"The Drug Cheat Mary Slaney"

rekrunner wrote:

No mention of doping? A simple search on "doping" shows it mentioned 4 times. Once for Asafa Powell, and the other 3 for Gatlin. Here are the quotes:

"Prior to today, Gatlin’s fastest time since returning from his doping ban was ..."

"Quick Thought #2: Gatlin occupies a strange space in the sport right now.

He’s clearly the best runner in track and field’s marquee event, but he wasn’t invited to compete in three major races because of his history of doping. He’s running better than ever at age 32 — and again, he missed four years of competition because of his doping ban — but fans don’t know whether to be amazed or suspicious."

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Pity they don't treat Gatlin the same

'http://www.letsrun.com/news/2014/09/justin-gatlin-runs-9-7719-71-pull-greatest-single-day-100200-double-history'

No mention of doping!

Thanks for that rekrunner, just shows idiots like ukathleticscoach, and a few others on this thread, should do a bit of basic research before posting.

My personal opinion, based on the scant evidence available, is that she got caught in the 90's as an ageing athlete. There are two reasonable possibilities:1) Her account of birth control pills was truthful, and messed up her hormones2) She turned to additional support in her 30's, to counter-act injuries, and help her recover her performances as a teen, and in her 20's.Unless there is some more concrete information, there is really no reason to think that Mary was dirty in the 80's.I totally agree though the "scarlet letter thing is a bit overboard". What a great way to put it. I prefer the way they handled Justin Gatlin's amazing double. They mention what a great feat it was, but did not neglect to tell us that he did serve a doping ban, and that fans aren't sure what to think about it.

Marathon Mannerisms wrote:

My personal opinion is that Mary was dirty in the 80s, got caught in the 90s and was banned from track. She served her time. However, this scarlet letter thing is a bit overboard. I'm sure the brojos must have a cheating scandal in their own history. Let it go.

Her husband was European Strongman. Nobody cheats in that event.....

Drugs,Drugs,Drugs! wrote:

Her husband was European Strongman. Nobody cheats in that event.....

Then if Doping then I suppose Zola Budd and Marica Puica were also doping, considering they were able to finish so close the Mary's American 3000 record.

It's unfair to split out Slaney because 90% of the members of the 1984 US Olympic squad were doped to the gills, as were most other competitors.

keep telling yourself that wrote:

[

Yes just like Lance, she could magically beat dopers yet she was clean. She always knew they were dopers so it made her work that much harder because she's American and Americans don't take short cuts. C'mon man.

Saladbar has proven that Americans can't be in the top five without dope and that Americans can beat all the dopers by working hard.

Randy Oldman wrote:

It's unfair to split out Slaney because 90% of the members of the 1984 US Olympic squad were doped to the gills, as were most other competitors.

And the USA covered for them. Does anyone have a link to that scandal?

Which team had the most members on the 1984 Olympic Team? Athletics West.

I don't need Let's Run to be an objective news organization. It is much more interesting that news is reported with a point of view. They do not pretend to be objective, for example as proponents of high distance training regimens.

Most news organizations that pretend to be objective are full of it, from The Wall Street Journal to the New York Times and Washington Post, all with a point of view.

Of course, Rupert Murdoch's Fox News is fair and balanced, but we all knew that.

Let's see, were we talking about Barry Bonds? Or Ben Johnson? Or Regina Jacobs?

Nice try. A few questions for you:

1. MDS was doping at the 1983 World Championships?

2. But the Russians she beat in the 3000 and the 1500 were not?

3. If they were both doping, what was the name of her apparently brilliant American pharmacist?

The Original Poster started a thread with good points. It didn't take long for children to start using their pea shooters to lower the level of discourse more than a few notches.

I just want to say that it's pretty much impossible to have your ratio be 11:1 or 10.5:1 (can't remember the exact number) from taking birth control. That ratio is off the charts and not possible. I'm not saying that proves she was dirty in the '80s or anything like that but using the pill or any other birth control can't skew your ratio that much, it is just not possible.

We Had the Same Coach wrote:

Let's see, were we talking about Barry Bonds? Or Ben Johnson? Or Regina Jacobs?

Nice try. A few questions for you:

1. MDS was doping at the 1983 World Championships?

2. But the Russians she beat in the 3000 and the 1500 were not?

3. If they were both doping, what was the name of her apparently brilliant American pharmacist?

.

Dick Brown.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Pity they don't treat Gatlin the same

'http://www.letsrun.com/news/2014/09/justin-gatlin-runs-9-7719-71-pull-greatest-single-day-100200-double-history'

No mention of doping!

I'd have more respect if you'd just say you don't think Mary Slaney doped. Trying to point out how we may be inconsistent doesn't mean we're not accurate.

Most of you do think she was dirty:

However, I'm glad someone else pointed out the falsity of your statement.

"Quick Thought #2: Gatlin occupies a strange space in the sport right now.

