Kelly Holmes' double gold, 800m and 1500m in Athens 2004

Holmes and El Guerrouj were both dirty as well. There was no reliable EPO test at the time.

Les wrote:

Holmes and El Guerrouj were both dirty as well. There was no reliable EPO test at the time.

Les you are 100% correct.

Sorry I didn't want to make the whole thing about doping, I was just thinking how weird it was that this wasn't on my radar at all. I guess Regina Jacobs and Suzy Favor-Hamilton had just ended their careers and we didn't have any world beaters to fill in the gap. There also weren't many repeats from the 2003 WC finals except Tomashova.

Holmes dropped all those doper-mandroids like they were used hankies. What a tribute to moral virtue and ethical preparation!

You're not a fan of the sport are you? Most fans even know about stuff from before they were born as if they were a spectator.

Also the name Yegorova should ring a bell. Think EPO CHEATS OUT.

It was a come back from the misery of failure in Barcelona.

That 1500 was a giveaway, check out the last 100m.

I have always said, if you are running close to known dopers, you are also a doper.

Didn't Natalya Rodriguez get popped also? She was the 1500/steepler right?

Bways01 wrote:

I have always said, if you are running close to known dopers, you are also a doper.

That's dumb. Isaac Kemboi Kimaiyo is a known doper. Does that mean all 1:02 flat and 2:12:35 marathoners are doping? Or Julius Kiprono Mutai, a 1:03/2:14 guy?

Thank you for that. I had completely forgotten Kelly Holmes and that might have been because of the obnoxious British announcers who can see only their athletes in a race.

However she was obviously one of the greatest 800/1500 meter runners of all time. (Obviously her times will not reflect that in the future but we SHOULD regard how runners do during their era and not against the future runners who so obviously gain from science, equipment, medical, and training advances.)

What happened to Kelly Holmes after 2004?

The only non-doper in that field was Douma-Hussar (ncaa champion in 1998, Buffalo) who attended Villanova. She should have been the gold medalist - she was cheated by dopers.

I am willing to give benefit of the doubt to at least one of the Polish runners. They seem to have maintained a clean record compared to other EU countries.

silly git wrote:

The only non-doper in that field was Douma-Hussar (ncaa champion in 1998, Buffalo) who attended Villanova. She should have been the gold medalist - she was cheated by dopers.

So how are those American runners running similar times with a lot less natural speed.

If Homes was doped how come she was injured so much?

ukathleticscoach wrote:

So how are those American runners running similar times with a lot less natural speed.

If Homes was doped how come she was injured so much?

Doping doesn't make you avoid injury... If anything it causes injuries because you are able to train a lot harder than your body can handle. And it explains how the top runners in the world can come back from injuries so fast while mortals take years to come back and never even get back to where they were.

As a Brit I recall this fondly, and I was a lot less cynical about doping then too.

Nobody fancied her for either race seriously, and winning one was great, but to double up was unbelievable. She obviously had a chance, but had spent most of her career as a perennial medal contender or injured, so to step up like that was a huge surprise.

History adds a layer of cynicism, and indeed most of the field were clearly doped, but as a pair of sporting moments, at the time, they are hard to beat.

MovieMadnessGuy wrote:

What happened to Kelly Holmes after 2004?

It looks like she retired the next year due to recurring injuries and growing tired of the pressure of competing. I couldn't find any great interviews from her but I'll look around later.

And it explains how she could run so many hard races back to back finishing with a national record aged 34.

not so sure about that one.a lot of their field athletes look like theyre juiced up to the eyeballs,so it wouldnt be a stretch for their middle distance runners to be,as well.

She won by pacing better than the other runners. Her 800m in particular had almost identical 200m splits.

Yes the well paced doper beat the poorly paced dopers. Look at her last 100m in the 1500m. Ramziesque