Eddie Hellebuyck "'Yeah,' he says, 'I did it.'"

Most of you people are a bunch of naive morons, this is the most truthful portion of the entire article

"Shawn continues. "But I think it's important to point out that he is hardly the only American runner of his caliber to use drugs. [Eddy] got caught because he wasn't part of a well-organized, well-financed, medically supervised system. He was just an individual athlete who decided to dabble and paid the price. The fact is, EPO really works when it's used in combination with HGH [human growth hormone] and other drugs over a closely monitored three-month training cycle, and that takes money. The athletes who have the money and power are the ones who are getting away with murder on this stuff. That's who you should be writing a story about."

Shawn may be right."

I would LOVE to see the testing results from the major races. I'll bet that the guys on the "teams" with funding mysteriously test right at the thresholds (50% HCT). SO, are the well funded guy that test at 49.9% "clean" while the schmuck trying to keep up with them on a shoe string budget that makes a "mistake" and tests at "50.1%" is a lifelong cheater.

Wake TFU, all of the top teams are pushing the limits. It's not a bunch of "clean" guy with some cheater way out front....they are all about on a level playing field (e.g. the set limits). It's part of the sport now, so just deal with it. If you want to be an elite, you need to show enough "talent" to be part of top "team" and then play the game just like everyone else.

...and buy the way there is no tooth fairy, it was just a movie....

Great if thats the case then we should all stop watching

But hang on what does this Shawn no about what the real elite are taking - F ALL!

Name or give evidence otherwise shut up

The elite runners like Geb were 5 seconds faster over 400m than someone like Eddy. He was good but he had nowhere near the basic talent

We are back to the Letsun circle of idiocy - a know doper is a nice guy and all the rest are cheaters anyway

No true elite East African has failed a drug test. One would surely trip up on an out of comp test, if all the best were on it.

I think that a number of people on this thread, including you, are pretending to know a lot more than they actually do.

I'm curious about your remarks regarding testing at "the major races," with various runners testing just above or just below "the thresholds (50% HCT)." I could be wrong, but I'm not aware that any "major races" in the running world use the 50% HCT test to determine doping violations. Of course, it was used in the Tour de France for a number of years (and perhaps still is, for the purpose of determining which riders may continue on to the next race stage), and was used at least once in the winter Olympics to flag unusually high HCT levels, although a reading in excess of 50% was not counted as a positive doping violation, but was simply a level that the athlete had to drop below before he or she would be permitted to continue to compete.

I have no idea how pervasive doping is in international-caliber distance-running these days. I doubt that you do, either. Among American runners at the top level, I rather doubt that there is much doping, insofar as "doping" is defined by the list of banned substances and practices. I do believe that there are a number of substances and practices that are not on the list, such as the use of so-called "altitude tents" (I prefer to call it "nitrogen doping") and other means of manipulating hormone levels, that are very aggressively used, and that bothers me, but I understand the desire to do whatever is both advantageous and within the rules of the sport.

Too bad Eddy wasn't in a race right besides me, because he makes me sick to the point I'd need to puke. I'd then let him know what I think of him...

There is no excuse for cheating, and there is no excuse for Eddy. He should be in prison, he stole, he is a criminal. He should not be allowed near those kids.

Dude, chill.

Track doesn't even use the 50% cut off. It's only in cycling.

Cycling basically does it because in the 90's you had cyclist with hematocrits greater than 55, which meant there blood was essentially sludge. That means a larger risk of death.

They knew that they couldn't catch them all, so they figured they'd try and at least limit the damage a bit.

The EPO test which Eddy got busted for is much more complicated.

biggus dickus,

I'm sorry man, but even as someone who regularly suggests that there are numerous high-caliber athletes on drugs (both foreign and domestic) here on these boards, I think that the last part of your post is complete BS.

It's fun to make sweeping statements, but I have had the opportunity to train and live with many olympians and trials finalists, and can say with great confidence that there are MANY elite athletes in our sports that do NOT use PED's. If I really believed that the playing field was a "even", and that the majority of american distance runners were using drugs and infusions to boost performance while competing against one another, I would have stopped participating in and being an advocate of the sport long ago.

There would be absolutely no reason for me to be outraged at drug cheats, if I believed that doping was just another part of competition at the elite level, but I AM because I know some of the best athletes in the world who are decidedly CLEAN, and choose not to cheat.

Add me to the list of athletes that continues to have faith in the general purity of our sport, save a small number of a$$holes and cheaters.

-RRRR

Why are the obvious a-holes like Regina, Eddy, Marion and Ramzi getting busted, since "everybodyis doing it"? Maybe it's only a few D-bags after all, or are teh "nice guys" getting a pass?

If you really want to be satisfied, train your body to run at 95% threshold, then train your mind to run at that level as long as you can, then find out which emotion takes you further - indifference, hatred or love - given or received.

anyone see the picture of eddy's wife? Not only the worst human being on the earth but amazingly ugly! she should get an award for ugliness

He is also a rapist and a sex offender.

There seems to be a lot of ppl who have a lot of personal knowledge about Eddie posting on here

People say Eddie 'stole' money from others - well so do the bank guys and financial gurus who 'steal' from you and I under the guise of placing our investments and portfolios.

Let's get real here - how much did Eddie 'steal?' a few thousand dollars? we will never know. Did it really affect anyone and their 'quality of life?' - probably minimally only.

Eddie is a popular scapegoat, because he really pushed to the limits and achieved a long career with very solid results. Eddie admits himself that the EPO really only had minimal benefit for him in the marathon, and was initially counter productive.

