"...Levins ADMITS to taking asthma medication after SUU...."

If they had capitalized like you did then maybe I would agree. As it is presented there is nothing wrong with the headline.

It's relevant because we KNOW that NOP abuses asthma medication, so it's related. If he had said he is on some medication not mentioned in the BBC/ProPublica pieces, then it would be a different story. It would be inappropriate to say "Levins ADMITS to taking propecia" but I think it's totally fine to say "ADMITS to taking asthma medication" because we know NOP has abused it.

Trash journalism 101 wrote:

I love how letsrun headlines this non-story. Make it look like Levins is guilty of something, and then ADMITS to it.

Am I the only one here who hates this angle that letsrun is playing all of the time?

You are NOT the only one that hates this angle. This has become a witch hunt. I'm a Levins fan and find it appalling that LRC is going crazy because the guy takes Asthma meds.

It is amazing to me. Hasay runs a medicore time. Yawn. Jager runs a massive PR. Not a blip re: that he might have a TUE or whatever. You can't have it both ways.

I think its incredibly naive to think that NOP is somehow bending or breaking the rules, but other American training groups are pure as the driven snow. Not to mention the Africans, Eastern Europeans, etc.

My gut is that NOP is like the NE Patriots. They look for loopholes and exploit them. Do they cross the line and break the rules? I don't know.

I do believe that there are other American and International athletes that do break the rules. But they are apparently of no interest to LRC. Pathetic.

The trust fund babies Bros Johnson are all about going after NOP/Nike/Oregon. Nearly every time they see a chance to take a swipe, they do. Now mind you sometimes they have to acknowledge something good about their arch nemeses, but even then it is often in a begrudging tone.

Levins "admits" is complete BS. Not asking one question of Goucher or Magness or Cook and then grilling Levins is a joke.

And if you're going go after pros who take/have taken asthma meds (or thyroid Meds a la Magness and Goucher), then be a journalist and survey all runners - not just your targets.

Ahhhh!

Here's what you're not seeing; the Brojos ARE benefitting from this, the usage rate on the site increases, they are getting more money from their advertisers .

The more sensationalism they can bring to it , the better for them .

Clearly they have a deep seated hatred for Nike (perhaps they couldn't get sponsored by them ?????)

Whatever it is, the more sensational they get, the more clicks ...

It's become like the NY Post, another man bites dog story ....

We've asked other groups about it. They just aren't on them, aren't defensive about it and there is no allegation that they and thus there is nothign to really ask. I'm 100% cetain that Matt Tegenkamp would be happy to share with the world the form he fills out when drug tested.

Alberto has in the past said, "“None of our athletes are on any sports-specific supplement other than beta alanine, which is an amino acid. Other than that, it’s iron, vitamin D and that’s it. You don’t really need anything else.”

His "you don't really need anything else" statement is clearly at odds with what the Gouchers, Magness and Epstein have reproted.

A sports editor for a major UK paper was there. He watched the Levins interview and thought we should actually have done a story with the following headline, "Levins appears uncomfortable when asked about what medictions he's started taking as a member of the NOP."

We refused to do that and kept our headline very factual.

It's very hard to get anything out of them as they are very precise and dogy in waht they say. Weldon asked if Levins was on thyroid or asthma and Levins said he wasn't on thryoid so weldon had to follow up about asthma.

When I was talking to Rowbury, I asked Rowbury if she was on any prescriptions drugs or anything like that? Rowbury replied, “I’m not on any TUE’s. I don’t take an inhaler. Since joining Alberto’s group, I have a very limited supplement routine.”

So I still don't know what she isn't on. She just denied being on an inhaler and not having a TUE.

I should have followed up like Weldon. Shannon are you on thyroid?

What supplements exactly are you in.

Both gave answers denying it but without providing all the facts.

