Centro defends Shelby

c7runner7 wrote:

casual obsever wrote:

Ok, huge self-confidence could be the answer to question 2. How about question 1?

Emotional connections. Imagine you have a long time friend whom you work with every day and respect the hell out of. And that person is also liked by pretty much everyone. Then they are accused of something you could never fathom them doing. (And they would have had to have been doing it right under your nose- possibly even while you were hanging out). How would you react? You’ll claim you’ll try to be objective, but not that’s human nature.

Fair enough but that is why we expect people to react professionally. There is a reason the system isn’t structured to accept testimonials from friends and ex-boyfriends. The burrito story is absurd. There is no reason to attack CAS for not accepting it or stating that USADA should take over and clear the runner. The best response is to say ‘we don’t know how this got in her system, we support her and will continue to investigate.’

C$ wrote:

I'm still of the opinion that the burrito story is absurd. Centro admitted she was taking "vitamins" in the interview.... she probably took a contaminated supplement, didn't know it would make her test positive. I don't think it was intentional (based only on how sincere Shelby professed innocence- I know that doesn't count for much) but unfortunately that's not a defense when dealing with supplements.

What kind of vitamins are contaminated with Nandralone?

Dwightarm wrote:

I believe that she isn’t a doper. I believe that Centro believes she wasn’t doping.

HOWEVER: She was still caught with nandrolone levels above the legal limit for this test and did not conclusively prove it was from the burrito.

Whether innocently or not, tainted supplement or not, it was in her body and it falls upon her to prove how it got there. Just proclaiming she’s innocent doesn’t cut it.

She is a convicted doper, lost her appeal, banned for 4 years. She didn't follow Rule 2.1.1 "The athlete is responsible for all food/supplements entering their body and subsequent positive doping violation etc."

he's filthy wrote:

I mean, centro is one of the most juiced runners in history. He's every bit up there with rupp, mo, bobblehead, FloJo. The whole lot of these doping cheaters needs to be in prison for decades. Asking cento about other doping cheaters is like getting financial advice from Bernie Madoff or culinary advice from Jeffrey Dahmer.

Prison for decades? A bit harsh don't you think?

Dicks Sporting Good$ wrote:

C$ wrote:

I'm still of the opinion that the burrito story is absurd. Centro admitted she was taking "vitamins" in the interview.... she probably took a contaminated supplement, didn't know it would make her test positive. I don't think it was intentional (based only on how sincere Shelby professed innocence- I know that doesn't count for much) but unfortunately that's not a defense when dealing with supplements.

What kind of vitamins are contaminated with Nandralone?

On one of the other threads the point was made that factory equipment has to be cleaned with certain chemicals between runs of different supplements/vitamins to avoid possible contamination. In some factories this isn't done, hence contamination. Contaminated supplement is not a valid excuse in a positive doping case however.

I pretty much agree. But it seemed they were unhappy with the process of the investigation. I don’t know everything that happened over that 5 months, so I can’t comment on whether their statements were justified or not.

Also, has there been anyone that personally knows Jerry, Shelby, and Shalane that has said anything bad about them? It’s rare that people have this much support so unanimously by people that actually know them. If they were the type of people that blamed others for their mistakes, people wouldn’t like them so much. Jerry and Shalane have always seemed very professional too. Can we name an instance they weren’t? So it’s weird and seemingly out of character they are all taking this stance. The most plausible reason is that they genuinely believe there was an injustice. But from the facts the public has, the ruling makes sense. And you have to figure Jerry and BTC are aware of the optics, yet they are strongly backing Shelby anyways. So It’s a weird case.

fghrunner wrote:

Hmm i am maybe too easy but this makes me sort of believe her again? Idk, i sort of assumed centro was going to be a "no comment" but this is a pretty strong stance and defense of he ex. He starts talking about it at like 11:00

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2021/06/matthew-centrowitz-defends-shelby-houlihan-absolutely-i-support-her-i-believe-her-i-could-have-been-in-the-position-she-was-in/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAe5uJ7OLKU

I am getting sick of this crap already. Nobody here knows if she is innocent or guilty. Maybe she doesn’t even know. The truth is we may never know...Just ask Lassie Viren

What we need wrote:

fethullah gulen rupp wrote:

of all the scenarios they could have chosen, i will never understood why they chose pork offal. just mind boggling.

I get that it's a ridiculous story, but what other excuse should they have come up with?

Based on the scientific journals, the pork offal was the only one that had a tiny sliver of feasibility. Short of admitting to doping or saying she took a tainted supplement (which would have resulted in a ban), I'm not sure what other story she could have come up with?

Exactly; we know far too little about Nandrolone esp from non biased non wada sources.

It is strict liability that should be on trial.

Each case should be treated on its merits and not by strict liability as this catches non cheats.

Remember she did not say it was the food but the only possibility she could think off.

You know what bias is and how it blurs reality? '"Likable" and "articulate" unlike most athletes' isn't an indicator of truth. Armstrong was certainly articulate and definitely Likable.

Also in determining whether an athlete doped, opinions are quite useless. WADA needs an athlete to account for how a banned drug got into their body, and with Shelby unable to do that, the only logical conclusion was she doped. How Shelby carries herself around, how cute she is or how important to the team she is really doesn't matter. And how credible her defenders sound is also pointless

michiganrunner55 wrote:

I am getting sick of this crap already. Nobody here knows if she is innocent or guilty. Maybe she doesn’t even know. The truth is we may never know...Just ask Lassie Viren

Any unbiased person knows the truth. If your defense is basically "feelings" that's never a good start.