He has come clean now, and is a role model in Tucson, where, thankfully, good Americans have seen fit to give him a second chance.

The Kenyans think the whole story about this guy is a joke, as the 'muzungu' are making such a big thing of it. Everyone in Iten, Eldoret and Kaplagat know about this, but no one is raising their ire. Quite the contrary.

Looks like we are still in the dark ages with these kinds of depressing witch hunts.

Ghost in Saudi,

www.kfupm.edu.sa

ah gee thatnks ghost, eddie himself eh? what a great source for that info, I'd most certainly trust ANYTHING he has to say. yah, eddie said it himself, MUST be true! yeah, minimal effect, yup! heck, prob would have run just as fast without it! may as well put him in line for sainthood. and put you in the nuthouse guy, sheesh. I wish that someday i'd get to meet you and tell you to your face what a douche you are.

ghost wrote:....Eddie admits himself that the EPO really only had minimal benefit for him in the marathon, and was initially counter productive.

ghost wrote:

Eddie is a popular scapegoat, because he really pushed to the limits and achieved a long career with very solid results. Eddie admits himself that the EPO really only had minimal benefit for him in the marathon, and was initially counter productive.

He has come clean now, and is a role model in Tucson, where, thankfully, good Americans have seen fit to give him a second chance.

The Kenyans think the whole story about this guy is a joke, as the 'muzungu' are making such a big thing of it. Everyone in Iten, Eldoret and Kaplagat know about this, but no one is raising their ire. Quite the contrary.

ghost,

Your posts defending various drug cheats so often seem like self-parody.

First, Eddy isn't a "a popular scapegoat, because he really pushed to the limits and achieved a long career with very solid results." The truth is that he has never been more than a fly speck on the international running scene, and he was an over-the-hill journeyman marathoner when he suddenly started setting EPO-enhanced masters records and running times that he hadn't touched in almost a decade.

Second, when has Eddy "admitted" that EPO had a "minimal" effect on his marathoning? The best marathon performance of his whole career was his EPO-enhanced 2:12 victory in Twin Cities at the age of 42. Eddy himself has described, rather vividly, how much more powerful he felt in that marathon while using EPO.

Third, although I'm delighted that he has confessed to some of his drug use, and I think that he deserves real credit for that, I'm not aware that he is regarded as a "role model" for the citizens of Tucson. He's merely a disreputable character who may finally be trying to turn his life around. Good for him. I don't doubt that it's difficult, especially with a spouse whose moral compass appears to be broken.

Fourth, I doubt that you know a thing about what "the Kenyans" think about this story.

I have been to Kenya twice, and no one there has a bad thing to say about Eddie.

He is respected in Tucson, because he has come clean, and even before 'coming clean' the school that hired him saw that he was a decent character trying to turn his life around. No life sentence was needed.

Thank you.

Ghost in Saudi,

www.kfupm.edu.sa

ghost wrote:

Let's get real here - how much did Eddie 'steal?' a few thousand dollars? we will never know. Did it really affect anyone and their 'quality of life?' - probably minimally only.

ghost wrote:

I have been to Kenya twice, and no one there has a bad thing to say about Eddie.

I doubt you've ever been in Kenya. A few thousand dollars could be life changing for many kenyans. So I can say the same Ghost - let's get real.

If Eddie had focused on running 'fast' marathons, I think he would have run 2:09 approximately. Same goes for track. People say he had no speed, but ask Nadir Bosch and Benoit Zwierchlewski how good Eddie was when he led them on trails near the Hellebuyck home. He could speed up those steep paths like a rabbit.

Yes, he had good power to weight ratio. Had he run 10,000 track in his prime, a time of around 28:15-28:30 would have been on the cards, if not faster.

Look at all those Japanese corporate runners who run in the 27:50 - 28:10 range (on the track) there are dozens and dozens of them, and most of those guys do not have blinding speed. Judging from their repeats (although at longer distances) I doubt most of them would run much faster than 55- 57 seconds for a single 400, all out.

Back to Eddie - everyone makes a big thing about what he stole, but if this were really significant, the hot shot lawyers would have gone after him a long time ago, ever since the story got out. As it was, there was basically 'no case' which goes to show that the damage, basically, was minimal. If there had been 'a case' for money making, those lawyers would have gone after him.

And if you do not believe I have been to Kenya, I invite you to check the guest book at the Lornah Kiplagat camp in Iten, Kenya, where I stayed, last, in February 2008, just before the arrival of Mo Farah and the Swedish steeple guy, Mohammad, the latter - who took over my room when I left.

Ghost in Saudi,

www.kfupm.edu.sa

Your post leads me to consider that the Africans are doping. If they truly are the pure, hungry, hard working athletes they are portrayed to be, they would not take kindly to a participant and long time facilitator of cheating that could rob them of life changing cash.

Stealing ten thousand bucks from a young Kenyan or Ethiopian runner is like poaching a million dollars from a North American runner. They would hate Eddy and his like if they were clean.

Ghost,

You have once again shown your ignorance. I have seen it on many issues from Ryan Shay to the Hansons to Coach Wetmore to a host of foreign athletes. One thing that you have proven is that you are consistently wrong. Your knowledge is "false knowledge" that has no merit.

Eddy and Shawn have been a cancer to the sport for years. Did you ever notice how all of Shawn's American athletes disappeared after Eddy tested positive. What happened to Todd Reesor, David Morris, Peter Delacerda, Teddy Mitchell, Deeja Younguist, and Jeff Campbell. Coincidentally, all of them fell off the map shortly after the positive test of Eddy. These people are scum and your defense of them puts you in their hell hole.