Clickcrack peddlers wrote:

[quote]anyone wrote:

The trust fund babies Bros Johnson are all about going after NOP/Nike/Oregon. Nearly every time they see a chance to take a swipe, they do. Now mind you sometimes they have to acknowledge something good about their arch nemeses, but even then it is often in a begrudging tone.

Levins "admits" is complete BS. Not asking one question of Goucher or Magness or Cook and then grilling Levins is a joke.

And if you're going go after pros who take/have taken asthma meds (or thyroid Meds a la Magness and Goucher), then be a journalist and survey all runners - not just your targets.

You can have arch enemies and you can have a nemesis, but not an arch nemesis.

So your comments can be taken as saying the Johnson in Johnson brothers are asssholes, right?

anyone wrote:

Hasay runs a medicore time. Yawn. Jager runs a massive PR. Not a blip re: that he might have a TUE or whatever. You can't have it both ways.

I think you need a far better understanding of what that phrase actually means.

Until the Johnsons come out and say something like, "Too bad the NOP can't be as squeaky-clean as Schumacher's peeps," you can't accuse them of giving Jager et al. any sort of a pass.

Surely you have noticed that, at the moment, the coach of the NOP is being accused of malfeasance by about 20 people and counting and Coach Schumacher is being accused of nothing?

anyone wrote:

I do believe that there are other American and International athletes that do break the rules. But they are apparently of no interest to LRC. Pathetic.

Has the BBC done an expose' on any of these athletes? Has Dave Epstein written about them? Do you understand what a rhetorical question is?

Funny but I don't recall seeing videos or written interviews where you have asked other athletes such questions. Please provide links to the videos or news stories.

Thanks much.

You just basically proved the OP point. You aren't even trying to hide all your NOP conspiracy theories and baseless suspicions, are you? You own this site, and that post alone screams out everything that you think and feel about every NOP athlete. It's pathetic, rojo. It never even crosses your mind that Cam might actually be an honest person, does it? Dodgy? He has more integrity in his fingernail than you have in your whole being.

This is really strange.

I've seen a lot of criticism of the site owners over the years. A lot of it could be made to stick, although you cannot keep hundreds of noisy and often feeble-minded regulars happy at the same time.

But to hear some of you tell it, the Bros-Jo CREATED this story. They are uniquely responsible for Mark Daly and David Epstein's separate, although somewhat cooperative, investigations and are using this two-headed monster to shoehorn their own unfair treatment of poor Al Sal and his runners into the mix.

Any thought that if you wanna point fingers, it might be the people above Cam who should be your targets? (Levins doesn't strike me as at all dirty, for what that's worth. I think the guy rocks.)

Do you expect Letsrun to just ignore certain elements of the story?

We are so lucky there's little science about elite athletes and public health. There would be more questions than answers.

Wildly varying Test levels regardless of gender

Asthma being cured.

Bizarre blood levels.

Asthma medications are a classic PED. You get some race-day benefits. It's not epo though.

Cycling had 80+ podiums in 2013 where the athlete tested positive on a urinalysis in competition and it was excused with a Tue. They are testing positive, and that is HARD to do!!

You can develop quite the encyclopedia of tues in IOC sport.

The full headline is "Cam Levins Discusses Doping Allegations, Admits To Starting To Take Asthma Medication After Leaving Southern Utah

so don't take it out of context.

I actually had thought at 3am about whether to use the words "admits to starting" asthma medication vs saying "says he started".

When I started the message board thread I used the "says" line: Cam Levins Addresses Doping Allegations, Says He Takes Asthma Medication for Adult Onset Asthma

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6561042

The Oxford Dictionary definition of admits is: "confess to be true or to be the case, typically with reluctance."

That almost perfectly describes what happened.

Watch the video yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=59&v=w7pI0mar5rA

The transcript loses some of the nuance, but I asked Cam if he took thyroid or asthma medication. He said he didn't take thyroid medication and ignored the asthma part of the question.

I then asked if he took any prescription drugs and then he said he took asthma medication and then we got into when he started taking it so I'm fine with the word admits. A British journalist at the meet wondered if we were going to do an article on how reluctantly Cam wanted to discuss his asthma medication.

