Drug cheat Jon Drummond on NOP accusations: "I do know... you don't want the truth"

What's amazing is people are calling out cheaters to their face from their Facebook accounts. It's more harsh than anything here that people say is ruining the sport.

I would expect he means anti-doping is, and always has been, a fraud designed to make sports look clean, not to clean them up for real.

Their rationale for banning xenon gas was particularly ludicrous, openly admitting that there is no evidence that it enhances performance, but declaring that it should be banned as dangerous on the absurd grounds that other, non-inert gases such as hydrogen sulfide are dangerous. It demonstrated that USADA is not competent enough to be serious about its mission. Probably more like a corrupt vice cop, in cahoots with some dopers, harassing others, but mainly just there to look busy.

Bad Wigins wrote:

It demonstrated that USADA is not competent enough to be serious about its mission.

Except, it would be WADA, not USADA.

WADA can't help it if the world doesn't understand their role. They have no authority to sanction anyone.

I'm pretty sure I mean USADA. This isn't something you'd know about since you weren't around a year ago, and nobody who wasn't posting here would have noticed.http://www.usada.org/potentially-dangerous-class-substances-added-2014-wada-prohibited-list/

the clowns at USADA wrote

However, there are very serious health risks associated with the inhalation of volumes of concentrated gases such as xenon, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and sulfide, even when done under medical supervision. Hydrogen sulfide is particularly dangerous because an early effect of the gas is to paralyze the olfactory nerves, thereby increasing the danger of toxic dosages. Even if a person survives acute poisoning, they may require months of recuperation.

Xenon is an inert noble gas, not toxic like CO and HS. It is used medically as an anesthetic much like nitrous oxide. While it may be possible to harm yourself breathing xenon, for example by breathing no oxygen at all along with it - though unlikely because xenon is expensive - the USADA is not even trying to allege any xenon-specific risks. All they can think of is to mention some highly toxic gases and hope it looks dangerous in such bad company.

In all likelihood, their inaction on the NOP stuff isn't a matter of holding their cards, but some combination of ineptitude and complicity. If it weren't for Epstein none of it would ever have seen the light of day. I suspect that the principals went to the press in response to USADA dragging its feet.

The Donger wrote:

What's amazing is people are calling out cheaters to their face from their Facebook accounts. It's more harsh than anything here that people say is ruining the sport.

Agree, and some of well credentialed ex athletes, same with the comments at the bottom of the page of The Telegraph article:

And The Telegraph is considered a quality broadsheet.

lol. Drummond sounds like he is doing his version of the "Say goodnight to the bad guy" speech from Scarface.

Except, NADOs don't have authority to ban drugs. WADA does.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28970855

Again, NADOs act at the direction of others.

Jon Drummond has zero credibility on anything other than his bowel movements and needs to be ignored.

If Jon The Clownprince tells you his Sh!t don't stink you believe him, what about his bowel gases?

Fentrekker wrote:

Jon Drummond has zero credibility on anything other than his bowel movements and needs to be ignored.

Fentrekker wrote:

Jon Drummond has zero credibility on anything other than his bowel movements and needs to be ignored.

I disagree. I'm interested in what Jon Drummond has to say, because he was MUCH closer to the action than any of us will ever be. Like it or not, he has personal insight. Will I take him at his word on everything he says? Of course not. But I don't think it makes sense to reflexively label all convicted drug cheats as having no credibility whatsoever. After all, we humans are all liars to some degree. Should everybody be told they have "zero credibility" because of the lies they have told in the past? How would we ever get anywhere?

Thinking back to the US Postal scandal, that was a constant theme: don't believe these jealous loser accusers, because they've been shown to be liars about their own doping, and therefore can't be believed about anything. Luckily, USADA was able to take their information down and corroborate it thoroughly.

Also, Drummond would seem to be somebody with little left to lose, so perhaps would be more likely to divulge useful information.

And Teddy Mitchell is a coach for the World Championships... That's how serious USATF is.

pop_pop! wrote:

Except, NADOs don't have authority to ban drugs. WADA does.

