El Caballo wrote:
That double is just absolutely ridiculous. I always thought that it was just an amazing performance, but having grown up a bit, the more I think about it, the more I realize how impossible that double should have been.
Anybody have any info as well on the schedule of the meet and on which days he ran?
Without PED's we are nothing.
Gallop, Cuba wrote:
He had a sick stride. I don't really care how he did it, he still did it.
That's what I was going to say. He had such physical advantages it seemed unfair. Perfect build. There was lots of talk that he could shift to NFL and dominate at wide receiver.
Think it was Lydiard stated that while 400m runners have the speed; they often don't have the patience to do the endurance training that would allow them to be good at 800m as well.
"And there goes Juantorena down the back straight, opening his legs and showing his class"
Is the Pope Argentinian?
LRC has a doping obsession problem.
Considering that banned substances are widespread, can you affirm that Juantorena opponents were all clean?
Doping alone doesn't win medals or break WR. He was a superlative athlete.
His 400 semi final run in Montréal was one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen.
He stood up off his blocks and virtually jogged the first 100, then he opened up his 9ft stride along the back straight and still won in 45
Enough is enough wrote:
LRC has a doping obsession problem.
Considering that banned substances are widespread, can you affirm that Juantorena opponents were all clean?
Doping alone doesn't win medals or break WR. He was a superlative athlete.
Leave him alone. I loved to watch him and his foundation does wonderful work.
You're only saying this because she identifies as a women and you feel insecure around massively muscled females whose serve is magically 25% faster than other world class players.
He/she never tested positive.
ayecaramba wrote:
Is the Pope Argentinian?
Is the cardinal a real bugger?
HRH wrote:
His 400 semi final run in Montréal was one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen.
He stood up off his blocks and virtually jogged the first 100, then he opened up his 9ft stride along the back straight and still won in 45
He virtually jogged the last 100m too and crossed the line in 45:09. If he hadn't developed foot problems after Montreal surely capable of sub 44 and sub 1:43.
https://youtu.be/HGrrlv3CXtAMost likely dirty. Cuba was very tight with the Soviet Union and East Germany at the time.
The double was much easier then, lack of depth w/ half as many people on the planet.
And as for the out of nowhere, his nowhere included a 44.8 400m and a 44 relay split.
dsrunner wrote:
The double was much easier then, lack of depth w/ half as many people on the planet.
And as for the out of nowhere, his nowhere included a 44.8 400m and a 44 relay split.
Half as many people but likely 10 x as many young people pursuing athletics as their chosen sport.
Also, Western baby boomers were in their athletic prime in the 60's and 70's. Much fitter generation too.
If you look at Alberto's results from 1977 and 78, he was like a machine. In 77 he had something like 8 of the top 10 times that year in both distances. He ran 45.08 in the 76 semi jogging for half the race - after having ran four or five races in the previous 7 days including a 1:43 WR 800m Olympic final.
In his best form he would be a contender for medals in the 400 and 800 today.
The question of whether Cuban athletes doped has always been a tough one. Ivan Pedroso, Javier Sotomayor, Roberto Hernandez, Alberto Juantorena and Ana Quirot all pass the eye test for superior talent and a number of other factors for being clean. However and it is a very big however; it is almost inconceivable that a country lead by a communist dictator whose primary PR export was sports would not have a win at all cause mentality. Also, without a doubt the Cuban sports programs were heavily connected to dirty Russian/Eastern European programs.
pv runner wrote:
[quote]tyui wrote:
Sad as it is, he fits the ped profile exactly. Mid/late 1970s. Eastern block/communist country. Polish coach. Makes an Olympic semi in year 2 of training. World record in the Oly final after training for the event 1 year.
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Wrong. It does not take years to develop into a good 800 runner. In regard to him bursting onto the scene, the profile he fits in that regard is that of all the other Olympic gold medalists and world record holders who went just before him. Peter Snell (1960, 64), Ralph Doubell (68) and Dave Wottle (72) were all 22-24 years old who pretty much came out of nowhere when they won the 800 Olympic gold (at least the first for Snell) and set WRs (they were not unknown, but certainly had not been dominating the 800 for a couple years). And only Snell went on to have much of a career afterwards. Jim Ryun broke the half mile record as a 19 year old. So all of them dirty? I am not saying this "proves" El Caballo was clean. I don't know. But your overconfident "profiling" falls far short.
They had all been training hard for years.