Not one for conspiracies, but with so many American superstars dropping out of Worlds like flies, I think something's afoot ...

Of course something is up.

it's either sports psychology, drug related related or injury related.

I personally think it's in that order. Quite simple

bianca knight tweeted:

"Racing breaks up training. For the past few years, a lot of athletes have focused solely on training v competing. IMO, the intensity of training is contributing to the injuries & inconsistencies in competitions. There has to be a balance."

A game is the foot

You answered a question with a question. In other words, you didn't answer the question.

In 2022 alone: Aprot, Cherono, Kacheran, Kipserem, Kipyokei, Kisorio, Korio, Renju, ... so maybe around 10? Hard to keep track...

Whoa! Veritable list of household names there. Mortal blow to Kenyan depth and dominance, you think? 🙄

Tier 3, right? Just some sub-27/sub-59/2:05 runners, African champs and Boston winners and whatnot, not a single WR holder!

Unless we'd look at the last 12 months instead of at 2022...

Surprised no one has brought this up. The drug laws in Hungary are pretty harsh with regards to PEDs and specifically any form of steroids. Up to 2 years imprisonment for even a small amount of drug usage. Whereas in France it can just be fines.

legalitylens.com

What is the legality of steroids in Hungary?

gary

In Hungary, anabolic steroids are classified as controlled substances under the Hungarian Medicines Act. As such, the possession, use, and distribution of these substances are strictly regulated. Steroids can only be obtained...

Open link

If the Americans on here follow your example they will just deny there is a problems even if all the athletes who miss the worlds fail a doping test or have 3 whereabouts failures.

As you are living in America you are technically an American.

I tend to assume all top elites dope, so nothing would surprise me, with any country. But I'm not sure what specific "covert deal" you're talking about?

Explain who you think made what kind of deal, with who? Be specific.

LOL. This is a secret political protest? How does a political protest work in secret?

Hungary can't be much more 'non-democratic' than California where elections are hidden behind proprietary software and mail ballots that have no chain of custody, no way to verify that they are tied to the intended voter, and no legal recourse if what few rules exist are broken.

Maybe the athletes are secretly protesting this as well! I'm glad to have their support.

We saw a similar situation before the WC in 2003. It was announced that year that they finally had a test for HGH and there were several suspicious withdrawals and false starts including Jon Drummond, Tim Montgomery and Dwain Chambers in the sprints and several well known sprinters like Maurice Greene and Ato Boldon that suddenly couldn't even qualify for the finals. Ultimately the winning time in the men's 100 was 10.07! The winning time in the 200 was 20.30 and the 400 was 44.77. The women's sprints weren't any better with the winning time in the 100 at 10.93 with 11.02 second.

Ultimately it will be interesting to see what the times look like across the board at the WC. Personally I think the AIU has a lot of athletes scared. There finally seems to be some accountability.

Once the Olympics were delayed from 2020 to 2021 and Worlds in Eugene from 2021 to 2022, I knew there would be a lot of attrition in this cycle.

For the past while, it has been Worlds-Olympics-Worlds-Off. And some of the medalists at the Olympics wouldn't appear at the following Worlds because they so thrashed from the effort they put into getting that Olympic hardware. She's obviously an extreme example, but Sifan Hassan was basically MIA all last year because her triple destroyed her. Or look at Nijel Amos who had an injured plagued 2013 after 2012 Olympic silver.

But, ridiculous or not, the shift to Olympics-Worlds-Worlds-Olympics-Worlds meant that some people would either get injured by attempting to train at the edge to be prepared for the huge competitions or they would take strategic years off. If an athlete thinks that this year could negatively impact making their nation's Olympic team next year, that's a difficult choice to make.

I would bet most athletes want to go to every Olympics and Worlds they can, especially since reduction clauses are still common. But not everyone is that durable

Theyre not micro dosing.Theyre full on systematically large scale sizeable doses doping.And they know they can get away with doing it.

There is no way we can definitively say who is doping or not doping. But consider this....in professional cycling these are all exceptional athletes born with all the right attributes to excel with high VO2 Max, ability to buffer lactic acid rapidly, flexibility, great endurance, and strength. They are all on an even level so when some of these athletes start taking EPO and Steroids for example, the others have to follow or else they have no chance.

That applies to T&F as well, unless an athlete is born with physical attributes that give him/her a distinct advantage even before extensive training. Ryan Crouser is someone I think this applies to, for example.

At least 45 were caught in 2022 alone.

According to a WADA/AIU report on the problem of doping in Kenya,
"Between 2004 and 1 August 2018, a total of 138 Kenyan athletes (from all sports) had
tested positive for Prohibited Substances.
Of that 138, the type of test (i.e. in-competition (IC) or out-of-competition (OOC)) was only
available for 131 athletes.
Of those 131 athletes, only 13% (18 of 131) were caught by OOC testing. The overwhelming
majority, 86% (113 of 131), were caught by IC testing.
A Kenyan athlete therefore appears at a far greater risk of detection for doping IC than OOC."

The WADA/AIU report continues:

"The Project identified 65 Kenyan athletes with an AAF for EPO and or Nandrolone.
Those 65 athletes were categorized in terms of career earnings and the number of
Doping Controls they were subject to prior to their AAF.
Of the top 11 career earning Kenyans, nine had used EPO."

I doubt there is anything that nefarious going on. I think it is in part injuries and in part the way the schedule has shaken out.

It's like when someone says "not to be disrespectful" and then they are.