Finland's Alisa Vainio's amazing last 5 months - 4 marathons - 5th at Worlds + 3 PBs & 2 wins

As far as I recall, this is the first time that I've read or heard any assertion, or even suggestion, that Viren took steroids. I'd like to see your evidence for asserting that "it is overwhelmingly clear" that he did so, as well as your evidence that he "used the silly debate about blood doping as cover."

I have the benefit of being merely an enthusiast and, so, have no reputation to protect. But I assure you that I have spoken with three former Olympians who shared their perspectives with me about the mystery of Virén's peculiar pattern of fitness. They each drew the same conclusion, independently. They were quite happy to tell me how they each arrived at this conclusion. One of them also shared this view on Facebook. I don't feel like it is my place to name these athletes, however. I respect them and these opinions were offered off the record. Had I been a journalist it would have been a different matter, but I am not a journalist. That's the best I can offer you. I take the opinion of the three men with whom I spoke very seriously. They had no especial animus. I will add that I find it difficult to imagine how anyone who either followed the sport in the 70s, or who has read about it after the fact, would not be very suspicious of the periodicity of Virén's fitness, not just seasons but points within seasons, and, by contrast, how poorly he ran otherwise.

Alisa runs very much like the American sensation Nastasia Dudek and the eerily similar New Zealand sensation Daisy Ruthe. They (each & all) run very similar.

Yes?

I can cite at least three prominent Olympians who have expressed the very opposite conclusion, insofar as you are claiming that "three former Olympians" have reached "the same conclusion" that you have -- namely, that "it is overwhelmingly clear" that Viren took steroids and then "used the silly debate about blood doping as cover." If you're saying (as you do) "[t]hat's the best [you] can offer [me]," that's obviously not enough. Moreover, if you "find it difficult to imagine how anyone who either followed the sport in the 70s, or who has read about it after the fact, would not be very suspicious of the periodicity of Virén's fitness, not just seasons but points within seasons, and, by contrast, how poorly he ran otherwise," then that is likely a reflection of your difficulties in imagining such things, not deficiencies in the knowledge of anyone who disagrees with you. But if you do actually have, as you claim, evidentiary support for your statement that "it is overwhelmingly clear" that Viren took steroids and then "used the silly debate about blood doping as cover," I remain quite open to considering it.

Post under your your real name and I will take you more seriously.

There was a long article about her in the biggest newspaper in Finland, in November.

Basically she has concentrated on training for her whole life, whatever the subject has been. Starting from pre-school years when she had a Russian figure skating coach and exercises twice a day.

She has been so focused that it has effected on her social life. During her illness she opened up a little and perhaps got some perspective with that. Also with time she has learned to listen to her body and not just do the training programs.

"focused" might be an understatement, when reading that article.

She has never dated.

Interesting. This very much reminds me of a Czech female marathoner Moira Stewartova (PB 2:23) who only started dating in her late twenties.

I was expecting Vainio to look like a malnourished ectomorph but she's actually a normal build, even slightly stocky, strong legs.

Btw, next fastest Finnish woman in 2026, 2:58+ marathon. She has zero competition in Finland. She is among the best Finnish men, Numela and co.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DR9_xtdjOdl/?igsh=b2Ryd25namF2Z3pn

Thanks for the tip. That is a very long profile. Found it. Very interesting.

https://archive.is/WQ7z0#selection-2971.1-3011.35

Great feature.

Very interesting. Growing up, her whole life was always sports. At first it was figure skating with a Russian coach. Then she switched to ice hockey where I think she won a world jr bronze . But she stopped getting playing time and was very down about things.

She never thrived in school and said she didn't have friends. She played on the boys hockey team at times. Once she switched to running, she entered herself in the marathon as a junior against her coaches wishes and ran 2:33.

But once she got out of school, she had too much free time and sounds like she was overtraining and getting hurt all the time. Lots of stress fractures. In 2021, she couldn't run as she was injured. So she started hanging out with a friend and going on relaxed runs. She started to relax while injured and just hang out. She says she goes out now and isn't as obsessed as she once was but she doesn't drink or do drugs. A beloved grandparent who was quite social died ad she now tries to be more social herself.

But the key was 2021. Injured and unable to train, she took command of her own coaching and starting running more by feel. She's now in charge of the training but she runs it by her old coach. This was the key part of the article in terms of performance talk.

But she says she's lonely at times and never been in a romantic relationship. But now she's relaxing and not training 110% all the time and doing group runs slow with the locals. Making friends/hanging out with them. Some of this was hard to read as I was doing it via Edge Translate .

PS. What's up with the AI translation of the finnish language? It kept getting the gender wrong. It was calling her he all the time

I think she's beautiful.

Inching closer to Sisson's CWR.

Finnish language doesn't have gendered personal pronouns.

Of course the next fastest is much slower now, there have not been many opportunities to run in 2026 yet. Vainio is clearly the best, but there's another with a sub 2:25 PB and maybe a couple of others who could run sub 2:30.

Alisa Vainio ran again a great race in Paris Marathon, 6th place in 2.21.35 (best non-African). Her performance could be compared to a sub 2.20 time in a faster course.