Keira MF D'amato

surferboy wrote:

EyebrowsRaised wrote:

Rapid ascent to world class running can and probably should raise eyebrows given history. However, there is no proof of wrongdoing. Openly suggesting it is slander and the moderators should not allow it. But this is LetsRun and journalism rules do not apply...

Keira D'Amato would be regarded as a limited purpose public figure in court. That is, she could be more easily defamed for false allegations made about her private life, than about her running or things related to her running. This is a carve out in the law that would apply to athletes who perform publicly. In the that case it would have to be proved that statements were made with knowledge that they were false, or with reckless disregard for whether they were false or not. So if the allegation were based on the observation that her improvement or performance had been out of the ordinary, even for an accomplished runner, false statements made about the possibility of doping would probably not be viewed as defamatory.

EyebrowsRaised wrote:

SB wrote:

It is indeed difficult not to be at least a little skeptical-- and if this were any athlete from just about any other country, we certainly would be, and much more aggressively so.

It's not just the level of racing; it's the sheer volume of racing and the relentless consistency at distances from 5k to marathon. She went into World's with, what?, 4 weeks notice, ran very well, and was then back into racing the shorter stuff within a couple of weeks (again, with no decline in performance) all the while (we would assume) building for another marathon only 8-10 weeks later. In other words, she has been crushing races AND building for another marathon when the majority of athletes would still rebuilding from their last marathon-- if, that is, it was less than 7 weeks ago (Worlds was July 18!).

None of this actually proves anything, of course, but it's a bit disingenuous to suggest that there is nothing at least unusual going on here-- maybe unusual in a very good way, but still extremely uncommon. And this all without considering the background story (also, of course, unusual, but not at all implausible IMHO).

Rapid ascent to world class running can and probably should raise eyebrows given history. However, there is no proof of wrongdoing. Openly suggesting it is slander and the moderators should not allow it. But this is LetsRun and journalism rules do not apply...