This is all less suspicious than the NOP with Rupp’s “thyroid medication,” Mo Farah going from ok to world champion in his mid-twenties, and Salazar himself being dirty AF.
BTC has an actual drug bust and Mo Ahmed just dropped 20 seconds off his PR at the age of 31, yet you claim NOP is more suspicious.
Ignorance is bliss, I guess.
Where has Ahmed ever done a time trial setup in a 10 in the last 5 years? His PB was from a championship race. Is Cheptegei’s PB from a championship? Was Bekele’s? Geb’s? Think that 12:48 last summer was an indicator of what was possible? Think world medals beating other guys with faster bests are an indicator of faster times? Use that thing sitting on top of your neck.
First and foremost I don't think there's any question whatsoever that she doped intentionally. There just isn't any credible evidence that much of that substance would get in her system any other way.
Any positive doping test should result in immediately being expelled from the team and very harsh criticism from everyone involved in the team including other athletes.
Because BTC did none of this I could only assume they are all dirty just like team postal was in cycling. They are a scourge to society and have no place in the sport or society in general. I hope all their careers fiddle out and they have no success ever.
Well Shelby has subsequently moved back up to Oregon as documented on her Instagram and Strava and has picked back up with running . Was she ever officially dropped by Nike and BTC? Is she using Nike facilities and BTC coaches she was before her ban?
If you look at her incredible progression from +15 min to 14:23 5000m PB, or Courtney Frerichs unbelievable progression, you know something’s definitely wrong.
Their group was and still is Dirty. They got bye just because all eyes were on Salazar.
I'm a C
I was blinded by the suspicions with Salazar and now that Shelby was popped, I see the group in a whole new light.
The success that the entire group had was bizarre in retrospect. How come no other group had the sort of consistency and massive improvements they did? Courtney Frerichs is hella sus, and it makes me feel bad for Emma.
and the Jager Fancy Bears, wooof, he made out like MacGyver. No one batted an eye!
I'm also more sus of US distance running as a whole. Before this happened, we branded dopers as foreigners or super aloof and secretive like Galen. But I think all drastic improvements should be looked at twice. Looking back, it was so painfully clear Shelby was cheating. Her progression made no sense and watching her kick past Jenny in 2018 and 2019 was ridiculous.
The only system we have to determine if athletes cheat is the drug protocols established by USADA. The only way to challenge USADA is through CAS arbitration. Houlihan tested positive under USADA and lost in arbitration. What's so abhorrent about the BTC athletes and coaches is that by defending Houlihan they are undermining the US anti doping efforts.
Gee, I wonder if "I agree with CAS" could possibly Liar Soorer (or whatever other name he posts as) who has ruined countless threads with his ridiculous, repetitive semantics arguments over Shelburrito not being guilty of anything.
The only system we have to determine if athletes cheat is the drug protocols established by USADA. The only way to challenge USADA is through CAS arbitration. Houlihan tested positive under USADA and lost in arbitration. What's so abhorrent about the BTC athletes and coaches is that by defending Houlihan they are undermining the US anti doping efforts.
She was popped by AIU not USADA. USADA wouldn't have popped one of their stars.
For me its D because Jerry Schumacher is a coward that won't face the heat of a real interview. He's basically the only major coach this year that hasn't done an interview with Letsrun this year and we all know why. Until he has the balls to answer the hard questions in an open forum, there is a shadow over the whole group no matter what.
A. She's Bernard Lagat in 2003 but without a competent lawyer and technical expert.
Knee-jerk cynics are a dime a dozen.
LOL. Her lawyer was Paul Greene, who already managed to get Lawson off, among others.
Her experts? She had to go shopping abroad, and finally found two in Switzerland and Norway who'd make favorable comments about the American pork market...
Her American experts used all the tricks in the book, such as not checking for the relevant prohormones in the hair analyses or asking whether she ever used any steroids or PEDs in the lie detector test.
Fortunately none of their tricks helped in this too obvious case.
The only system we have to determine if athletes cheat is the drug protocols established by USADA. The only way to challenge USADA is through CAS arbitration. Houlihan tested positive under USADA and lost in arbitration. What's so abhorrent about the BTC athletes and coaches is that by defending Houlihan they are undermining the US anti doping efforts.
She was popped by AIU not USADA. USADA wouldn't have popped one of their stars.
This -- Putting aside that ADRVs are not a reliable tool to determine cheating, Shelby was "prosecuted" by the AIU, and not by USADA.
If it were USADA, it's likely that Tygart, having already done this for at least 27 athletes since WADA rule changes in 2015, would have worked hard with Houlihan to find a way to navigate and circumvent the inequities imposed by the WADA code, and use the guidelines in WADA's own TD and Code to either declare this result an "ATF" rather than an "AAF" (meaning no suspension/ban, but only a finding that the result is ambiguous and further testing is required), or to find "no negligence", and lobby once again, for the 28th time, that the current WADA code needs reform in order to stop railroading athletes to 4-year bans.
I’ll give a couple multiple choice options but I’m mostly looking forward to the discussion that follows.
A) Shelby’s innocent, so nothing changes.
B) Shelby’s one bad apple, so nothing changes.
C) I was not skeptical before, but I’m skeptical now.
D) I was skeptical before, and I’m (still/more) skeptical now.
For me, it’s D. I was skeptical before and I’m more skeptical now. The difference is, the original source of my skepticism was mostly based on the fact that I think all professional runners have the ability to cheat coupled with Jager’s likely doping leak.
Now, Shelby’s weak excuse that was shot down by 2-3 different groups of experts, Jerry’s stance that he’s some naive coach (allegedly didn’t know what he was doing sending his athletes to Dr. Brown, allegedly never heard of nandrolone). Also, no one in the group has spoken out and the group is still letting her train. The optics of it all look extremely bad. Not to mention, the group has had the most outlier improvements seemingly in history in the last few years.
Would love to get a pulse of the board on this.
I would say nothing changes for most.
Many people want to believe that "the sport"/Nike/NOP/BTC/etc. is dirty and are more than happy when they can use any example as confirmation and to reinforce their prejudgements.
I wonder if many wishful fans were dissappointed that no NOP athlete was ever charged with any doping violation. I think they are taking out their frustration at not being "proven" right about Nike and NOP on Jerry, Shelby, and BTC.
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