SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT!!! - Shelby Houlihan is running in the Olympic Trials! (Yes, Really)

Guilty? Verdict? Your terminology shows that you don't understand.

tacomafan wrote:

The Johnson's and gault have been awfully quiet this morning...

They are too busy deleting every thread and comment that is calling them out for running damage control for Jerry, Shelbo, and BTC.

JSSFPD wrote:

I was on the fence and waiting for the CAS full decision to make up my mind on her guilt/innocence but this whole running the trials anyways has me thinking that BTC has a 'rules don't apply to us' mentality. Makes me question the whole leadership of the club and everyone involved with it. If you're willing to show such disrespect to the sport by condoning and participating when banned, then I'm not sure doping is that big a leap.

We're on the verge of a situation where opposing athletes may refuse to compete against Shelby in the Trials. This is bad.

Larry Dickman wrote:

This is inexcuasable wrote:

You mean like The Court of Arbitration for Sport?

"The Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed Tuesday its panel of judges “unanimously determined that Shelby Houlihan had failed” to prove how the anabolic steroid nandrolone got into her system."

No, not that BS court, but an actual real American court that has actual real jurisdiction in our country. That court, our court, said Houlihan must be allowed to race this weekend.

There is no evidence that I've seen anywhere that an US court, federal or state, has made such a ruling, or that any US court even has anything regarding Shelby Houlihan on its docket. This appears to be entirely a decision by USTAF.

Are You Serious wrote:

joed|rt wrote:

She is entitled to an appeal through due process. Let the process play itself out.

Since Houlihan's positive drug test was only announced a few days ago, a lot of people seem to think that it's very early in the process. It's not. The "due process" has been happening already in the legal system for 6 months, it's just that no one knew about it.

And for track and field, the CAS in Switzerland is the highest court in the world, and they've made their final decision. So I'm not sure what additional "process" people expect is still supposed to happen.

CAS decisions can still be appealed to the Supreme Court of Switzerland. But the chance of this CAS decision being overturned are close to 0. Unless new evidence suddenly comes forth, this case is over. And that's why USATF's decision to let Shelby compete is inexplicable.

cruncher wrote:

Are You Serious wrote:

Since Houlihan's positive drug test was only announced a few days ago, a lot of people seem to think that it's very early in the process. It's not. The "due process" has been happening already in the legal system for 6 months, it's just that no one knew about it.

And for track and field, the CAS in Switzerland is the highest court in the world, and they've made their final decision. So I'm not sure what additional "process" people expect is still supposed to happen.

CAS decisions can still be appealed to the Supreme Court of Switzerland. But the chance of this CAS decision being overturned are close to 0. Unless new evidence suddenly comes forth, this case is over. And that's why USATF's decision to let Shelby compete is inexplicable.

USATF = NKETF

NKE is the stock symbol for a big show company

Anyone who is surprised at USATF applying rules inconsistently hasn't been around the sport very long. (A little ironic for Kara to be surprised since in 2008 USATF inexplicably let Adam into the 10k after refusing to expand the field in the 5k among other strange decisions). I ran on the circuit and the amount of supplements these athletes take is absolutely wild. I am talking about personally witnessing people have entire duffle bags of "vitamins." It's clear to me that SH took a supplement that she did or didn't realize had amounts of nandrolone in it. Knowing that excuse would never fly she cooked up this excuse which has no basis in reality. I feel the worst for the clean women in the 1500m who will be overshadowed by this nonsense and harassed for comments.

are you kidding? wrote:

Yeah I'm pissed about the Jebet post. She deserved more empathy than what she got. An exploited teenager by Bahrain. "my bronze will shine brighter than her gold" wow, Emma. your whole life will shine brighter than hers always because you are a privileged American kid who's never been exploited and used by your country.

Is Houlihan by chance a decendent of someone in a country that could award dual citizenship and get real excited about bringing home any attention and a medal to their country?

cruncher wrote:

CAS decisions can still be appealed to the Supreme Court of Switzerland. But the chance of this CAS decision being overturned are close to 0. Unless new evidence suddenly comes forth, this case is over. And that's why USATF's decision to let Shelby compete is inexplicable.

I think it's like when Semenya appealed against the CAS decision. She could not compete then, if I am not mistaken because the CAS is taken as decisive for the actual case.

From what I understand, Shelby's appeal was presented by none other than Travis Tygart, who is perhaps the world's leading antidoping legal expert. Yet still, a group of judges were unanimous in their decision that not only did Shelby dope, but it was intentional. Again 'the AIU was unanimous in their decision'; not one judge (not one) believed she is innocent. I am relatively certain Shelby was given the benefit of doubt more so to an extent than many others, she had a better legal defense and overall support.

