Friendly, reminder, you are talking about a real person who very well may read this. I've written up that summarizes the key points that he said on the podcast.
What the New Zealand article fails to mention is that Zane appears to be suicidal. He talked about wanting to end his life 3 or 4 times on the podcast.
If anyone is suicidal, please dial or text 988 in the US. We have the international suicide numbers in the article.
He states in the podcast he returned to NZ and chewed through his life savings ( get a part time job champ) unsure of his relationship with his parents so can’t comment on that. However he and his brother were very arrogant, negative and dismissive of the Athletics NZ bureaucracy and system throughout their careers and this probably cost them carding and financial aid. Hindsight is a great tool but maybe if they hadn’t been such tools things could have been different.
You use the word "carding" which means you must be Canadian because no one else uses that word in any other country. I think Zane can go back safely to New Zealand because to be honest with you I don't think he's really well known in New Zealand because athletics is hardly a high-profile sport in that country and he would really basically be unknown everywhere he goes except for a very small minority of people who follow track and field. Life is short so he should try to find a new endeavour which will fulfil him for the rest of his life. He made an egregious mistake by crossing the line but I feel sorry for him. Absolutely no need to end his life. There are still people who love and support him and will stand by his side. If he really only did this once then he can redeem himself like giving more information so that we have more knowledge about this issue in the future.
I'm from New Zealand, and I don't know anyone other than myself who has heard of the twins. A few of my friends are nick Willis fans. As for employment, the job market is incredibly tight in New zealand. There are tons of jobs in tourism, one can imagine Zane as a mountain running tour guide etc.
I need one of these busted athletes to just start singing like a canary. How did you get the drugs, who else is taking them, anything. When other sports (Baseball/Cycling) had steroid scandals, guys who got caught started turning on each other left and right, but for some reason that never seems to happen in running.
Why? If he turns in other athletes you like you will just discredit him.
The story seems absurd. For someone who used it once, he sure seems to have a feel for how well it worked on him. Also he used it once and it was in the glowing window (2-6 days?) of the race which he could’ve easily researched in before? What was he possibly thinking…
1) I thought 0% chance it was first time he used it
2) But after reading Rojo's article, I'm more sympathetic. If you haven't used it a lot you might not be as good as getting caught but I still lean to who had used it before.
3) I've always said I never knew anyone on drugs but that isn't true. A guy I know was from a place where he said drugs were super common. He got fed up and on one trip home said he got some EPO. He said his goal was to get to the very top and expose the whole system. To my knowledge he got injured right away and never raced after getting on the EPO. But he said the training effects were amazing. I sort of wondered the same thing "if you were just on it for a brief period how would you know" but he made it sound like it was instant.
As a human being you wish him the best and that he seeks and gets the help he needs. That being said, as an athlete he contradicts himself (frustrated with the EPO use in the sport) which was one of the factors that led to his decision to dope in addition to the financial hardships he encountered by not being good enough to earn more prize money, and then you throw depression into the equation and you have a total sh^t show. The bottom line is that he's a cheater, not only did he cheat himself but also other competitors out of money who may have been going through the same life issues. I believe his punishment is well deserved and just. Hopefully he will own this and become a better person and not cheat himself out of life.
The story seems absurd. For someone who used it once, he sure seems to have a feel for how well it worked on him. Also he used it once and it was in the glowing window (2-6 days?) of the race which he could’ve easily researched in before? What was he possibly thinking…
1) I thought 0% chance it was first time he used it
2) But after reading Rojo's article, I'm more sympathetic. If you haven't used it a lot you might not be as good as getting caught but I still lean to who had used it before.
3) I've always said I never knew anyone on drugs but that isn't true. A guy I know was from a place where he said drugs were super common. He got fed up and on one trip home said he got some EPO. He said his goal was to get to the very top and expose the whole system. To my knowledge he got injured right away and never raced after getting on the EPO. But he said the training effects were amazing. I sort of wondered the same thing "if you were just on it for a brief period how would you know" but he made it sound like it was instant.
There's an old Outside article where the author, an amateur age group cyclist of 48yrs old, conducted an 8 month doping program under the care of a doctor. I think the article is something like 20 yrs old.
Yes the affects are both immediate and chronic. You become super human. You only get caught if you are stupid or get greedy. Has Lance, Bonds, Marion, etc not shown us this already?
If you wanna win. You dope. Any sport. Every sport.
However, I lost respect for him when he said his ex-wife spend years convincing him to do it, and bought EPO for him (in Ethiopia I might add).
