Despite the tidal wave of evidence (circumstantial or other) about Kenyan (and from elsewhere!) drug cheaters, I accept the possibility that Asbel Kiprop is clean and was a victim. Yes, the evidence shouts "guilty", but, my god, I bet the unscrupulous could set up any one athlete with ease to fail a drug test. I can see that smart, scheming, devious opposition figures have the advantage when it comes to victimizing anyone they want.
I'm actually amazed there aren't more failed drug tests.
I absolutely suspect that there is massive drug cheating in our sport. It must be such a downer for a clean, elite athlete to know that legitimate glory might be impossible to attain because the bastards get away with it so often. It's just that I also try to picture myself in the shoes of any clean athlete. I see that one drink of a liquid, or one ingesting of the wrong tainted food (or one smooching session...who the hell knows? -- not me), and that's all she wrote in the court of public opinion. That's all she wrote in the way an athlete pays the price.
I am NOT saying that Asbel Kiprop is definitely a victim, only that I'm willing to accept that he could be.
And I'll never know the truth. I can't. I'm a major cynic, but I'm old enough to know how easy it is to be victimized in this world!
Some - most - respondents will adamantly refuse to accept any other conclusion except that Kiprop is a guilty SOB, and that his decisions to cheat have robbed many others of the rewards they justly deserved, including financial. Some respondents will claim that they absolutely know that Kiprop is a drug cheat. Nope, they don't know, I don't know, nobody knows except Asbel Kiprop and, at most, a small handful of others, either his confidentes or his victimizer(s).
Yep, Kiprop may have cheated and, consequently, screwed over a lot of his competitors. And then again, he might have been screwed over by others. Regardless of the ultimate truth, the man's name is forever tarnished. Forever. No way of changing that.