-track the necessary legislation and funds through parliament but three years later all that is clear is the island's sprinters are faster than its lawmakers.

Neither the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) nor the Jamaican authorities have been able to confirm to BBC Sport that Jadco is actually operating yet. The situation is further muddied by Jamaica's decision to opt out of the Wada-approved Caribbean Regional Anti-Doping Organisation (Rado).

The only organisation currently undertaking widespread testing in Jamaica is the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

The Monaco-based governing body has raised its game in recent years, and now actively targets countries without adequate anti-doping regimes of their own (Jamaica is the IAAF's fifth most tested nation), but question marks remain over the effectiveness and transparency of its operations. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic ... 476274.stm

If a whole country with no real anti-doping control all of a sudden comes up with top athletes who win one medal after the other (just look at the ladies running), that raises suspicions.

But hey, if it makes people dream, keep on dreaming about a clean 100M. My personal estimate would be that whoever wins the 100m does not cheat the others because they probably all use the little extra stuff.

A good article about what should be done to get the sport better:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/low/front_page/7095263.stm

[pierrot]

-Double post-

[ajdias]

Look, I hate as much as you to be contradicted but it seems to be very wrong and unfair to start to raise suspicions when all you have is a bunch of conjunctures. I don't have much of an attachment for the sport or the athlete and haven't even seen the 200m final footage; it simply seems wrong that anyone standing out must immediately be thrown mud without any supporting evidence. Besides, if like you say "they probably all use the little extra stuff" why haven't any of the other keep pace with this junior that didn't break the 10 second until a few months ago?

[sinikettu]

Once upon a time money had little or no influence on the Olympics.
One had to be an amatuer to compete.
Paavo Nurmi was banned from the Olympic games in 1938 when the Swedes said he had received.." too much money for his travel expenses to a meet in Germany. " Nice neighbours.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paavo_Nurmi

In those days drugs and drug testing was not even considered..perhaps they all sucked a sugar cube

But as soon as money/payment became the norm..then money could be made, not just by the athletes, but by "Sponsors"..BIG Money.
So "sponsored" cheats appeared..remember those Eastern German field ladies, built like panzers!!
Problem then was it was not possible to detect whatever they were taking.
Eventualy the "good" chemist caught up with the "bad" chemist and those ladies disappeared.

The Finns have had a brush with this world of drugs a few times, when their coaches thought that a new "pill from Switzerland" could not be detected.
But it could, if the chemist knew what to look for, and some rival team/coach tipped off the testers, (After making sure all of their own team had stopped taking the same pill of course). Another friendly neighbour

So could there be some new as yet "undetectable" go faster pills?
Of course there could be.
But, sooner or later someone will blow the whistle and some medals, perhaps, will have to be taken back.
Or will the authories quietly hide it under the carpet for fear that one more "high profile" drug scandal will (as Otyikondo says in his post above)..be the end if track and field sponsored games.

I note that todays Finnish papers use the word "uskomaton" to describe Mr Bolts performance...
My bet is every sour grape sucking US sprint coach will share this opinion and be hell bent on proving that Mr Bolt was not sucking sugar knobs.

[pierrot]

Look, I hate as much as you to be contradicted but it seems to be very wrong and unfair to start to raise suspicions when all you have is a bunch of conjunctures. I don't have much of an attachment for the sport or the athlete and haven't even seen the 200m final footage; it simply seems wrong that anyone standing out must immediately be thrown mud without any supporting evidence. Besides, if like you say "they probably all use the little extra stuff" why haven't any of the other keep pace with this junior that didn't break the 10 second until a few months ago?

because in most countries you have active doping agencies who will check the athletes on a regular base.
Just look at what happened to the Russian female track and field team before the olympics (or female weightlifting in a lot of countries ...):
http://grg51.typepad.com/steroid_nation ... galey.html
it's so easy to evade those tests in countries without independent doping agencies as described in the last article of my previous post.
I would LOVE to see athletes and competitions where I wouldn't have to think the whole time about "how did they do it", but I fear that as Sinikettu said, with the further commercialization of sporting events certain sports (mainly based on strength and endurance) are going in the wrong way. Just look at cycling... the Tour de France, Giro, etc have become complete jokes, athletes from some countries (Italy and Spain to name those in cycling ) are barely trying to hide their doping efforts and see it as normal.
If some drugs make the difference in income between 50.000 dollar a year and 5.000.000, the temptation is very big and the doping actors have always one or two steps advance compared to the anti-doping agencies.

[Rosamunda]

Maybe we should let them all take what they like. It might produce some interesting television and who knows... even lead to some major breakthroughs in pharmaceuticals. If they want to be guinea-pigs and they get satisfaction from doing what they do then let them go ahead. BTW, as far as I could tell, the Tour de France (albeit a joke event) got the same TV coverage this year as any. Eventually some parallel "amateur" sports infrastructure will emerge with its own governing watchdog and the ethos of participation will return. Or not.