Irrelevant. The point is that USADA is not competent. They're not even sure whether to say hydrogen sulfide, or hydrogen and sulfide.

For its part, WADA seems to have offered no justification for the ban at all. If they have one, it can't be much different from USADA's, because xenon has never been proven to enhance performance, nor is it particularly dangerous.

What really happened is they found out athletes were doing something they didn't know about and would have none of it. Particularly since some of them were Russians and the Russians have been getting bad doping press for sports lately. Plays the old "tough on commie dopers" line which is always popular in the US and UK.

If the Russians started boiling up yew bark, feeding it to cows and then eating the manure, it would be banned, whether it did anything or not.

Dang. Guy basically says that all the evidence against Lance was made up by Tygart and USADA.

He came on a facebook running group I'm on

He talked vaguely about athletics then rambled on a bit more about god

Everyone gave him the chance to tell the story on Gay but he cleared off

My thoughts -- you picked this quote, and people are responding to it, without looking at the context.

What does Drummond say he knows? That sitting down with Salazar and him answering every question truthfully will not stop the circus, and will not change anything.

Then he criticizes the general fan base public -- they say they want the truth, but they really don't -- they just want to be spoon fed juicy stories from the media. Some do want the truth, but most are looking for scandals, and think if there isn't one, there is a coverup, or we need a full investigation.

I'm don't think he has any inside information about NOP's methods or past. In any case, the quoted comment was about the general doping situation.

Jon Drummond is exactly what his nickname denotes..."The Clowned Prince". I was on the European circuit the same time Jon was and witnessed his loud mouthed Bible thumpin' preacher show at every track meet. Jon is an entertainer who loves attention and will do anything to get it. Jon's performances as a sprinter were most likely aided with drugs as were most of his training partners (HGH-Steroids). Jon knows this is the TRUTH. He is the LAST person I would rely on for any credible-truthful information outside of getting busted for promoting and aiding illegal drugs to enhance performance. The true fact is that Alberto has a lot of explaining to do and to be totally transparent as to his training and coaching practices. There are many young athletes of which are now being negatively impacted by these accusations and he needs to step up and take the heat.

Bad Wigins wrote:

In all likelihood, USADA's inaction on the NOP stuff isn't a matter of holding their cards, but some combination of ineptitude and complicity. If it weren't for Epstein none of it would ever have seen the light of day. I suspect that the principals went to the press in response to USADA dragging its feet.

Well put. It would be great if Epstein started digging into just what information USADA has gathered and what - if anything - they've done with it.

Bad Wigins wrote:

pop_pop! wrote:

Except, NADOs don't have authority to ban drugs. WADA does.

Irrelevant. The point is that USADA is not competent. They're not even sure whether to say hydrogen sulfide, or hydrogen and sulfide.

I agree with the idea they picked xenon gas out of a long list of "therapies" with human performance benefits. No question about that.

But, to call NADOs incompetent isn't correct. They are powerless by design.

Also, my point stands, WADA bans stuff, not a NADO like USADA. It is up to sports federations to sanction use of banned techniques/drugs. In this sense we're almost back in 1996 with EPO available in the West and no way to test for use in athletics.

I think Jon Drummond has played the game at a way higher level than most of us here, and he knows the tricks of the trade.

The problem is that his identity is probably wrapped up in his past performances, or rather, the public's perception of the legitimacy of his past performances. Because of that, he can't quite tell the truth.

Why? Because people seem to think doping will turn a donkey into a racehorse. Maybe Jon Drummond runs 9.80s on drugs and 10.10s clean. But people think he was a 9.80-9.90s type on drugs, but would have been high 10.60-10.90s clean.

Of course those numbers are generalizations. But my point is the general public thinks drugs make the athlete, when the reality is they really are just the icing on the cake.

So unless a world class athlete is willing to sacrifice the public's perception of them being a world class athlete, they can't really say, "yeah, I'd been using steroids since I was a senior in high school."

We don't really allow them to tell the truth. The consequences are too severe.