Memo today from IOC asked athletes to stop calling other athletes dopers

I'm all for calling out and punishing proven dopers, but the OG press conference is not the proper venue. Once you start down that road, you open the doors for unlimited accusations and mud-slinging within a forum that is in no way designed to allow fact driven debate. Even if we all think the swimmer's accusation was warranted, once we allow doping accusations as a topic of conversation in these press conferences, the whole thing could devolve into LR level baseless bashing in a hurry.

Write a well researched article in a respected publication. Lobby the various doping and governing agencies for rule changes. Go do interviews where discussing doping is the stated purpose of the discussion. There are a lot of ways to move in the right direction with regard to doping in more appropriate venues that allow you to truly present evidence and engage in discussion.

These are clearly not normal Letsrun posters. This is the weirdest thread I have ever read here. Who are these poster? Where the hell did you come from? Convicted dopers do not deserve any kind of public relations protection regardless of men rea (and I did go to law school). Also, I don't understand why state of mind would even be considered. Makes no sense and does not protect the athletic competition. That is a letsrun staple. That includes American dopers.

Crazy crazy stuff here wrote:

These are clearly not normal Letsrun posters. This is the weirdest thread I have ever read here. Who are these poster? Where the hell did you come from? Convicted dopers do not deserve any kind of public relations protection regardless of men rea (and I did go to law school). Also, I don't understand why state of mind would even be considered. Makes no sense and does not protect the athletic competition. That is a letsrun staple. That includes American dopers.

You are wrong. It is not about doping. It is about how athletes treat each other. Once you allow one type of grievance to be aired you have to allow them all. Politics, sex, religion. Athletes can attack each other at will. Fights will break out. That were idiots like you want this to head.

Crazy crazy stuff here wrote:

These are clearly not normal Letsrun posters. This is the weirdest thread I have ever read here. Who are these poster? Where the hell did you come from? Convicted dopers do not deserve any kind of public relations protection regardless of men rea (and I did go to law school). Also, I don't understand why state of mind would even be considered. Makes no sense and does not protect the athletic competition. That is a letsrun staple. That includes American dopers.

Yes, the whole idea of a testing regime is that a confirmed positive test makes the case. The burden is then on the athlete testing positive to present a defense. It would be pointless if the prosecutors also had to prove intent or state of mind. All of the athletes must agree to this procedure in order to compete.

But corrupt Russian administration makes the whole procedure meaningless. If athletes aren't adequately tested in their own countries, there can't be effective enforcement.

I agree. People are suggesting, however, that there must be a culpable state of mind. NO. Too hard to prove and this is athletics not (initially anyway) a court if law. When nations like Russia have corrupted testing programs that not only fail to preclude dirty athletes but aid them, well, presumably clean athletes have a right to say whatever the hell they want. If at the end of the day the "mouthy" athletes are also proved dirty the level of ridicule should be astronomical as it was when Lance was finally obliterated publicly. The IAAF did the right thing (eventually) and other federation's absolutely dropped the ball at the expense of the presumably clean athletes. At the end of the day that it at the root of the current displays of protest. Those federations and the IPC can't complain about a problem they instigated through inaction.

Crazy crazy stuff here wrote:

Those federations and the IOC can't complain about a problem they instigated through inaction.

While I agree with your entire post, your final sentence, quoted here with a typo correction, has to be one of the greatest understatements I have even seen on the internet, or really, anywhere. I've said it again and again, here and elsewhere: No anti-PED program can be effective when those who own and/or run the sport, here the IOC, aren't fully committed to it. And yet the IOC has the gall to complain about the athletes protesting, when the problem directly results from the IOC's refusal to act, and the athletes themselves are harmed the most. But in the end, countries can send dopers to the Olympics, because if the IOC started banning entire countries, that would threaten the huge profit machine the Olympics have become.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

IOC should send a memo asking athletes not to dope...

IOC should send a memo asking NOPers not to dope.

IOC should send a memo asking IOC to do something about drug cheating.

Fair enough and I agree with you. I guess I was trying to be diplomatic.

YOU ARE wrong wrote:

You are wrong. It is not about doping. It is about how athletes treat each other.

NOPe. It is about doping. A doper doesn't deserve to be called an athlete; they are a cheater plain and simple. There should be universal lifetime bans for any competitor who dopes, and the legitimate athlete should never have to share a stage with a cheater. A little verbal abuse aimed at the cheating thief is well below what they deserve - prison.