Perhaps only God and Shelby know whether she is actually a doper, but 2 facts remain, nandrolone was found in her system and she cannot sufficiently prove she did not intentionally put it there. Notwithstanding our knowledge (mostly perceived notions) about Shelby, cultural, racial and nationalistic prejudices; this combination of facts would ordinarily conclude a drug cheat. In years past, it took us a while to come to the realization and acceptance that a respected and admired athlete was a actually a doper in spite of testing positive. At some point, we were forced to take the blinders off, confront reality and accept the facts.

You would think we have been fooled enough times to known no professional athlete is absolutely above suspicion, but here we are. If you are a Shelby supporter, it's easy and natural to spout the reasons why she is innocent, which is mostly based on what you think. But when it comes to what you know and the facts, not everything lines up. I want to believe Shelby is innocent, the antidoping agencies got it wrong this time and this is all one big mistake. And personally, I would rather see 10 drug cheats get away, than one innocent athlete get harmed. However, there has to be a minimum standard that applies to ever athlete regardless of what we know about them, their coach, nation, team, sponsors and all of their support. The minimum standard has be that if you didn't dope or you doped inadvertently prove it. I am sorry to say that is Shelby's case, the burrito story and everything else I’ve heard does not sufficiently work. With all of that said, I am still struggling to believe Shelby Houlihan is a drug cheat, but is this allowing the facts get in the way of the truth, cognitive dissonance or am I being blissfully ignorant.

USATF is being ridiculous, because if she gets top three she still won't be able to compete in Tokyo. They are just amplifying the drama 100x

A variety of items have been thrown onto fields in protest, but perhaps this may be the first instance for "protest burritos?"

JSSFPD wrote:

I was on the fence and waiting for the CAS full decision to make up my mind on her guilt/innocence but this whole running the trials anyways has me thinking that BTC has a 'rules don't apply to us' mentality. Makes me question the whole leadership of the club and everyone involved with it. If you're willing to show such disrespect to the sport by condoning and participating when banned, then I'm not sure doping is that big a leap.

I was also on the fence, not about SH testing positive, that is clear, but about what Shelby's positive test meant for BTC, especially in the face of that press conference and that every Nike athlete seemed to be obligated to support her. And now the USATF supporting her? This is just such a bad look. Is the USA now no different than Russia? Is doping a state run operation?

This no longer seems to be a story about one athlete doping but has now become a question of how many people are involved in her doping? How high up does this go and who is in on it?

Yuuuuuuuuuup

unfortunately they are wrote:

Are You Serious wrote:

Since Houlihan's positive drug test was only announced a few days ago, a lot of people seem to think that it's very early in the process. It's not. The "due process" has been happening already in the legal system for 6 months, it's just that no one knew about it.

And for track and field, the CAS in Switzerland is the highest court in the world, and they've made their final decision. So I'm not sure what additional "process" people expect is still supposed to happen.

This. BTC have been effectively spinning the view that we are at the beginning, not the end. Everywhere you go, people are saying, "this needs to be investigated more thoroughly!" when it already was investigated for 6 months and concluded with a guilty verdict.

How did the investigation work? Was it behind closed doors for 6 months. Or was BTC and SH being kept apprised during the 6 month investigation?

If BTC and SH were being kept in the loop then that should be all you wrote for BTC and SH.

However if the opposite is true then they should be given a chance to clear their names. And if that means getting an injunction 2 days before the trials begin then so be it.

There is really nothing fair in life. Stuff happens to us all sometimes. Getting accused of something that we didn't do happens to many if not most of us. Let's just try to give it some time for the smoke to clear and for the dust to settle and perhaps by then we might begin to see things a little more clearer.

never thought? it's stacked. ya'll must not be real T&F fans, then

It's going to be nearly impossible to cheer for anybody sponsored by Nike at these trials. Certainly, I will not be pulling for anyone from BTC or the Project formerly known as NOP.

What we are now witnessing is all out war by Nike on Wada. No way Shelby and BTC pull this stunt without Nike's blessing and USATF is not listening to any court, they are listening to Nike. Nike does not like these foreign institutions messing with their bottom line and they are going to try to destroy the anti-doping agencies who get in the way of their profits. Maybe this anti-doping infrastructure needs to be demolished and rebuilt, but in the end, it probably will just be a subsidiary of Nike Inc. Is Nike bigger than WADA, are they bigger than the IOC. Maybe they should pull all Nike athletes out of the games across all sports unless SH is reinstated?? That is the level of depravity we are all witnessing.

TrackCoach wrote:

You would think we have been fooled enough times to known no professional athlete is absolutely above suspicion, but here we are.

Tim Tebow is above suspicion.