asdfadf wrote:
Famous Moroccan dopers:
Mo Trafeh
Amine Laalou
Abderrahime Bouramdane
Mariem Alaoui Selsouli
Abderrahim Goumri
Other high profile Moroccan athletes
Mekhissi-Benabbad - The steepler that punched a mascot
Iguider
Morceli - One of the fastest all time at a time when EPO wasn't tested
El Guerrouj - Fastest all time when drug testing wasn't a thing
Khannouchi - WR in 2002 when testing was minuscule
Is questioning Khannouchi fair?
It seems the list is down to Solinsky, Joe Falcon, and Khannouchi and I think there's plenty of reason to question Khannouchi with the history of Moroccan doping. His WR was as an American but look at Mo Trafeh. He was America and continued to dope in Morocco.
You're lumping Khannouchi with a huge group of suspicious individuals simply because he's Moroccan.
Khannouchi arrived in the US in 1992 when he was ~21, and wasn't even relevant on the distance running scene until about 5 years later. When he set his World Record in London (US record as well when doing so), he had become a citizen and had been living here for 10 years.
Unlike many of the other runners you mentioned, Khannouchi was pretty far removed from doping groups/culture. Yes, there's reason to suspect many Moroccan runners since many of them have been caught in the past, Morocco itself is has minimal testing, and there are many groups with ingrained doping cultures. However, besides being born there, Khannouchi barely even has any association with the country at all. His "training group" never had a doping violation, his coach was his wife, who was a US citizen from the Dominican Republic, and as far as I'm aware, he lived and did his training entirely in New York after coming to the US. Early in his marathon career, I recall there was even some controversy where New Yorkers were upset that Khannouchi debuted in Chicago instead of NY.
Khannouchi lived entirely in the US, trained entirely in the US, married a US citizen, and was coached by a US citizen who has never had a single accusation of being associated with doping practices, unless you count people on Letsrun accusing Khannouchi of doping. Contrast this with any of the actual Moroccans who live in the country with the shady groups there, or guys like Trafeh who live here but still returned to Morocco to train.