If Cam had just come out and said "I take asthma medication" I don't think I would have used the word admits as the reluctance part wouldn't have been there, but I could have used it.

Transcript:

LRC’s Weldon Johnson: Some of the grey area stuff is about prescription drugs and supplements. Do you take any thyroid or asthma medication?

Cam: I don’t take any thyroid medication no. I know there has been a lot of rumors about that but I don’t know of anyone besides Galen of who takes it within our group?

Wejo: No prescription drugs?

Cam: I have some medication I take for my asthma, but that is something that is wrong with me. I’m asthmatic.

Wejo: Was that before you came on with the (Nike Oregon) Project?

Cam: Yeah, I was dealing with it before I joined the project actually. A little bit after the London Olympics I started having quite a bit of difficulty with it. So it was before I joined the project.

It was a little like when Steve asked Treniere Moser if she was on thyroid medication and she said not "at this time". He didn't pick up on it at the time, but it begs a follow up question of when and if she has been on it.

James Robert Duggar wrote:

But to hear some of you tell it, the Bros-Jo CREATED this story.

....

Do you expect Letsrun to just ignore certain elements of the story?

Of course they did! Anything to add doubt works for the Iaaf/usatf disinformation interns

Usatf would rather none of the story get published. Nike too!!

Hey rojo and wejo, how about this Oxford dictionary definition? Have you heard of it?

aspersion:

/əˈspərZHən/ An attack on the reputation or integrity of someone or something

Would you like me to interview you on camera, twist your words and write about you on the internet?

Clickcrack peddlers wrote:

Funny but I don't recall seeing videos or written interviews where you have asked other athletes such questions. Please provide links to the videos or news stories.

Thanks much.

You just don't like the fact I'm asking the NOP the question.

Other groups are:

1) Not coached by a coach who had been accused of violating prescription drug laws by multiple athletes who said they were told to take prescription drugs they did not have a prescription for.

2) Not coached by a coach who Sports Illustrated said in the 1990s, "experimenting with the corticosteroid prednisone in an attempt to revive his deficient adrenal system"

3) Coached by a coach who has been accused of gaming the TUE process.

So when we have limited time with athletes we ask the most relevant questions. If there weren't allegations of violating the ethics of sport by abusing prescription drugs, we likely wouldn't ask the questions.

I asked Carmelita Jeter about her association with Mark Block but I don't ask other athletes about their associations with their ex-agents because it's an non story.

And to the starter of this thread, if asthma medication was not in the news you would be fine with my headline. If I said, "Cam Levins Admits He Uses an Underwater Treadmill" or "No Longer Runs 100 miles a week" you wouldn't think anything of it. It is because of allegations of the TUE system being abused that it is relevant to find out if Cam Levins takes asthma medication.

wejo wrote:

The Oxford Dictionary definition of admits is: "confess to be true or to be the case, typically with reluctance."

That almost perfectly describes what happened.

Watch the video yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=59&v=w7pI0mar5rA

The transcript loses some of the nuance, but I asked Cam if he took thyroid or asthma medication. He said he didn't take thyroid medication and ignored the asthma part of the question.

+1

I initially was not interested in the Levins interview. But Rowbury's response to the questions seemed cooked up a bit, especially when she said she couldn't comment because the allegations came from a time before she joined NOP as well as the vague response about her limited supplement routine.

So I watched the Levins interview and was struck by how he had the same response: the allegations were from the time before he joined NOP (Ok). But what was even more striking was how awkwardly he evaded the question about asthma meds. I'm also curious what specific meds he's taking for the "asthma" - is he on pred and then needs testosterone as a TUE when his numbers plummet because of the meds? It was like watching a kid get busted with a cookie in his hand.

For those who are curious: a little bit of pred (7.5 mg daily, just above physiologic replacement) drops down testosterone levels. It's been known since the late 70s: