I believe that some know they're cheating and some don't. I have a friend in Iten who told me that a lot of coaches or agents give something to their athletes saying "Take this. It will help you run faster" without saying what it is and the athletes do.
Is that naivete? Is it willfull naivete? I don't know. I do know that most of these athletes don't spend tons of time looking at Letsrun and reading all the doping news. I do recall a conversation decades ago with a woman who in her time had been one of the better 800 meter runners in East Germany about the doping situation there. She told me that most of their doped athletes did not know they were doping. A coach or doctor gave them something and said "Take this. It will help you run faster (or throw farther or jump higher or longer.) "And you took it," she told me. "You did not ask questions."
If we're talking about Kenyans or anyone else who knowingly took something illegal and is now depressed because they got caught and suspended I can only think that they gambled and lost. But I do feel for someone who really trusted a coach or agent mistakenly.
I think your 'friend in Iten' is just downplaying the athletes' involvement in the whole cheating episode.
It's just pushing the 'poor innocent Kenyan athletes' and 'evil foreign agents/coaches' narrative which is used to move the blame away from the athletes and Kenya in general.
It's this inability to take any sort of responsibility for the problem which stops anything actually being done about things.
You could be right but my friend in Iten is actually there and knows most of the people who run there so I'm inclined to give his comments a bit more credence than someone speculating on a message board. But yes, some are his friends and he may want to believe they are honest.
I think your 'friend in Iten' is just downplaying the athletes' involvement in the whole cheating episode.
It's just pushing the 'poor innocent Kenyan athletes' and 'evil foreign agents/coaches' narrative which is used to move the blame away from the athletes and Kenya in general.
It's this inability to take any sort of responsibility for the problem which stops anything actually being done about things.
You could be right but my friend in Iten is actually there and knows most of the people who run there so I'm inclined to give his comments a bit more credence than someone speculating on a message board. But yes, some are his friends and he may want to believe they are honest.
If Kenya authorities wants to punish punish foreign agents and coaches of doped athletes, they can do it. Kenya has legal assistance agreements with the EU and various countries. Aiding and abetting of fraud is a thing. Even just opening legal proceedings against would send a strong message. They don't even need WADA or ADAK to do anything.
Most of the Kenyan runners come from poor households and lack good education. They are often manipulated into taking "vitamins" from others who oversee their careers. Facing lifelong bans when there was no intent to cheat is a gross miscarriage of justice, I think. I think many of the Kenyan cases fall into this category, unfortunately.
Come on man.
The whole 'Kenyans are too stupid and backwards to even know what cheating is' was an excuse that went out of fashion about a decade ago.
They know they're cheating, and they don't care because they just want the cash.
This story has another POC victim narrative written all over it. Oh poor Africans... They made the choice, let them live or die. Their lives.
Why din’t you be a man and get off that welfare you collect and get rid of the free tax-payer aubsidized apartment you live in. Leave France. Go back to Morocco and complain about whitey from there, while showing us what you can do on your own.
Do I need to send you a photograph of me in this town North of Morocco where I'm? not so far from Berkane. (*)
Or is it only your imagination working out of loop?
(*) I'm way way way ... more proud than any African living and seeking his food in the West. But I dont blame them.
Nah. The poster egging you is right, based on other things you’ve posted. If you’re now “just North of Morocco” you must have moved your social services looting to Spain. But in all likelihood you’re still in France, on the dole, making things unsafe for women and sheep (old habits die hard for you fellas apparently).
Most of the Kenyan runners come from poor households and lack good education. They are often manipulated into taking "vitamins" from others who oversee their careers. Facing lifelong bans when there was no intent to cheat is a gross miscarriage of justice, I think. I think many of the Kenyan cases fall into this category, unfortunately.
Come on man.
The whole 'Kenyans are too stupid and backwards to even know what cheating is' was an excuse that went out of fashion about a decade ago.
They know they're cheating, and they don't care because they just want the cash.
You're absolutely right - some of the Kenyan runners know exactly what they're doing, but there are many who don't really know what they're doing and they're not looking past their nose with regard to getting an advantage in any shape or form and many of them are gullible. I've been to Kenya several times and I've seen everything with my own eyes. If you as a white man (Mzungu ) - show up in Kenya and go to a town in the Rift Valley and tell an unsuspecting runner "take this vitamin it will help you run faster" - they will take it without any hesitation.