1:57/3:50 man in Kenya (part of refuggee team) popped for doping. Why would someone so slow dope?

I'd consider a slower doper to have low self esteem and/or mental illness as the underlying reasoning.

You do know masters athletes and schoolboys dope in the US and other western countries?

It has nothing to do with mental illness but the desire to be better than those you compete against. People will cheat at draughts.

To be fair, one could make the same question for most NCAA athletes (who are faster than this dude but basically slow in the grand scheme of things) and for a lot of high schoolers too.

Maybe he just started (running and doping)?

Some might ask the same thing about a 28:06 10k guy.

The extent of the cheating and circumstances arouns it could indicate mental illness. Total disregard for adverse effects of the drugs and one's well being, wounded ego and attempt to boost it to fill the void.

On another note:

- the 2024 AIU list of provisional suspensions is extremely short with only 5 athletes on it after over 2.5 months

- after exactly 2.5 months, there were only 3 athletes on it

- those 5 are all clustered in a small region: 3 Kenyans, 1 South Sudanese training in Kenya, 1 Ethiopian

What would you say about the link between mental illness and people making up fake internet personas to post on a running forum? Would that also involve some wounded ego or a void needing to be filled? Just curious.

And maybe it's now so commonplace there that even beginners and hobby joggers consider it part of their training regimen.

You read more into it than the facts suggest. Cheating is a human commonplace; it isn't of itself a sign of mental illness. Many are also prepared to risk adverse consequences for the success they desire. That is what people will do.

Leave this guy untested today and he becomes tomorrow's next greatest junior runner! He will dominate the U12 ranks with time like that! Lock him up and throw away the key!

Smh with the spelling. As we saw from the Budapest testing stats (11 avg. tests for Kenyans on the WC team), they are testing the hell out of Kipyegon/Wanyonyi. But they also do spot testing of athletes who compete in the weekend meets like this guy.

As to why they are doping you are not wrong, but I think Rojo underestimates that this is a black market/criminal enterprise. There're individuals there to push drugs on athletes and make money off of them. Not super-sophisticated.

Just another of your horrible takes. Everything you don’t understand isn’t a mental illness. I’ve raced many master cyclists that were doped. They suffer from the basic human condition of ego and the need to seek higher status. That isn’t illness.

Ask your twin brother why.

Maybe someone at Athletics Kenya has it out for this guy and is sabotaging his career.

Kiprop said that's what happened to him:

apnews.com

Former Olympic champion Kiprop banned for 4 years for doping

Former Olympic and three-time world champion Asbel Kiprop of Kenya was banned for four years for testing positive for the blood-boosting drug EPO after his claim that urine samples might have been tampered with by disreputabl...

Open link

This doesn't mean that someone caught doping in Kenya wasn't doping. The sport can be rotten in multiple ways at once.

1) It’s likely done so that Athletics Kenya can say, “ see we are trying to get dopers”.

2) Why not dope, the guy likely has nothing to lose and everything to gain.