A recent article in the NYT implicates recently retired Mo Greene as a long time drug cheat. Many consider Mo to be the greatest sprinter of all time and he’s almost undeniably the best 100m specialist of all time. While the article is more about Trevor Graham, his dealings with a drug dealer by the name of Angel Heredia and their pending court battles, it reveals some good information on the und
Every time something like this comes out it makes me think EVERYONE is doping. Obviously thats not the case, but it makes me disappointed hearing these stories. Obviously we need to give athletes the benefit of the doubt, but how are we not apparently catching these guys? Obviously, drug testing needs to get a lot better or these stories are all a farse, which I dont think is the case. Is it seriously that easy to beat drug tests? It seems like it.
True or False. This is a black eye for the sport. The manner in which doping controls are handled in olympic sport have done more harm than good. Especially from a marketing or public relations stand point, this fact is supported the reluctance to adopt the WADA code by numerous professional sport governing bodies. Olympic sport has a tradition of the “best” (draconian)doping controls since 1967 i.e., longer suspensions, random testing, and uniform code. Yet overall the public perception of these disciplines can be characterised as poor. Whereas pro sports, that adopted the code in 2003 maintain a respectable public profile. They fully understand that it is not natural to play 162 games at MLB level or 16 weeks of collisions at NFL level without artificial assistance. It’s simply not possible. The sooner we all make peace with that fact the better.
Bullshit. Nobody wants their sports heroes to be steroids enhanced. Whats the next step? Kids dreaming about the next chems to hit the shelf rather than going out and busting their ass in order succeed?
I think if you go to the Olympics, the months leading up to it should require random weekly blood tests paid for by the athletes sponsors or country. DNA matching on random ones to ensure no switching blood samples and to have a genetic model on file to help prevent genetic doping in the future. Mandatory compliance. If we want a clean sport we have to take the giant step forward and treat everyone like they are doping in order to prove they are not.
Sound too 1984? With todays tech, even if doping were allowed there would still be people who used more in order to get the bigger advantage.
Sports illustrated did a three-part series on sports and PDA’s in one recent issue. While I would love to believe that MO was clean, it wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t. SI pointed out that while sports brought drug use into the limelight, they are a reflection of the use in society. Rappers (50 cent, Mary J. Blige), Actors(Stallone), and even policemen have all used drugs to increase their physiques.
Sports illustrated did a three-part series on sports and PDA’s in one recent issue. While I would love to believe that MO was clean, it wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t. SI pointed out that while sports brought drug use into the limelight, they are a reflection of the use in society. Rappers (50 cent, Mary J. Blige), Actors(Stallone), and even policemen have all used drugs to increase their physiques.
Sports illustrated did a three-part series on sports and PDA’s in one recent issue. While I would love to believe that MO was clean, it wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t. SI pointed out that while sports brought drug use into the limelight, they are a reflection of the use in society. Rappers (50 cent, Mary J. Blige), Actors(Stallone), and even policemen have all used drugs to increase their physiques.
1. What is the 100m time that brings one into “suspect” status?
2. What is the 100m time that is certain to have been pharm-ed out?
3. While anything is possible, is it reasonable to think someone has run under 9.9, 9.8 clean? ( I used to pose this same question asking...under 10.0 so I do allow for honest effort and improvements to training
Perhaps my biggest disapointment is with the coach who gets “anointed” as a great, when the anointing is really about the “ointment”
Perhaps my biggest disapointment is with the coach who gets “anointed” as a great, when the anointing is really about the “ointment”
Thinking about copy-writing that last one…
You should, thats got a nice ring to it.
I’m not sure if you can ever just use times as a marker of who is possibly using. I think it would be better to use times plus form, like with Gatlin. His WR season was his worst form wise. I don’t think anyone without PEDs gets faster while their form gets crappier.
Sports illustrated did a three-part series on sports and PDA’s in one recent issue. While I would love to believe that MO was clean, it wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t. SI pointed out that while sports brought drug use into the limelight, they are a reflection of the use in society. Rappers (50 cent, Mary J. Blige), Actors(Stallone), and even policemen have all used drugs to increase their physiques.
I’ve always looked past the actual performance, and really examined the progress across seasons, and the variability within a season. Although I know that you can’t go out and run 10.0x, 9.9x every 3-5 days, but I think we have all been around the sport long enough to know and understand the normal variation of performances for a healthy athlete during a season.
Re: Mo specifically: The thing that initially made me suspicious of Mo was how much he fundamentally changed as a sprinter from his pre-HSI career (1995-1996) to his 1997 breakout season.. In 1995-1996, he was still quite good (Indoor WC team in the 60m), but was kind of the “stand up and turnover like crazy”-type sprinter.
As we all know, in 1997, he re-emerged in Indy at USATF exhibiting a stride length borne from some ridiculous ground forces that I had never seen the likes of (at his height). Yes, technically he was much better than before, but the technique without the horsepower doesn’t mean a whole lot. Plus, he didn’t move to LA to train with HSI until late ‘96 (correct me if I have my dates wrong) and by June of ‘97 was a whole different cat. That is a pretty dramatic transformation in less than a year…
Sorry about the ramble, just kinda hits a chord with me as that (mid-late 90s) was the time I made a embarrasingly futile attempt to actually do something in the 100m. The numbers that got put up during that time frame were just crazy. I think you might agree that during that time the 10s barrier became a joke. Maybe I’m just showing my age, but it seemed like it happened awfully quick.
Can’t remember where I read this, but I have heard that the agreement between HSI/HSI athletes and BALCO was for promoting ZMA, Conte’s legit product. At least that is what they say.
I want to believe and say he is not guilty but why is your name thrown in with others if you aren’t in the herd? If Heredia is lying he could simply name lesser known, random athletes to CYA. Why if you are trying to CYA would you bring MORE scrutiny onto yourself by naming high profile athletes?
That coupled with the observations of many world-class coaches has me wondering.
I agree with JJ that you have to look at the progressions. However there are some low level coaches who accuse low level athletes of using roids just because they PR by .4 in a year. That amuses me…alot.
I look forward to the Say it ain’t so Flo and Say it ain’t so Ato threads
The numbers that got put up during that time frame were just crazy. I think you might agree that during that time the 10s barrier became a joke. Maybe I’m just showing my age, but it seemed like it happened awfully quick.
