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.
Anyone getting Martin Fagan flashbacks, sans all the tattoos?
A little. But Fagan accepted his fate straight away, and was back within a couple of years (though after a great first race back ultimately decided to run recreationally rather than competitively).
But I do empathise with the stress that both Fagan and Robertson described, if not their decision to dope.
I feel bad for him now. He's right in that people could be a lot kinder and that he should be remembered for giving it his all to chase this outrageous dream.
But at the same time he has a huge sense of entitlement. The reason people gave him and his brother credit for having such huge cojones is that a dream doesn't come with a guarantee of success or a 401k. He wanted to live like a Kenyan but only the sporting part. He wanted to train like one and race like one but couldn't be happy with a few solid results and endorsement deals that would offer a native Kenyan a pretty good foundation for an upper middle class life. That kind of money is still nothing in New Zealand.
I understand he was depressed and feel for him the stress of going through all his savings. But he should get some perspective. A lot of people spend 10 years on something and have "nothing to show for it." It could be a dead-end 9-5 job where you're living paycheck to paycheck. It could be any sport or creative endeavor. Everyone has to take stock at some point and maybe learn Excel. If he was really that reluctant to take EPO, just letting it linger in the back of his thoughts and moving boxes, he would've already thought of how it would affect his brother and sister-in-law (if they're clean). And how he didn't know what he was doing if he only took it once. He wouldn't have just taken it the once and then entered Manchester pronto.
I think with retirement he and his twin could have gotten a ghost writer and published a book to make some money. Even after the EPO revelation he could do this, but I'm not finding him completely credible.
I have never done something clearly banned in my sport while simultaneously bashing others and making accusations about my competitors and then when caught doing it forged medical documents to support a completely unbelievable story about how I accidentally cheated before finally coming clean to magnanimously admit I did it once and it really wasn't my fault. You're right, that makes me the second coming of Christ.
Well that's an all-around bad situation...it's hard to give much credit to his "one-time and I got caught" but you can see where he's coming from I suppose.
PS - On a lighter not the thread title "Zane Robertson comes clean - why he choose to cheat!" follows in the long LRC "moran" tradition !
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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.
People here do have compassion. They have compassion for the athletes that get up every day and train their a*ses off without ever getting any endorsement, accolade or financial benefit - and yet, they still manage to do it clean.
The flipside of that compassion is anger, towards the people (like Zane), who by their actions, have robbed so many people of decades of work, financial reward and ultimately, their dreams.
I normally agree with the pleas for compassion and sympathy, but it's hard in this case when he supposedly comes clean but talks about the EPO as a lone incident. Between that and the cover-up which got him an extra 4 years, this isn't a very sympathetic case.
Was Fagan on EPO at Providence? Did he ever come clean about his past? What about if anyone else he knew was on it?
Don't know about Providence but I do recall that he claimed he'd just started using it right before he was caught. I know that Keith Kelly was coaching him at the time of the bust and was devastated when he learned Fagan was using EPO.
Who is next?! Some Canadian guy just ran an incredible crazy time and we all are here praising him! If anyone was in the same desperation state of mind it would definitely be him…I guess we need to be cautious about the crazy times we are seeing nowadays! It’s not all shoes 🤪
This is what Shelby should be doing instead of peddling the ridiculous burrito story. Even Floyd came good in the end. I have way more sympathy for the dopers that admit it, especially if the testify against the teams and sport.
Floyd never “came good in the end”. He was doping long before Lance and would still take it for fun after the whole meltdown. Guy is a psychopath who just came clean so he wasn’t the only “loser” out of the whole lot.
I’ll be honest…I watched the whole interview and teared up several times. As a society we need to stop piling hate on top of people going thru their darkest days.
Also - what’s up with the death threats and extortion related to his divorce??
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.
Funny I watched the same doc and remember him talking about his huge performance gains and ability to do work. Yes he placed worse in the race. But he also had bad luck with crashing and flat tires and lost like an hour. And talked about how he felt as good on day 7 as day 1 while the year before he was limping in.
Awful. Really awful. I tried, despite my doubts, to believe that he was clean, that his results were natural, and it was a lie. I keep trying to believe that the sport is clean, that the greats aren't doping, and I want to keep trying, but it keeps getting harder. I remember watching Jake Robertson win the Houston half marathon over some strong competition back in January 2018. I couldn't believe it and as Jake put in an Instagram post: "I see a pack of warriors striving for greatness. The race it's self doesn't care what race we are, why should we? #equality" The post has a picture of Jake in a pack with a dozen East Africans. The result didn't really seem believable, and although I don't know if anyone in the pack has tested positive but Guye Adola finished second behind the other Robertson. Yes, Jake and Zane are not the same, but I am having even more trouble trying to believe any of their results tonight. Is anyone in distance running clean? Sadly, the answer seems to be less and likely to be ones that fans of the sport want to hear. Ugh.
He said he only took EPO once. Absolutely ZERO PERCENT chance this is true.
He is lying to protect his legacy. Don't fall for this BS.
I don't believe that either. I am just saying that it was quite honest seeing that he discussed very dark thoughts and feelings and I don't think that shaming him further will help anyone. It's fine to discuss this but yeeez he was not in a good place, so I think he is going through hell already.
I think you can believe the sincerity of the feelings and the reasons for doping without necessarily having to believe that only once in his life did a needle with EPO get injected. Given where he is emotionally it would be understandable to still have some lies he's convinced himself he needs to keep telling.
What we need now from him is to dish the dirt on all of the setups he alluded to that impact other elites and turn whistle-blower for WA / WADA.
I'm sure you're right, it's been ages. My point is that it doesn't matter. If he did it his entire career he'd know it works and be able to describe it. The "I did it once" thing is hilarious.
Wow. TBH, a bit refreshing to get a pretty straight forward confession. It sounds like he was just desperate for some kind of “good thing” and needed race winnings. I get it, but man, what a sucky situation all around.
I wonder if many of the recent positive results are a result of economic desperation due to the lack of opportunities from the pandemic.
I KNEW IT!!! I KNEW IT WAS FAUCI'S FAULT THAT HE CHEATED!!!
Was Fagan on EPO at Providence? Did he ever come clean about his past? What about if anyone else he knew was on it?
I think he said he only went on EPO when he moved out west, either Arizona or New Mexico I can't remember which location. If I'm wrong on that I stand corrected because I only go by what my memory told me from what I read in the past.