Breaking: Gressier found Makhloufi’s bag

Jimmy I think he was wrong to look in the bag and even though he states that he has laudable intentions to bring cheaters out into the open I don’t think his method was the right way to go about it.

He had no business looking in another person’s bag even though he may have had laudable intentions.

This was the job of the training center staff and not another athlete. Obviously for the reasons that other athletes may be jealous of top performing athletes and try to frame them. I’m not seeing this happen but it’s a possibility and so it will make the case very complicated to solve.

Once again, Jimmy is one of my favorite athletes, but I think he made a big mistake to go about the situation in the way that he did. Hopefully he can show that he had good intentions because otherwise the case will be very complex to solve.

I have also just checked all the products seen in the photos of the products contained within the bag and they are all as far as I know legal products however jimmy suggests that these products are used to mask EPO. He may be right but he may be wrong and so we really have to let the so-called expert solve this case otherwise we will go around in circles. There are a lot of natural supplements and all oligo elements which are products to replace losses from the body during intense training

Jimmy was due to go to train in Portugal at this time but he has decided to come back to the training center in Paris because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This will be a very difficult situation to rectify because of the way Jimmy handled it. I’m convinced that Jimmy is a clean athlete but I think his methodology and the way he went about this was not beneficial to the case.

Mehdi Baala The former 3:28 -1500 runner Should’ve been the person authorized to look in the bag in conjunction with other officials at the training center as witnesses. Baala is now one of the top officials in the French athletics Federation.

Gressier may have had good intentions but he has not made the case very complex and difficult to solve

Typo: there was an error.

“he has now made the case complicated and difficult to solve. “This is what should have been written.

SpeechIess wrote:

So he was violating private property. What a hero.

He violated private property so we could come 1% closer to a conclusion we already had about Makh

I thought "Snitches get Stitches".. would that double for someone rooting through someone elses bag first?

The fact that an athlete rummaged through that bag before any officials got to it makes it impossible to go after Makhloufi on the basis of its contents, since he could have planted stuff.

And from the photos of the contents on the TV show, there was no smoking gun of drugs use anyway.

Nothing to see here.

You have summed up the case very well. And unfortunately in my book JG has lost a lot of credibility because of what he did. I’m very sad because really I’m a huge fan of JG and his running and the way he has succeeded in running coming from an impoverished background with seven brothers and sisters living in low cost housing, subsidized housing, in the north of France (Boulogne sur Mer) just across the waters from Great Britain but his actions here do not bring him a lot of credit unfortunately. Frankly, I was shocked that he had the audacity to look into the bag which was not his. I prefer to think he had good intentions but it still raises the question of what his true intentions were?

As for Makhloufi, he and the Algerian athletics Federation have remained completely mum on the whole subject but presumably we will get some word from him and them at some point in the future hopefully.

The whole irony of this case in my opinion is that JG‘s actions in the final analysis may have undermined the possible infraction that Makhloufi committed and the corresponding legal case

"Greisser planted them", case thrown out, investigation closed, whole lot of nothing

Who's to say Gressier didn't plant the evidence?

Alan55 wrote:

The fact that an athlete rummaged through that bag before any officials got to it makes it impossible to go after Makhloufi on the basis of its contents, since he could have planted stuff.

And from the photos of the contents on the TV show, there was no smoking gun of drugs use anyway.

Nothing to see here.

This is true. I know that the French police still operate in the 19th century and forensics is unheard of there.

Ghost1 wrote:

Mehdi Baala The former 3:28 -1500 runner Should’ve been the person authorized to look in the bag in conjunction with other officials at the training center as witnesses. Baala is now one of the top officials in the French athletics Federation.

Gressier may have had good intentions but he has not made the case very complex and difficult to solve

Jesus, is that the one who had the punch up with another 'French' North African and beat up the 14 year old girl mascot on live TV?

shootpost wrote:

"Greisser planted them", case thrown out, investigation closed, whole lot of nothing

It is unlikely that GG planted the evidence because why else would he have admitted to going into the room and opening his bag? Unless he has a super low IQ which I doubt is the case this is an unlikely scenario.