Zane then left it in the fridge for months, then moved to Kenya, unpacked his stuff, noticed he still had it, then months later, when he was at a downpoint remembered that he still had the EPO his ex-wofe bought him and used it.
I don't doubt that his divorce was messy, but does he really expect us to believe that story when Zane could just ask 80% of guests staying at his guest house and he'd have EPO in his system within 5 minutes?
How would you leave it in your fridge for months and not notice it? Unless he eats so much food and it got shoved to the back. I don't buy it!
I've got stuff in the back of my fridge that could well be older than some people who post here. But if he took it along when he moved it's another story.
I might be in the minority on this but I just can't bring myself to feel sympathy or find this refreshing after the covid vaccine forged documents saga. How many chances do you get to come clean? Looks to me a lot more like damage control at this point. Also pretty telling he brushes off the fraud as a last ditch effort to save his a** because a longer ban isn't different to him. Sure, I'm sure in his warped narcissistic mind that's true, ignoring the innocent and random targets of his fraud who could have lost their jobs over his accusations.
There isn't going to be further investigation here so he's free to say whatever he wants to craft a narrative here. I'm sure he's miserable and I'm sure he had his reasons and we can all probably understand that but that doesn't make him a raging narcissist and obvious liar here. What a convenient little story to have battled with the devil on his shoulder for MONTHS all because his ex brought the drugs into his life (very nice detail that she brought it into their house) and then did it exactly one time and noticed specific benefits of it. That's such a crock of bs and so obviously convenient and self-serving lies. The added bit about how he felt in the one EPO workout is classic lying by adding overly specific details to make your larger fabrication sound real. Seems pretty obvious he wouldn't be hitting one great workout immediately after injecting some EPO for the first time. Come on.
Icarus was on Netflix a few years ago and a middle aged age-group cyclist used EPO/test and some other drugs for months and ended up placing worse in his race than the year before. I don't recall him experiencing any immediate boost in perceived performance.
Icarus was on Netflix a few years ago and a middle aged age-group cyclist used EPO/test and some other drugs for months and ended up placing worse in his race than the year before. I don't recall him experiencing any immediate boost in perceived performance.
Use code ATHLETESPECIAL50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box at https://bit.ly/404MQ8g!Doping is a very complex issue within the sport of track. Another at...
Just a sad story.....only the very top runners make enough money to live comfortably that is the truth. Otherwise you have to have a day job.
He is a good runner but 2:08 marathon does not cut it anymore unfortunately, you really have to be able to run 2:05 and even then it will be a struggle if you are east african, maybe if you are American you will be sponsored and get by.
He then lied to cover it up going to incredible lengths and presumably spending good money to do so (forging doctors notes, legal submissions).
So why should I trust that he isn't lying now to save his legacy or to cover for people around him?
The thing with trust is once broken it is very hard to put together again. Fool me once, fool me twice etc etc. Might seem harsh and I hope he can get his life together again but as a fan I just don't trust what he's saying.
Just a sad story.....only the very top runners make enough money to live comfortably that is the truth. Otherwise you have to have a day job.
He is a good runner but 2:08 marathon does not cut it anymore unfortunately, you really have to be able to run 2:05 and even then it will be a struggle if you are east african, maybe if you are American you will be sponsored and get by.
Sounds extraordinarily difficult to earn enough from running to eek out even a meager existence without a supplemental non-running income source. He was 33 and staring down the need to get a regular working stiff job. Ouch.
I remember him mentioning that his training was much better though, something along the lines of 20% more power or however that works I’m not a cyclist
Many people here need to have some compassion. When you are in a very dark place, and you strongly associate your life with running, doping can seem like a way to save your life. Sounds like he was dealing with financial troubles as well as a divorce. Anyone who has been in a dark place before knows that they think of everything else they can try as a last resort before the *final option*. Obviously this was a stupid mistake on his part, he made his training partners, athletes he coached, brother, and family all look bad. But we are only human. I'm not justifying doping here, but most top athletes have at least thought of going over to the dark side before. Only he knows if he truly did it once or for most of his career, all we can do is look at the facts rather than speculate.
Well said. At least he confessed, likely because I have never seen burritos in Kenya. The details don’t really matter. Rarely have I ever seen someone make a massive dumba** decision and then not regret it when they are thinking more clearly. Everyone has done that in life, some major issues, others not so much. It’s basic psychology 101. When one makes a decision, it seems to be the correct decision at that moment, regardless of the potential backlash. I love it when so many righteous ‘I have never made a bad decision in my life’ posters like to share their wisdom here. I can only hope to be so perfect someday, whereby I can judge others and not be judged. Bring on the judgmental haters. Just sayin…
