Name ONE world-class, medal-contending, truly fast T&F/XC/marathon athlete who you TRULY believe does NOT dope

Define "highest level". With roughly half of the global championship participants doping, and doping giving you at least a 2% boost, I believe there are clean runners within 2% of the world records.

"Is it even possible to run 26:30 or 12:40 or 3:28 without doping?"

Not with current technology. Maybe with the supersuper shoes and superfast tracks from 2044. Such a clean runner (using the 2%) could go under 26:00 / 12:25 / 3:24, with doping, and even the most talented hard core dopers are still much slower.

Using the same argument, I can believe that some of the 26:43, 12:50, and 3:30 runners are clean. That's a very high level in my book.

Track and Field is a dope sport.

The Mormons (Mantz, C. Young, Rooks, Corrigan, etc.). I truly believe that their religion is more important to them than running and doping would be the ultimate transgression against it.

These are people who won't even take caffeine ffs.

My intuition would have been Mormons and Muslims, but seeing El Guerrouj and Hassan is suspiiocus. ot to mention Corrigan's massive progression

My intuition would have been Mormons and Muslims, but seeing El Guerrouj and Hassan is suspiiocus. ot to mention Corrigan's massive progression

I'm not sure about the Muslims since they're such a large demographic and I know plenty of Muslims who will just pick and choose rules to follow while ignoring the other ones. Meanwhile, I've never known a Mormon who will even consume alcohol.

Another thing about the Mormons is that since they tend to be pretty well-off, there's no real financial incentive to dope. Mantz could be living a nice cushy life just with his mechanical engineering degree right now, and I'm pretty sure a lot of the BYU Olympians have STEM degrees too.

Most of them also live in Utah/Idaho, at high altitude, which helps a lot with aerobic development.

SML. Youth phenom, progression makes sense. There are other people I think are clean, but if I had to pick one active athlete who's won a global medal, it's her.

I believe that the Qur'an merely asks "then, will you not abstain?"

The hadiths counsel against praying in a state of intoxication, and the way the prayer times are scheduled it would be difficult to get a good buzz and sober up in time to attend to Allah.

Muslims like the phrase "Allah knows best" and a lot of Muslims seem to think that it is best not to drink alcohol.

So, it becomes a herd mentality overlaid with the stamp of divine will - regardless of what the holy books say.

Hobbs, whose background was mostly rock climbing, is only 21 years old, has run 3:29.45, and could very well be running 3:26 in the future. If he can run that fast without doping, why can't Ingebrigtsen, who started serious training at age 11, do the same thing? They’re both human beings.

Because Jakob was coached by his father who took up the sport and instantly started being fascinated with blood testing.

Jakob’s brother was on the likely doping list so I there is some association there as well.

Really? With several world records, coached by The Chemist with his doping history? Over 1% faster than the next fastest lady?

What do think she'd run doped to the gills?

That’s far from being compelling evidence. Are you saying that Ingebrigtsen has to cheat be among the very best, but what about Hocker, Kerr and Nuguse? Is he less talented?

Marco Arop. One of the most talented athletes ever, and extremely humble and hard working guy. Ran 1:53 in his first season of track, and 1:47 flat with a bit more than a year of training.

jim ryun

I don't now about that. Jim Ryun ran 3:51 as a 19-year old with a only few years of training. No lights, pacers, super shoes, fast tracks, etc.

Almost 60 years later and the mile WR is only 8 seconds faster and 7 seconds faster than his time in the 1500.

It's very common to hear people talk about fast progression being 'the indicator'. And if someone was great when they were young (e.g. Jakob, SML, Kipchoge...) then outlier times aren't really a red flag as they were always good.

But wouldn't the very good young athletes be the best doping candidates? Someone like Kipchoge was a great junior and wants to keep getting better, so perhaps the 'progression' is assisted all the way along.

I completely agree that the Katir-types who come from nowhere should raise eyebrows. But I give no automatic pass marks to athletes who have been excellent their whole careers- it's that artificial 1% that can make all the difference. A 25yo plateau that never comes.