Fair sport: Ben True and Adam Nelson have some very interesting ideas on doping - We share them with you here

Wow, all the dopers come creeping out of their holes to bash True. Is it tough to see an ethically and morally coherent athlete who is much faster than you despite all the crap you stuff yourselves with?

Don't know about the others, but I've never doped and can easily smoke True in my event any day of the week. True is confused regarding nutrition vs. doping.

I actually noted that lots of them are clean but some could be doping with little to no risk of being caught. Sorry you can't read well.

Mike Macintosh wrote:

Yup yup wrote:

The athletes who are subject to much less doping oversight have a big advantage.

That is only true if you are doping. If you are not doping then it makes absolutely no difference if you tested every day or not at all.

I have never been drug tested in my life - does that give me a competitive advantage over athletes who have been?

General reply to the thread:

How thick do you need to be to ignore his overall point? You might as well criticize his spelling.

It’s not about beet juice per se. Or sodium bicarbonate.

It’s that “beet juice” is a beard for doping. Yet another answer to the question: Oh wow, how did you become the latest person to come out of nowhere to set a world record, win the tour de france, etc.

“altitude training in a remote location” = doping.

“beet juice” = doping.

If you’re not familiar with these concepts, you’ve been living in a cave for years.

It’s not that beet juice, the juice, a natural substance, is bad!

It’s that beet juice, the MEME, and its ilk, are horrible and destroying sport.

He’s saying he doesn’t want to be involved, that even something like beet juice, a natural thing that his girlfriend uses, has been tainted, and he doesn’t want to go there. There’s no reason to take offense – he’s not suggesting that beet juice drinkers are mentally retarded dopers (notwithstanding this thread), otherwise he wouldn’t have mentioned his girlfriend.

He’s trying to draw a line in the sand, in a screwed up world of sport.

We all do.

Unfortunately if your line is not exactly where my line is, no matter which side of the line you’re on, I’m obligated to hate you for it. hahaha. So I’m fine if he gets turned into a newt. Carry on.

Good post.

Does True not drink coffee? He does, look up almost any interview with him and coffee is involved. How are the benefits of coffee and caffeine different from beet juice? Ben True is flirting with a dirty line there

Dr. Doh wrote:

Yet another answer to the question: Oh wow, how did you become the latest person to come out of nowhere to set a world record, win the tour de france, etc.

Wow, so how did you come out of nowhere to win a Diamond League race?

Through hard work and dedication, right? Unlike your half-cheating wife, that is.

coffee black wrote:

Does True not drink coffee? He does, look up almost any interview with him and coffee is involved. How are the benefits of coffee and caffeine different from beet juice? Ben True is flirting with a dirty line there

Coffee is legit because he drinks it.

Beet juice is "grey area" because his wife drinks it.

I continue to dislike True more and more every time he opens his mouth.

1. Don't talk about your wife in a negative way to anyone. Period. Worse, he is questioning her moral judgement in public. Disrespectful.

2. He thinks he's the only non African on planet earth that can beat the Africans clean. Arrogant.

3. He admittedly has used melatonin, coffee and other training aids like the AlterG, but he judges other athletes that use other legal medications, stimulants or gimmicks. Hypocritical.

Sport is not fair.

Its not fair that some have better genetics, better facilities, shoes(!), better diets, better coaches, live at altitude, etc. etc.

Sport is a game defined by somewhat arbitrary rules. Why run 10,000 meters and not 9000 meters?

To play the game, participate in the sport, you need to follow the rules. But sometimes the rules are vague, and sometimes they change.

I think True partially recognizes that this is all just a game. He also recognizes that he does not want to or enjoy playing the game the way others do.

Perhaps as a coping mechanism he comes up with his own rules. Its ok to make up and abide by your own rules about how you will play the game, as long as your play does not break any of the normal rules.

What fun to be able to run around in glorified underwear and get paid for it.

How neat is it to make sort of a living playing a game, especially a game where you get to define some of the rules?

He is obviously not trying to impose his rules on others, and apparently do not feel ill will toward those like his wife who play by their own different rules

We're done here wrote:

3. He admittedly has used melatonin, coffee and other training aids like the AlterG, but he judges other athletes that use other legal medications, stimulants or gimmicks. Hypocritical.

