The fact that T&F still gives out Olympic medals to convicted dopers is a symptom of how gutless drug policy is.
The fact that T&F still gives out Olympic medals to convicted dopers is a symptom of how gutless drug policy is.
A Duck wrote:
UCI should be disbanded and the TdF stopped for 5 years.
In addition to that, one positive test = life time ban.
If they get draconian about the penalties they can clean up the sport over night.
That wouldn't be enough, what (inclusive life time ban) would really do it is the athletes having to pay back their salaries/fees/prize money + a huge fine. Cheaters luuuve them som $$$$
Jefe in the CO wrote:
things wont change wrote:If people can go their entire careers without getting caught like Rasmussen and Lance, it should make you wonder about the T&F athletes. All of them.
There seems to be this growing imbalance in our attitudes towards athletes in particular sports. The outrage directed at Lance but not Ray Lewis, Marion but not Barry Bonds, etc.
Maybe it's because this is a running/endurance athlete oriented website and we're biased but why the poster above singles out T&F and not the rest of sport is a testament to 1) the sport of T&F and cycling attempting to clean themselves up and 2) the major Pro sports governing bodies in the World (NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, PGA, FIFA, Rugby) cloistering themselves against incrimination.
Rasmussen, Lance, Marion is no more a testament to how dirty T&F and cycling might be but is also a testament on how dirty sport as a whole is. These cheats did it for millions, higher profile pro athletes do it for hundreds of millions.
Sure these are core shaking revelations in our little neck of the woods but the breadth and depth of cheating that is going on in other sports doesn’t even raise an eyebrow in the journalistic community much less their fan base. That is more outrageous than what is going on in T&F/cycling.
Football has serious problems, but most people forget that performance enhancing drugs weren't even banned in baseball until very recently.
I will say that the difference between Rasmussen and Armstrong were that everyone *knew* they doped. Rasmussen was suspended for two years and lost his team spot for clearly evading doping controls. The culture of doping in cycling was seriously different than other sports until recent positive strides (ie you see the big stars betting busted, climbing times of the major climbs raising significantly, and a far more tactical/less BLOW EVERYTHING UP racing attitude), and if it bleeds over to other Olympic (ie non-Major Pro) sports, it does so unfairly.
In the 2007 Tour the two people that I expected to get nabbed for doping were Vino and Rasmussen. I was right, although Rasmussen at the time was procedural. I never did like him, despite the fact that I am mainly Danish.