NOPe a Dope wrote:

YOU ARE wrong wrote:

You are wrong. It is not about doping. It is about how athletes treat each other.

NOPe. It is about doping. A doper doesn't deserve to be called an athlete; they are a cheater plain and simple. There should be universal lifetime bans for any competitor who dopes, and the legitimate athlete should never have to share a stage with a cheater. A little verbal abuse aimed at the cheating thief is well below what they deserve - prison.

That poster is correct. You are incorrect.

The Olympics is absolutely the very BEST venue for airing these grievances as all of the mainstream media is intently tuned in and people who don't usually care about sports like swimming are paying attention.

Lets be real; the only way that the doping and corruption issues are going to be addressed is if there is a huge outcry from the public, and the businesses who finance the Olympic Games privately demand that the IOC cleans up its act. The IOC doesn't care about some well-researched article, published in a niche paper somewhere that gets maybe 10,000 views. They will absolutely care if clean athletes come together and speak out against dopers while most of the World is watching.

I don't agree that it will evolve into "LR level baseless bashing", at least for the most part. The athletes at the Olympics are minor celebrities and not anonymous, unlike the average forum poster. They also generally have sponsors and accusing somebody of doping with zero evidence could very easily result in them being dropped. Calling out proven cheaters like Sun Yang, Efimova and Gatlin is not baseless and I hope that the fans in Rio continue to boo them at each and every opportunity.

Once again, the IOC has 100% asked for this to happen by not promoting clean and fair sport. They have no one to blame but themselves and, if they start kicking athletes out of the Games for speaking their minds, you can only imagine the international sh#t-storm that that would kick up in the mainstream media. It's not gonna' happen.

Translation: the IOC wants the athletes to help protect their brand.

vivalarepublica wrote:

Translation: the IOC wants the athletes to help protect their brand.

Word. What's the use of holding this quadrennial event if the IOC can't rake in billions?

goudas7 wrote:

I agree that King and Horton crossed the line. Just shut up and compete. Instead they chose to hurt competitors in a selfish and rude manner. Total lack of respect for the Olympic brand. I understand being mad at Efimova because she was not banned despite meldonium positives. But they did not acknowledge the athletes right to compete in a respectful manner. How would King and Horton like to be harassed for a past indiscretion of their own? Perhaps they should write a new rule that anyone who attempts to provide others with a negative Olympic experience be stripped of any medals they win!

Olympic BRAND?! WTF ARE YOU ON? Wake up sunshine. No one cares about no damn olympic brand. I commend their cojones. Call a cheater a cheater and roll with it.

Birmingham wrote:

Pop pop

Do you understand what strict liability means and mens rea . If not get back to the retard school.

IOC/IAAF lawyer weasels working for the PR firms selling the Olympic Spectacle/Bullshite

Crazy crazy stuff here wrote:

These are clearly not normal Letsrun posters. This is the weirdest thread I have ever read here. Who are these poster? Where the hell did you come from? Convicted dopers do not deserve any kind of public relations protection regardless of men rea (and I did go to law school). Also, I don't understand why state of mind would even be considered. Makes no sense and does not protect the athletic competition. That is a letsrun staple. That includes American dopers.

These guys are the weasels working for the PR firm.

Out weasels, out.

Do you all know one of the reasons that Lilly King is the one that is speaking up about this? She is a 19-year-old with nothing to lose. She doesn't have a job to worry about, no big contract to lose, no manufactured reputation to destroy. The naivity of youth is giving the anti-doping fight a huge gift.

And thank god for all that. She is calling a spade a spade and saying the things that we need to hear from athletes. Go Hoosiers.

There is a lot to this. By the time most track athletes turn pro, or certainly by the time they win medals, they are in up to their neck in a system that can destroy their livelihood in an instant.Not sure if this applies to the Aussie. Then again, he is an Aussie....

vivalarepublica wrote:

Do you all know one of the reasons that Lilly King is the one that is speaking up about this? She is a 19-year-old with nothing to lose. She doesn't have a job to worry about, no big contract to lose, no manufactured reputation to destroy. The naivity of youth is giving the anti-doping fight a huge gift.

And thank god for all that. She is calling a spade a spade and saying the things that we need to hear from athletes. Go Hoosiers.