SHELBY HOULIHAN SPEAKS! Issues statement, does RW Q&A & 90min podcast explaining her side.

I thought that was more of a test of whether it was more of a "was this produced by Shelby, or was it produced elsewhere?" not a natural vs synthetic question. I think part of her argument was that test was never done, that's a legitimate question.

One of the most damning pieces of evidence against her is she chose to speak to a 16 year old to announce her statement. BTC operating their major interviews to this kid, no matter how talented he is as a reporter, is a way of dodging any hard hitting questions.

At first I was very angry with the podcaster who put this together. Then I learned he's like 16. I'm still angry at him for his choice of language and needlessly passionate defense in the face of overwhelming evidence — he's 16, not 12. But we all do dumb things and I can forgive him. I just hope he can realize how dumb this is and that he's 100% being taken advantage of.

Now, BTC on the other hand. I can not forgive them. Using a gullible teenager as a means of communication is a little sickening. Did they give him a free kit for this or what? Does he know he's being taken advantage of? BTC is trying really hard to be the bad guys now that Sleazy Sal and Co. are gone.

A few thoughts immediately come to mind

1) Who in the hell is advising this woman on what to say and what not to say here? "I don't know if someone gave me something I didn't know about", "What if it was a vitamin and I'm still taking it" "Yeah the burrito thing as ridiculous as it honestly sounds, it feels like it makes the most sense" - are you kidding me? Are you really f-ing kidding me here. This is like an 8 year old child trying to navigate something their parents know they did and they know their parents know they did it. She went to college? Really? My god.

2) If anyone still believes and supports her they are just as moronic as she is. And yeah this is a message board where we can all say things with very little consequence and never be held accountable to, but I would say that to anyones face. If you support her you support doping in sport and you are an idiot.

3) Zero doubt she knew exactly what she was doing. She did nandrolone precursors which are easily available and her mental gymnastic was "well it's not directly nandrolone, so......" Again, the mark of a complete moron and no surprise she didn't know how to manage it and not get caught like some of her bed-buddies, uh I mean teammates, uh yeah....., were able to.

4) If Jerry Schumacher is still supporting her he is just as bad. Same with Flanagan. The best and right thing they could do is make public statements saying that unfortunately as new information is coming to light it is apparent what they believed was not the case and they were wrong. Yeah we know they needed to support her initially and that wasn't the wrong thing. But now it's time to say "we were wrong and we were fooled too". By not doing this they bring the whole BTC into disrepute - all of the athletes in that group should have that cloud over them fairly or not. So he in particular needs to grow a pair and do the right thing.

What a joke this whole thing is. People that can't see things right in front of their very eyes - completely mindf---ed by emotion and what they want to believe vs rational thought and common sense.

The audacity here is just….

This makes her look worse. Makes BTC look bad as well.

WADA can't be sued for doing what it is empowered to do, and for following its procedures. It would have had to exceed its authority in a material way or have been grossly at fault. Not an issue. If it had been so at fault the case against Houlihan would have been thrown out long ago. No doper can sue the prosecuting body for a decision that results in the loss of their livelihood. That loss is the consequence of their breaching the rules. Houlihan has no case of any kind.

Nah already looked at everything with an open mind and I have faith in the governing bodies. So by you giving her a voice on her stupid podcast you are enabling the voice of a doper and furthering a disbelief in the AIU which is #badforsport

Sabotage was a "possibility" with no evidence that it might have happened. No other "possibility" was accepted so the balance of probabilities is that she intentionally doped, as CAS found. Case closed. Except on Letsrun.

Well said. Careless is bad, intentional cheater is way worse.

If she had been more forthright through the process and just owned up to the fact that something got in her system and she doesn't know how, I'd be more inclined to believe she was just a combination of careless and unlucky. The lengths she's gone through to concoct implausible explanations, criticize the antidoping process, and claim she is a victim make intentional deceit and doping seem much more likely.

No. They are immune from any kind of liability so long as it is a 'mistake' that occurred in their regular course of employment/conduct. If they were found to intentionally have acted to wrong SH then it would be considered outside the regular course of employment/conduct and that could create liability (or possibly criminal charges).

nandrolone,EPO and goodness knows what else she was on.

Well said. As long as they continue to express their support for her, there will be a cloud of suspicion hanging over them. The time to speak up is now.

Even at this late stage she continues to spout nonsensical talking points that only serve to further undermine her credibility with those who are informed. For example, early in the podcast she once again references the notion of “why would she have taken a single dose of nandrolone?” Maybe she never heard of nandrolone before, but at this point she knows full well that the best theory of the case is that she was oral microdosing a precursor and she got her timing wrong and got popped. If she cares to refute the best theory of the case, fine, but instead she keeps creating straw men to knock down. For anybody who is actually paying attention it’s insulting and I think tantamount to an admission of guilt. She knows she will never convince anybody knowledgeable about any of this that she’s innocent. This is just a pr campaign to convince the poorly informed.

Respect is earned kid. You’ll learn some day

Would be nice, but I'm 100% sure Nike had all the BTC athletes sign NDA's.

for the love of God and running please never watch runners again! on the road or on the track your bias opinion has got to be the worst ever on every forum! next you will say they are too skinny they are doping or they are too overtrained they must be doping sheesh

What is vulnerable open, or from the heart about doing a podcast more than 12 months after she was banned? She's had a lot of time and legal advice to craft her story.

She's lost her sponsor and likely her financial support. She's desperate to improve her public image. Why would we or anyone believe anything she says just because it sounds "from the heart"?

Plus, she is following the playbook of every other doper. If she was from another country and you couldn't speak or understand her language, would you feel the same sympathy?

I appreciate your involvement in this issue, but you are naïve.

If Shelby decided to blow the whistle on BTC and had proof, I'm not sure an NDA would be relevant.