Why Was A Man With A 10-Year Doping Ban Enjoying The 2012 US Olympic Track & Field Trials From The Nike Sky Box?

Good post "theclear,"

What real runners even own pajama's anyway. We all have so many old pairs of sweats or hang out in our Hank Moody's...

A Duck-That's the best post I've seen of yours. Your posts come off as tolerant of drug cheats and sound like you're trying to change the story. This board has a lot of idiots just trying to rile people up, but tons of really smart and passionate fans too. You have a sad view of runners if you think that the most passionate ones are all idiots.I ran in college as well and went on to work in sports media (not track) so I have a different view. Track has long been dead, but sites that cater to a passionate fan base are exactly what this sport needs to grow. They provide better access to information and keep the interest alive between olympics for those that want it. Our sport is structurally dependent on Nike, NBC, and USATF/IAAF/USOC/IOC. We don't have ownership groups, players associations, or even cities that have paid taxes to build stadiums to hold those in our sport to a standard of excellence. We don't have a large enough public following to get mainstream media to care about corruption or anything else for that matter. The only time we make the news is when someone screws up (see the Felix/Tarmoh coverage vs. Eaton's WR). We need our fan base to help this sport. Cheers to letsrun for running a story like this. Nike is a great company. I love their stuff. But someone in a cozy position knowingly or unknowingly (stupidly) is letting a convicted drug trafficker have some part in our sport. The fan base needs to make it known that they hate this crap precisely to help our sport.

Mr. Duck,

You argue that this board is a cesspool of idiocy, enabled by anonymity of the founders whom you don't particularly care for. Yet you continue to frequent this board for years to push back against Nike/Salazar critics who in your estimation have crossed the line.

But why continue doing this, if your claim that one at the elite level particularly cares for Letsrun is true?

If that is true, then real damage is being done on these threads?

Don't you think you're being petty?

We are forever in your debt for providing a counter-balance.

Now, back to reality. Why would Nike entertain a convicted drug cheat, currently serving a 10 year ban, in the VIP area?

Instead of attempting to address everything but the real issue, try to stay on topic. Thank you.

In response to theclear, perhaps you should be a special investigator into the drug scene in athletics since you know so much. Huh? You can start with football, then go to basketball, then go to baseball, etc. etc. Then come back and tell us what sport is dirtiest.

As far as NIKE giving a response? PUT YOUR PAJAMAS ON AND GO TO BED YOU IDIOT!

1515k wrote:

I like where LETSRUN is going with this. I also like that FLOTRACK is also bringin up the Russian Ladies that just ran between 3:59-4:02 all of a sudden 9 of them run that fast!!

And the 4 American white boys who all recently ran sub 13!!

oh my oh my! wrote:

In response to theclear, perhaps you should be a special investigator into the drug scene in athletics since you know so much. Huh? You can start with football, then go to basketball, then go to baseball, etc. etc. Then come back and tell us what sport is dirtiest.

As far as NIKE giving a response? PUT YOUR PAJAMAS ON AND GO TO BED YOU IDIOT!

hmmm, can't be a special investigator because i'm not a lawyer, but i've reworked sponsorship deals for far smaller infractions/issues. the media is highly sensitive to these things when organized groups raise an issue. one of our sport's problems is that there are few organized groups that exist to raise their hand and even fewer that would or should for something like this.

Like I said, good night.

Just because people get away with tons of doping violations in other sports doesn't mean we approve of it. If sports want to allow anything goes dope people till their blood turns to sludge doping then they can do that, but they should stop making an act sanctionable if they aren't going to take enforcing the restrictions seriously. We don't naively think that people in football or baseball are clean, we're just more focused on trying to make track clean than those other sports.

Beer Machine wrote:

We don't naively think that people in football or baseball are clean, we're just more focused on trying to make track clean than those other sports.

by accusing American sprinters because they make dramatic improvements and praising American distance runners because they make dramatic improvements. Yup, its all about being a true fan of white distance ru..., i mean ,um, track and field.

dd wrote:

Honestly people, do you need one of the site owners to come spell out the difference between the main page and the message boards? Are you that dense?

Go to the NY times-- you will find articles, followed by comments. Many just as strange as those found on LR.

Ditto for the Washington post.

Ditto for pretty much any major newspaper that exists.

1) The NYT vets postings BEFORE they're posted. AFAIK, LR deletes postings only after they've already been published.

2) LR sells its message boards hard (you don't see the NYT boasting of its "World Famous" comments). The *jos do this because they recognize that the boards are LRC's biggest draw. It's certainly not the quality of the reporting or writing.

(For someone who once thought distance runners were smart, it's discouraging -- nay, embarrassing -- to see the spelling and grammatical errors that constantly soil LR's front page. Like it or not, those sorts of screwups undermine LRC's credibility on more substantive matters.)

P.S. The pertinent passage from the arbitration panel's "Final Reasoned Decision and Award" indicates that Block is not to receive "benefits, awards, titles, or remuneration" from his involvement in T&F (see section 10.2.1 of panel report). I would think access to Nike's VIP box at the Olympic Trials would be considered a "benefit." But, as others have noted, there's no photographic evidence that Block was actually admitted to the box.

Beer Machine wrote:

We don't naively think that people in football or baseball are clean, we're just more focused on trying to make track clean than those other sports.

by accusing American sprinters because they make dramatic improvements and praising American distance runners because they make dramatic improvements. Yup, its all about being a true fan of white distance ru..., i mean ,um, track and field.

having a cow wrote:

Beer Machine wrote:

We don't naively think that people in football or baseball are clean, we're just more focused on trying to make track clean than those other sports.

by accusing American sprinters because they make dramatic improvements and praising American distance runners because they make dramatic improvements. Yup, its all about being a true fan of white distance ru..., i mean ,um, track and field.

Uhh... I've accused white, American, distance runners of doping ad nauseum on here.

oh my oh my! wrote:

Like I said, good night.

How creepy is this guy?

Jeter: "I have no idea where that question came from."

HAHAHAHA... that should be quote of the day.

2006 NY Times article about Nike employee's fight with Gatlin's masseuse

The police said the prime suspect in the case was Llewellyn Starks, a former highly ranked long jumper who is employed by Nike. Starks has also worked as an agent and an adviser for Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, two athletes involved in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative doping investigation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/sports/othersports/03gatlin.html

ufxc wrote:

Did you know Mark Block's name before today?

Of course. Besides being the husband and coach of the now vacated 2001 100m World Champion, you can read about him in Game of Shadows.

How about a shoe company whose name does not start with an "N" consider signing only athletes that are willing to be randomly tested all year long, whether they are in a competition phase or not?

If enough of the elite athletes could be gathered under a clean umbrella in some way, we could begin to shame those who are cheating to coming clean (maybe).

clean it up wrote:

How about a shoe company whose name does not start with an "N" consider signing only athletes that are willing to be randomly tested all year long, whether they are in a competition phase or not?

Every professional track athletes agrees that they can may be randomly tested all year round.

There is a list of high profile track and field athletes who volunteered for additional testing as part of USADA's Project Believe, to make it easier for testers to see any irregularities which would be evidence of doping, including:

Allyson Felix

Tyson Gay

Bryan Clay

Dee Dee Trotter

Lauryn Williams