However, because of his actions, unfortunately, JG has made the case very difficult to prove against the Algerian ace and it is possible the case will be thrown out because of the lack of concrete proof that the Herculean Maghreb speedster violated rules.

+1

Source: l’equipe.fr

Makhloufi told Algerian agency APS that it was "a slanderous campaign (against) a clean champion". “I have had a biological passport for years and I am regularly checked, like all champions, by international bodies, namely the International Federation of Athletics (World Athletics) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) , added Taoufik Makhloufi. I have never had a positive test. I am a clean athlete and it is not today that I will change. "

"This is not the first time that I have been attacked in this way"

Taoufik Makhloufi

“I have never touched doping products throughout my career, continued the Algerian founder. All the medals and victories won at major world events have come about through hard work, self-sacrifice, patience and sacrifice. [...] I have nothing to do with this affair, I am serene. It is an unhealthy attempt aimed at damaging my reputation and the image of an Olympic champion. [...] This is not the first time that I have been attacked in this way. They seek to denigrate and hurt me. They try to smear Algerian sport through my personality, but they will never succeed in achieving their goal. [...] This unhealthy attempt, which is not the first of its kind, will motivate me more to be able to meet the next challenges. "

Coevett wrote:

Ghost1 wrote:

Mehdi Baala The former 3:28 -1500 runner Should’ve been the person authorized to look in the bag in conjunction with other officials at the training center as witnesses. Baala is now one of the top officials in the French athletics Federation.

Gressier may have had good intentions but he has not made the case very complex and difficult to solve

Jesus, is that the one who had the punch up with another 'French' North African and beat up the 14 year old girl mascot on live TV?

Correct. The punch up was with mekhissi- actually one of makhloufi’s occasional training partners under DuPont.

In defense of Makhloufi, up till now in his long career he has never been the subject of an investigation or probe into illegal doping so one has to respect the athlete and give him the benefit of the doubt I feel. This is a most unfortunate case because it has become a public shambles now with the admission of the French athlete going into his bag and looking what was in there etc. which will really make the case very difficult to prove against the athlete.

In addition, the Algerian athletics Federation is 100% behind the Herculean athlete and will defend him in court if necessary even though the Algerian athletics Federation is by no means a rich federation.

Unfortunately, no matter the result both TMac and Jimmy G. will both come out the worst because the first one has been named as a possible doper and the second person has somewhat discredited himself by his actions by going into a bag that was not his in a room that was not his at the national training center in Paris. I am really gutted that Jimmy did that because previous to this I’ve always held the northern French distance ace and fast food lover in high esteem and I think he made a mistake here.

Quote: “ Jesus, is that the one who had the punch up with another 'French' North African and beat up the 14 year old girl mascot on live TV?”

No, Baala has a very clean record and was not the one who punched the mascot on live TV. The one who did that is the superstar French steeple chase champion Benabad Mekhissi.

In addition, with regard to the fight in Monaco when Baala had a dust up with Mekhisisi, the situation was that Baala lightly put his head against Mekhissi’s head and then Mekhissi started throwing punches.

Fighting French maghribians. Baala and Mekhissi.

https://youtu.be/FYcNzjZK8P0

Maghribians sometimes have short tempers and their “honor” is really important so when someone insults their “honor” they will fight back immediately - at least this is often the case especially with maghribians who come from modest socioeconomic backgrounds like these chaps. This is a cultural norm. It does not mean they are necessarily bad people. It could be a matter of loss of control and poor impulse control. They are merely replicating behavior that they grew up with.

This was a situation which got out of hand because they were both bitter rivals. In addition, Baala was always favored by the French Federation and was the poster boy whereas Mekhissi was often considered the Black sheep in the French Federation and denied the same opportunities so there was jealousy there. In fact it got so bad that Mekhissi was not even allowed to train at the national training center for many years. Benabad Mekhissi felt discriminated against. One has to feel sorry for him in someway.