The people who believe Assefa is clean are the same people who believed in Lance Armstrong. They want to believe in "miracle" performances. And in both cases --- Nike in Armstrong's case, and adidas in Assefa's -- both athletes are being cynically used by giant sports brands as the faces multibillion-dollar global marketing campaigns.
Just as with Armstrong, nothing in Assefa's story makes sense: the fact her Berlin WR represents only her third marathon; the fact she had never raced in this event before last year, and yet yesterday cut 22 minutes from her time for her first marathon. The fact that at 29 is she magnitudes faster than her mid-20s, which is when she should've been at her biological peak. Assefa is a cheat, and the more we cheer on her "world record" the more we are encouraging other runners to stain the sport further and wreck their bodies by taking dangerous PEDs. It might take years, as it did in Armstrong's case, but Assefa will eventually be unmasked as a cheat.
Why do you even watch sports when you have this psychotic view of it?
The point of marathon running is to do it as fast as possible. Sports companies such as Nike and adidas provide support and resources to get them to do that. But you, the viewer, sees the results and gets upset because they ran too fast? What is it you hope to get out of watching this or any athletic competition?
He doesn't hope to get anything out of it; he clearly recognises it for what it is - unlike you.
- Doping is against the rules, acting as a deterrent for most athletes. Even the most pessimistic "scientific" athlete survey data suggests most world championship athletes do not dope.
- No scientific evidence that any PED even exists for the marathon -- an event that does not require muscular strength, and is competed far below maximum aerobic capacity.
- No strong anecdotal evidence either from athletes/coaches that any PED exists for the marathon. There are no athlete/coach testimonies, and the little information provided by the few busts that do occur make it difficult to draw any strong correlations between performance and doping.
- No scientific nor anecdotal evidence of other mechanisms, like PEDs permitting quicker recovery allowing more training, that leads to faster performances.
- Lack of world class fast marathon peformances by most of the non-African world suggests most athletes don't believe in PEDs for the marathon, or alternatively, they do believe, but do not realize the benefits because their unfounded beliefs proved ineffective.
- East Africans (Kenya and Ethiopia) have been dominating world distance running with a demonstrated depth of top quality as far back as 1981 World Cross Country that non-Africans have failed to replicate ever since.
- With respect to EPO and blood doping and ABP suspicion, two esteemed anti-doping researchers reviewed 12 years of blood data and found Kenyan and Ethiopian "suspicion" to be below average and found the marathon to be the cleanest event they looked at, with only 1 in 9 (11%) World Championship and Olympic medals to be won by an athlete that was ever considered "suspicious or at the very least, abnormal" at least once in the database.
- Doping is against the rules, acting as a deterrent for most athletes. Even the most pessimistic "scientific" athlete survey data suggests most world championship athletes do not dope.
- No scientific evidence that any PED even exists for the marathon -- an event that does not require muscular strength, and is competed far below maximum aerobic capacity.
- No strong anecdotal evidence either from athletes/coaches that any PED exists for the marathon. There are no athlete/coach testimonies, and the little information provided by the few busts that do occur make it difficult to draw any strong correlations between performance and doping.
- No scientific nor anecdotal evidence of other mechanisms, like PEDs permitting quicker recovery allowing more training, that leads to faster performances.
- Lack of world class fast marathon peformances by most of the non-African world suggests most athletes don't believe in PEDs for the marathon, or alternatively, they do believe, but do not realize the benefits because their unfounded beliefs proved ineffective.
- East Africans (Kenya and Ethiopia) have been dominating world distance running with a demonstrated depth of top quality as far back as 1981 World Cross Country that non-Africans have failed to replicate ever since.
- With respect to EPO and blood doping and ABP suspicion, two esteemed anti-doping researchers reviewed 12 years of blood data and found Kenyan and Ethiopian "suspicion" to be below average and found the marathon to be the cleanest event they looked at, with only 1 in 9 (11%) World Championship and Olympic medals to be won by an athlete that was ever considered "suspicious or at the very least, abnormal" at least once in the database.
Thank God. Most marathon athletes don't dope because it's naughty and if they do it doesn't help them. We can sleep in our beds.
A lot of fans may want to see fast times sure, but also cleand and FAIR competition. It's a race, with prize money and accolades, not a time trial. If someone is doping then it is not an honest competition.
Probably not. It is in chess, championship darts and curling. Anywhere there is competition. But in running it isn't the exception any more.
Post proof of a doping problem in GM level chess matches RIGHT NOW or never post again.
A quick internet search, if you had bothered.
"According to the Chess WADA Anti-Doping Policy, the most relevant banned substances for chess are amphetamine derivatives (Adderall, Ritalin), ephedrine and methylephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and Modafinil."
One thing is for certain - this raised the bar a crazy amount for women's distance running. Within a decade, I see 220s being considered "good for an amateur" for women.
It's not like that- the people who believe she is clean are giving her the benefit of the doubt until she fails a test.
I don't know what you do or what education you got to do it (maybe you're just sitting in a room in your mom's house angry at the world because you are a loser) but if people started saying that you cheated your way through school based on no evidence you probably would think it's wrong.
