WADA wrote:
O.K., I screwed up with El G's progression.
Still, if you read the article I linked to, the graph shows clearly that average elite times and the best times for 5000 and 1000 came down steadily till around 2004/05. Testing might have come out in 2003 but it wasn't reliable until 2004 or 05.
The 800m WR is irrelevant to EPO. EPO seems to be most effective between 1500 and 10000m. Runners have still continued taking it hence all the busts, especially from Morocco, but testing has had a big impact on average elite times and the best times from 1500 to 10000. It is just a coincidence to you that all these greats such as El G and Komen all appeared just at the height of usage for the world's first endurance drug??
El G's career peak did happen at age 30 (2004 Olympics). He ran 3:26 aged 28 which is seven seconds faster than what he was running at age 20 (and likely doping for several years even then). Then he suddenly retired even though he was earning millions each year from appearance fees which would likely have increased after Sydney for the next 5 years. Retiring at age 30 after Sydney likely cost him at least $10 million...unless he was factoring in the financial impact of a failed EPO test. Very very rare for a boxer earning that amount of mony to retire at the top despite the brain trauma that fighting on would entail. If El G was clean and simply better than his rivals (who we know many of whom were busted for EPO) and testing was being introduced, surely he would have gone on knowing that his incredible gap in natural talent over his rivals could have seen him win gold in 2004 and even 2008, and probably earn another $20 million? (as well as put to bed any allegations of his career being due soley to EPO abuse)