He’s clearly the best runner in track and field’s marquee event, but he wasn’t invited to compete in three major races because of his history of doping. He’s running better than ever at age 32 — and again, he missed four years of competition because of his doping ban..."

and "9.77 is a significant number for Gatlin. That was his time when he tied Asafa Powell’s world record back in 2006 before getting busted for doping. Now, eight years later — including four in which he didn’t compete at all — Gatlin has run the same time at age 32. Prior to today, Gatlin’s fastest time since returning from his doping ban was his 9.79 from the 2012 Olympic final (though he did run a wind-aided 9.76 at the Pre Classic this year)."

Anyone who says (insert white English-speaking athlete) is a drug cheat needs to have their head examined. I've followed (insert white English-speaking athlete)since high school, (he/she) is simply the hardest working athlete I have ever seen.

He didn't say it because he doesn't think it. Why is it that you can't figure out what 99 percent of the board did -- that ukathleticscoach simply meant "If two people are known dopers, treat them both at least somewhat the same"?

He may have been wrong about you never mentioning Gatlin's doping, but you certainly do treat him as a doper more deserving of praise than Slaney and everyone else. You minimize his first positive test as if that makes him any less of a cheater, and you don't say anything about how this piece of shit tried blaming his masseur for his later positive, a tactic even the insanely ill-tempered Slaney never adopted.

How many American records did Slaney set long before she tested positive? How many ARs does Gatlin hold? Seems like they both fall into the same category of "great AND dirty" -- but Slaney was greater. Or maybe you think that Gatlin coming back after his suspension (which Slaney was too damn old to even try to do) and running great (and obviously no more clean than Slaney was in the early to mid-1980s) makes him a special case?

Christ, you really are as bad as rojo. You write as well as you read. What are you actually trying to say here? That you're admittedly inconsistent in your slamming of athletes while keeping the slams factually accurate? Or that you're neither inconsistent nor wrong no matter what anyone says?

Anyway, you've been both inconsistent AND inaccurate ovr the years, sometimes dangerously so, whether in regard to doping or about various individuals and their accomplishments or misdeeds. Sometimes you issue retractions when the riff-raff gets noisy enough, but more often than that, people you've hurt can't be bothered to contact you even indirectly (except for the formerly incarcerated nutcase in New Haven, I guess) and instead vow to never participate in this forum or even allow their athletes to even look at it if they have any say. It's that bad, and the scope of it is breathtaking. When you look at your site hits, it doesn't tell the story of the number of respected people in track and field that loathe the place, and it's as much your stubbornness to admit to errors as it is your occasional incompetence.

One thing you can always count on, though, is the bullshit side skirmishes that you can conveniently focus on in lieu of addressing the earnest observations of people like Avocado's Number. Go after the meaningless crap rather than admit that maybe you could take a different approach to this NO DRUGZ thing and leave long-retired athletes out of it whenever possible. or, failing the willingness to do anything different, at least own up to stirring the pot (which you do with all the sophistication of a Down syndrome kid given a bottomless bucket of human excrement for wall-painting purposes) because when you feign innocence you look like a couple of kids with their pants around their ankles and goofy grins on their faces, denying to the principal that you've just tried urinating your initials on a back wall of the school.

Perhaps the reasoning is this.....

MDS was idolized by millions, held every record possible and then was found to be a cheat. Despite this, USATF and Nike chose to hide her positive tests and actually promote her enough to see that she was enshrined in the HOF. Meanwhile, people like Jacobs, just went away, as well they should. That's what really pisses people off. That's the same reason people get really pissed when drug cheats get positions of power and stature within USATF.

[quote]ukathleticscoach wrote:

Pity they don't treat Gatlin the same

[quote]rekrunner wrote:

No mention of doping? A simple search on "doping" shows it mentioned 4 times. Once for Asafa Powell, and the other 3 for Gatlin. Here are the quotes:

"Prior to today, Gatlin’s fastest time since returning from his doping ban was ..."

"Quick Thought #2: Gatlin occupies a strange space in the sport right now.

He’s clearly the best runner in track and field’s marquee event, but he wasn’t invited to compete in three major races because of his history of doping. He’s running better than ever at age 32 — and again, he missed four years of competition because of his doping ban — but fans don’t know whether to be amazed or suspicious."

A small tag that was added later on the bottom, thios was not there on the day. No mention of drug cheat in the headline or main part of article

If someone commits a murder they will henceforth be know as "the murderer" . It won't be written up as "The good guy up until the day they murdered someone"

MDS and Gatlin will always be the Drug Cheats

Murder and doping isn't anywhere on the same scale.

If someone gets a speeding ticket they are not known as "the speeder".

True Brit wrote:

If someone commits a murder they will henceforth be know as "the murderer" . It won't be written up as "The good guy up until the day they murdered someone"

PR and Gatlin will always be the Drug Cheats