Another 26 Kenyans Busted

The problem is never going away until sanctions are levied against the Kenyan athletic federation. Until they have a in house system or they are banned entirely by WADA nothing will change. Think of it like this. Kenya is a poor country. A runner wins several thousand dollars let alone hundreds of thousands their life and families lives are changed forever. Otherwise the reward is worth taking the risk of being caught

Yes -- it really really sounds like you don't care about my alleged theories.

Recall, I said "steroids" weren't particularly "known" to produce faster marathon performances. Note the clear reference to "knowledge" in the past tense. Asking the Russians, Baumann, Decker, and Houlihan cannot help here, as they have not run particularly fast marathons. We could ask East Germans about Waldemar Cierpinski, until we also realize that his 2:09:55 from 1976 hardly seems like it would represent the best example. We could also ask Canova about what he thinks could probably be in a hypothetical scenario, but even that falls far short of "knowing" steroids will produce a faster marathon. We could ask the "slew" of Kenyan marathoners to provide their own anecdotes, but I cannot ever recall one anecdote that confirms these athletes were faster due to steroids. When Kisorio, busted for steroids, was asked, he described what most people interpreted as EPO. What seems more likely is that these Kenyans are given a grocery basket of a variety of drugs from local doctors and pharmacists, or foreign agents, for more short term reasons like "recovery" meant to increase training volume and/or intensity, without much particular knowledge about how it will benefit marathon performance.

The usual version of the argument that Kenyans dope like crazy but it doesn't help them.

I do not want to defend the doping problem in Kenya, but I want to explain the circumstances there and why there are so many positive tests. I am a European "Mzungu" and have lived and trained for some time in Elgeyo-Marakwet (Iten, etc.).
In Kenya, there are also MANY MORE top athletes than in the whole of Europe combined. Here's an example:
In 2023, 25 athletes in Europe met the marathon Olympic standard of 2:08:10.
In Kenya, 60 athletes ran 2:08:10 in 2023.
So, the more top athletes, the more tests, and therefore the more doping cases that are uncovered. Kenya is also the country that conducts the most doping tests. Therefore, one cannot say that Kenya should be banned as a nation because there is no systematic state-sponsored doping like in Russia or China.
When you are ill and go to a pharmacy in Kenya, it might happen that you are given a pill without packaging or an information leaflet because medicines are expensive and scarce there and meant to save lives. If you don't ask what exactly you are getting, and most Kenyans don’t (perhaps due to a certain naivety?), it is possible that these medications contain steroids since they come from the Asian market, where regulations are not as strict as in Europe or the USA. I can say this from personal experience. When I had a cold, I went to a pharmacy and was given a single pill and a nasal spray containing ephedrine, which is banned out of competition according to WADA.
Regarding whereabouts failures, it is often the case that many athletes, due to a lack of education and income, either do not have a smartphone with a constant internet connection or do not have the know-how to report their whereabouts around the clock. This means that managers, who often handle several athletes, take over this task and often cannot perform it correctly because they do not have an overview of their athletes' whereabouts. This is a big problem in Kenya. So, there is a big difference between a Kenyan athlete having a whereabouts failure and a European one.
On the other hand, it is possible that due to the ENORMOUS competition in the country, Kenyan athletes might be more tempted to cheat. For Kenyans, running means more because it brings financial independence. In the USA or Europe, most runners who participate in World or European Championships are still amateur runners who have to study or work alongside.
I do not accept that all Kenyans are labeled as dopers. The matter is more nuanced and sometimes not black and white. The majority of Kenyan runners are strong athletes who believe in themselves and their hard training, much more than most "Mzungus"!

While I agree Kenya and Ethiopia are (thankfully) culturally different and shouldn't be lumped together, I think you're disgusting for borrowing a page straight out of the white supremacist playbook by trying to depict Kenyans as an inherently dishonest people. I'd say you ought to know better but, frankly, I'm not really surprised.

It is the usual question trying to separate knowledge from the hype. Do Kenyans dope "like crazy"? Is that knowledge? Can we say we know it is more than 10% of Kenyan athletes who dope intentionally?

The AIU says they are exploited, because there are so many talented runners to start with. Brett Clothier describes it as a pyramid of hundreds, if not a thousand, of next-level runners hoping to make it to the top.

Kalenji is Decathlon's brand. At least you got Bikila right after so many years.

lol. This thread is hilarious. Now the explanation for Ethiopia is they are the genetically gifted ones and Kenyans are just on drugs. Too funny.

Ethiopia is a massive iceberg of doping. The AIU is either unwilling or ill equipped to crash in to it yet.

The A and B tier are just genetic freaks..... lol ya right they are all likely doping

Forget about nuance. More than 400 Kenyans have been banned in the past ten years. Doping is an enormous problem in Kenya.

There are huge monetary incentives for doping in Kenya to stand out from the crowd. As for dishonesty, who knows? But Kenya is 126th in the corruption perceptions index, Ethiopia 98.

transparency.org

2023 Corruption Perceptions Index: Explore the results

@anticorruption

How does your country measure up in the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index?

Open link

And a lot flunk and are rightly banned. The entire country should be banned.

Kenyans are not dishonest people. Neither are Ethiopians. Heck, the runners from both countries are probably very nice.

It's just that there's a HUGE doping problem here. How many positive tests need to be announced before Kenya as a country is banned?

I think UK is doing quite well in the MD?! How many medalists does Kenya have in the men´s 1500m in the 2 last WCs?

The country with the biggest violence rate in the world.

Feeling insurgent against his fathers sometime and playing the "identity provider" another time.

Who sponsor that site? (I guess England)

Your country and UK are still poor countries of middle to long distances.

Its isolate cases due to circumstances.

Compare the results with Marathon, 800m, 10.000m, Cross Countries etc.

You are really a mean person of you thing that the results of EA are du to doping.

There will be no rise of new "clean" world.

Its always a corrupts world controlled by the power countries.

The result before 1960 show it all.

You joking right? 10?? With about half of the athletes doping, and Kenyans being the worst atm, it gotta be at least 3/4 of their athletes.