And how much time did she cut from her second marathon? They said she was sick for her first marathon but ran just to get the experience of the race.
Then she had a big improvement then this.
Who runs or even finishes a marathon when they are sick? More likely, she hadn't begun doping.
"Sports will never be fair. Once the race is over, you don’t need to question what happened. The guy who crosses the line first won, and that’s that."(quote)
So why does WADA keep blood samples for 8 years? Why was it retroactively stripping medals years later from athletes who doped at the London Olympics?
Your philosophy of life is very clear - cheating and dishonesty - maybe even criminality - is fine if you get away with it.
If male 14:00/29:00 type runners can run 2:08:00-2:10:00, and multitudes have done so, it is perfectly logical for a woman to run 2:11:53, with the same under distance credentials.
I think a good starting point is:
What times do you think are possible without drugs?
What's the "limit" that you think a man and a woman can run?
Keep the shoes. As someone who started running in 1971 when the best running shoes were nothing more than nylon glued to rubber soles I like the technology.
Everyone talks about how the times aren't possible. So what times are possible clean?
And if she is natural at 2:11, then what is the doped time? Faster than the (doped) men?
I'm convinced that Assefa is clean at 2:11:53. She has no need to dope, and if caught it would bring disgrace to Ethiopia.
In theory had Assefa doped, a time of 2:08:00-2:09:00 might have been possible.
People might think the above is absurd, but people rarely think outside the box.
Had Yuki Kawauchi participated in Berlin, Yuki would probably have been beaten by this girl, and Yuki is a 2:07:00 guy, 2021.
Late to the party but first off, there is no 14:00/29:00 runner running 2:08-2:10. That's your first mistake. Secondly, she is not a 13:50/28:50 runner, no way no how and you MUST be able to be that fit to run the time she did. This is a beautiful science experiment putting supershoes and PED's together. Glorious science experiment if you ask me.
"Sports will never be fair. Once the race is over, you don’t need to question what happened. The guy who crosses the line first won, and that’s that."(quote)
So why does WADA keep blood samples for 8 years? Why was it retroactively stripping medals years later from athletes who doped at the London Olympics?
Your philosophy of life is very clear - cheating and dishonesty - maybe even criminality - is fine if you get away with it.
The retro thing doesnt work,either,or if it does,true results are being covered up,to protect the athletes/countries involved.Americans,kenyans,jamaicans,ethiopians and others should be getting popped,but theyre not.
I'm convinced that Assefa is clean at 2:11:53. She has no need to dope, and if caught it would bring disgrace to Ethiopia.
In theory had Assefa doped, a time of 2:08:00-2:09:00 might have been possible.
People might think the above is absurd, but people rarely think outside the box.
Had Yuki Kawauchi participated in Berlin, Yuki would probably have been beaten by this girl, and Yuki is a 2:07:00 guy, 2021.
Late to the party but first off, there is no 14:00/29:00 runner running 2:08-2:10. That's your first mistake. Secondly, she is not a 13:50/28:50 runner, no way no how and you MUST be able to be that fit to run the time she did. This is a beautiful science experiment putting supershoes and PED's together. Glorious science experiment if you ask me.
You're the one who's mistaken. There have been more than around 100 runners (possibly many more) who fit the 14:00/29:00, sub 2:10:00 mould.
For example: Nicolas Navarro, first Mzungu in the Tokyo Olympic marathon with 2:12:50. Nick's PB's: 8:38.53/3000, 29:46.11/10,000, 1:02:29 (slightly faster than Yehalaw), 2:06:45.
Late to the party but first off, there is no 14:00/29:00 runner running 2:08-2:10. That's your first mistake. Secondly, she is not a 13:50/28:50 runner, no way no how and you MUST be able to be that fit to run the time she did. This is a beautiful science experiment putting supershoes and PED's together. Glorious science experiment if you ask me.
You're the one who's mistaken. There have been more than around 100 runners (possibly many more) who fit the 14:00/29:00, sub 2:10:00 mould.
For example: Nicolas Navarro, first Mzungu in the Tokyo Olympic marathon with 2:12:50. Nick's PB's: 8:38.53/3000, 29:46.11/10,000, 1:02:29 (slightly faster than Yehalaw), 2:06:45.
I'm convinced that Assefa is clean at 2:11:53. She has no need to dope, and if caught it would bring disgrace to Ethiopia.
In theory had Assefa doped, a time of 2:08:00-2:09:00 might have been possible.
People might think the above is absurd, but people rarely think outside the box.
Had Yuki Kawauchi participated in Berlin, Yuki would probably have been beaten by this girl, and Yuki is a 2:07:00 guy, 2021.
Late to the party but first off, there is no 14:00/29:00 runner running 2:08-2:10. That's your first mistake. Secondly, she is not a 13:50/28:50 runner, no way no how and you MUST be able to be that fit to run the time she did. This is a beautiful science experiment putting supershoes and PED's together. Glorious science experiment if you ask me.
Pavel Loskutov, Estonia, 29:33.26, 1:03:00, 2:08:53.