This is the crux of peoples' irritation. This guy uses legal performance enhancers and then plays a game of "Oh well I'm not saying you shouldn't do this but umm you are a cheater I mean yeah it is OK but....you are a cheater. If you can sleep with yourself I guess...."

We have specific rules for this purpose. There is no 'gray area'. Some things are banned, other things are not.

The Champ wrote:

We're done here wrote:

3. He admittedly has used melatonin, coffee and other training aids like the AlterG, but he judges other athletes that use other legal medications, stimulants or gimmicks. Hypocritical.

This is the crux of peoples' irritation. This guy uses legal performance enhancers and then plays a game of "Oh well I'm not saying you shouldn't do this but umm you are a cheater I mean yeah it is OK but....you are a cheater. If you can sleep with yourself I guess...."

We have specific rules for this purpose. There is no 'gray area'. Some things are banned, other things are not.

Meldonium was not banned for years, now it is. Was it in the gray area before?

Ho Hum wrote:

The Champ wrote:

This is the crux of peoples' irritation. This guy uses legal performance enhancers and then plays a game of "Oh well I'm not saying you shouldn't do this but umm you are a cheater I mean yeah it is OK but....you are a cheater. If you can sleep with yourself I guess...."

We have specific rules for this purpose. There is no 'gray area'. Some things are banned, other things are not.

Meldonium was not banned for years, now it is. Was it in the gray area before?

No. It was not banned before. Now it is banned.

rjm33 wrote:

I also think that do deny a person Thyroid hormone with real hypothyroidism... in real medical need of Thyroid hormone... would be wrong.

....but I think getting a TUE to try to use Thyroid hormone as a PED...without a real medical need... is also wrong.

Please keep up. You DO NOT need a TUE for thyroid meds. It is not deemed an illegal drug by WADA.

They decided (right or wrong ) it doesn't improve performance.

If I was elite and had low thyroid (even if from training) I might take it as it ISN'T against the rules.

Most elites that speak out against don't have low thyroid so it is easy for them to say it is bad.

They key to fight doping is to have a good set of rules and enforce them !

Maybe once we get the clear doping stopped we can think about moving the line.

Dr. Doh wrote:

He’s trying to draw a line in the sand, in a screwed up world of sport.

We all do. .

Yes, he's trying to draw the line in the sand as long as his wife and friends are exempt from that line. What True is actually doing is trying to back-date justice, due process, and punishment to 17th century New England. Like the Puritan ministers of that day, it's easy to dish out death sentences to others, when his wife is probably guilty of the same crimes.

Fvck True. I'm no longer a fan. Paint a big red "T" on his forehead.

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

[quote]whatanidiot wrote:

So...isn't eating more food or specific foods also artificially balancing levels in your body?

The effects are nothing like EPO or thyroid therapies. We're talking tiny changes vs. enormous ones.[/quote

One of these is not like the others.

I think you're giving True too much credit. He's as dumb as a box of rocks. And never throw your wife under the bus. Arrogant a**hole.

This guy calls out his own wife for beetroot juice and then drinks "lots of coffee'????

Seriously, who would have guessed someone named "true" was a self-righteous azzwipe...

I agree. We need one set of rules aplplied evenly. It's hard to apply them evenly across many countries. The US seems to be doing better these days but too many others are behind.

People need to calm down and and actually listen to what the guy is trying to say. He did not throw his wife under the bus and is not calling her a cheat for drinking beet juice or taking sodium bicarbonate. It's not about the beet juice or the SB at all. It's about taking anything pre race that he feels could boost performance or give an advantage. He wants to rely on his talent, hard work and mental strength to get him to the finish line. That train of thought may be a bit extreme and "old school" but its what makes him tick. The coffee thing is a side note. From what I have read True does not drink alcohol. This goes back to the rigid thought process. We all have strong holds and my guess is that coffee is his guilty pleasure, not something he takes to help with performance. I have had the pleasure of hanging around a lot of the old timer elites of the sport (Todd Williams, Steve Jones, Mark Coogan, etc) and they were cut from that same cloth. Compression sleeves, breath right strips, altitude tents, etc. were all considered things that less talented guys used because they didn't train hard enough and couldn't keep up. Hell, Steve Jones thought that drinking water in the middle of a marathon was a weakness! Cut the guy a little slack and think a little before jumping on here and calling him a closet cheat.