chickenbone wrote:
I'm super supportive of Sage and any effort to get d-bags like Cam out of any competition where the expectation is that athletes be clean. But my question is more of a logistical one, where presumably this dude will never submit to a test this far after a race. What really is enforceable at this point specifically in regards to his Eugene marathon? Is him admitting to taking PED's previously enough? If someone knows what actually can be done here, let us know.
In running, there is governing body and there are a subset of races that sanctioned by the governing body but most races aren't. There are runners that are USATF (or whatever their country's governing body is) members, but the overwhelming majority of runners are not members of the governing body. There are races that are obviously limited to USATF members, but most races in the US are not and allow anyone to enter. USADA has limited to no power over the non-pros. How could they? They never agreed to the antidoping rules to begin with if they aren't a USATF member (assuming without checking that).
Your non-athlete next-door neighbor obviously doesn't have to submit a TUE for anything. The typical hobby jogger (90+% of them) entering the local turkey trots have zero concept of what the USADA rules are, so you aren't going to get any enforcement at the most grass roots level (for good reason). The line is probably drawn somewhere around the level of people with USATF membership competing for age-group national championships at the lowest performance end.