WADA is not interested in knowing if an athlete is guilty or innocent; it's system is not a criminal justice one. It needs athletes to sufficiently account for how a banned substance hot into their body. Shelby wasn't able to do that. Per WADA's rules, she's a drug cheat.

Consider, also, that Shelby never contested that Nandrolone was in her system. Her justification of how it got into it is honestly ridiculous and laughable. She simply cannot be "innocent" .

USkenyan wrote:

WADA is not interested in knowing if an athlete is guilty or innocent; it's system is not a criminal justice one. It needs athletes to sufficiently account for how a banned substance hot into their body. Shelby wasn't able to do that. Per WADA's rules, she's a drug cheat.

Consider, also, that Shelby never contested that Nandrolone was in her system. Her justification of how it got into it is honestly ridiculous and laughable. She simply cannot be "innocent" .

I love how Brojos and Gault treat WADA and the appeal judges like they are morons.

This was a good analysis.

Jenny Simpson was afraid to convict Shelby bc she is popular, but she loved bashing Alberto. Both Shelby and Alberto are banned from the sport.

I really think that Jerry S. should stop talking publically. That video was a high school rendition of lying to the teacher to get a friend out of trouble.

As someone who obsessively follows Matt’s love life I have to dispel this nonsense right now. He wasn’t even dating Shelby in December. Guys they are lying to us.

"articulate" "sincere" "Likable" do not constitute factual accounting of reality. That's called opinionated bias, which immediately voids whatever you say after.

"We may never know the truth about Shelby"...

We do, actually. Per WADA's rules, athletes have to sufficiently account for how a banned drug got into their body. Shelby was clearly unable to do that; her justification is easily laughable and honestly ridiculous.

The WSJ did an article earlier this month that showed the probability that Shelby was served the wrong burrito as she claims, and that this burrito had pork offal in it, and that this is the cause of her positive test, is embarrassingly low.

Meanwhile the probability that a top athlete is using drugs to enhance performance is an-order-of-magnitude-higher.

Shelby is a drug cheat. You can choose to believe that, or to turn a blind eye to reality in pursuit of some fantasy

Yes @obviousobserver I think you are onto something. They broke up I believe between June and August of 2020 and here he goes talking about the Bachelorette in December, but they unfollowed each other for at least a time post-breakup. The picture confirming the couple that was posted on a thread in Nov/ Dec 2019 is now a dead link so all of that points to the idea that they would no longer be going out to romantic food truck dinners together post-break up????

USkenyan wrote:

"articulate" "sincere" "Likable" do not constitute factual accounting of reality. That's called opinionated bias, which immediately voids whatever you say after.

"We may never know the truth about Shelby"...

We do, actually. Per WADA's rules, athletes have to sufficiently account for how a banned drug got into their body. Shelby was clearly unable to do that; her justification is easily laughable and honestly ridiculous.

The WSJ did an article earlier this month that showed the probability that Shelby was served the wrong burrito as she claims, and that this burrito had pork offal in it, and that this is the cause of her positive test, is embarrassingly low.

Meanwhile the probability that a top athlete is using drugs to enhance performance is an-order-of-magnitude-higher.

Shelby is a drug cheat. You can choose to believe that, or to turn a blind eye to reality in pursuit of some fantasy

You obviously don't work for Nike. 😂🤣

Dwightarm wrote:

I believe that she isn’t a doper. I believe that Centro believes she wasn’t doping.

HOWEVER: She was still caught with nandrolone levels above the legal limit for this test and did not conclusively prove it was from the burrito.

Whether innocently or not, tainted supplement or not, it was in her body and it falls upon her to prove how it got there. Just proclaiming she’s innocent doesn’t cut it.

What makes you believe a specific athlete cannot dope? Especially one who have seen considerable and sudden jumps in performance? Why do you inherently believe in her?

Man, the excruciatingly bad luck just seems to pile up for Houlihan. So, now, if you think she is clean you have to believe the following:

1. The burrito truck in question happened to to buy boar offal which constitutes less than 1% of the overall pig meat supply in the US

2. That she ingested enough of that offal to trigger a positive test for nandrolone. Some say it needed to be as much as 300g but it may be less based on Houlihan's size and weight.

3. That she enough boar offal made its way into her beef burrito via cross-contamination (?) or that it was entirely the wrong order but Houlihan didn't notice or complain(?) Even though she gets the same order from that truck all the time.

4. That she just happened to eat that burrito 10 hours before being tested. The EXACT length of time that the now-famous scientific study says the level of nandrolone in Houlihan's system would be detected. And she was eating it at 8pm.

5. That the one occasion when Centro didn't go to the burrito cart with her and order the same thing, she gets flagged for a positive test.

You can believe she's innocent if you like, but if you're telling me you believe this story, then you're an idiot.

Wouldn’t expect anything less from her former partner and still teammate to toe the party line and defend her.

It’s still one of the most ridiculous defences for being a drug cheat I’ve heard though and those at BTC defending the drugs cheat and her silly story are only costing themselves credibility at this point.