Breaking: Brenda Martinez tested positive but is cleared by USADA

middlingNAIAcoach wrote:

Agreed. She should be left alone as this shouldn’t have even come in to public view. Hence the whole purpose of this discussion. She should be left alone but because of ridiculous processes put into place, this was announced which is bs.

So again, this ain’t about Brenda Martinez. This is about a flawed process, of which there is plenty to discuss.

I'm not sure it's a good idea to say it shouldn't come in public view. Someone has to review these cases. Do you really trust the Russians to find 'no-fault.? If you don't have to announce it, then you could just sweep all positives under the rug.

The fact that she's 35 and no longer world class doesn't mean sh** to me. That's actually when many people might dope. To try to get one last piece of glory. If Mary Slaney doped, I doubt she was doping when she was 15.

For the record, i definitely don't think she's doping but am just saying those who cite that as a reason as to why she clearly isn't doping seem to have the logic bakcwards.

Very suspicious IMO. If she was 25 it would be more understandable. But at 33, trying to hang on in the sport, is when athletes are tempted to cheat as in Mary Slaney using T in her late '30s. USATF trying to cover up for one of their own, much like they covered up for Ajee Wilson's positive with the ridiculous tainted meat explanation. Notice this "explanation" is very similar to Wilson's and comes from the same source -- USATF. The athlete was unaware of the presence of the banned PED in what they were consuming.

Yusef Scummm wrote:

Lol..... Think about it.

What are the odds that.......

1) Somebody’s medication was messed up

Plus

2). The patient is a pro athlete.

Plus

3). The contaminated medication just happened to be tainted with illegal substance specific to her sport.

I sure hope her pharmacy is able to defend itself against this very serious accusation.

No, atleast one batch of the drug would be contaminated so 1000's of people would have ingested the tainted drug. The reason it would be found only in Pro Athletes is because they are the only ones getting drug tested and getting tested for that particular compound. Theres nothing more to it than that, and definitely no wild conspiracy type accusations you are heading towards.

could have easily been birth control

ummm wrote:

Yusef Scummm wrote:

Lol..... Think about it.

What are the odds that.......

1) Somebody’s medication was messed up

Plus

2). The patient is a pro athlete.

Plus

3). The contaminated medication just happened to be tainted with illegal substance specific to her sport.

I sure hope her pharmacy is able to defend itself against this very serious accusation.

No, atleast one batch of the drug would be contaminated so 1000's of people would have ingested the tainted drug. The reason it would be found only in Pro Athletes is because they are the only ones getting drug tested and getting tested for that particular compound. Theres nothing more to it than that, and definitely no wild conspiracy type accusations you are heading towards.

There’s no conspiracy..... she was caught.

Her defense rivals that of the Wilson “Tainted meat” theory- ridiculous.

How is this suspicious? Why would a middle distance runner intentionally take a diuretic? She’s not a boxer or fighter desperately trying to make weight. . Literally, the only benefit to her for using this would be to dilute previous drugs she took ... but obviously that’d be counterproductive, because she just be taking another banned substance even closer to the test increasing her odds of getting caught lol. There’s not a logical reason for her to have taken this. You people saying it’s ‘suspicious’ or that she was ‘caught’ are honestly ridiculous. You either believe Martinez is incredibly stupid, or you just jump To conclusions without giving it any rational thought (and probably didn’t even read the article). You people are also the reason WADA/USADA should hold off on announcing test results until confirmed. People’s reputations becomes tainted because people get stuck on one piece of negative information and completely disregard the rest of the situation or any new information. And they let you people be on jury’s.. must be why innocent people take plea deals.

Not sure how many bothered to read the actual report.

They were able test pills from the actual prescription to confirm that the her prescription medicine was tainted. The levels that appeared in the pills were found to be consistent with the levels found in her sample.

Simple google search turns up countless articles of this particular substance showing up in all kinds of medication. Off the top of my head, I remember seeing numerous cases of it contaminating Valsartan, which is one of a handful of the most popular blood pressure medications worldwide.

This certainly wasn't a case of an athlete playing dumb to try and get away with something. Nor was it a passive violation where the athlete neglected the "I'm solely responsible for what I put in my body" code. It's not like she was buying sketchy vitamins manufactured in a basement by a handful of clowns for couldn't complete their AAs whose products only list "proprietary blend" as their ingredients either.

Cut and dry cases aren't the norm so I guess I understand some initial skepticism, but summoning the energy to click a link and do a few paragraphs of reading would tell one all they need to know.

Strict liability makes no sense and it is great the UDASA recognises this.

Each case on its merits and proportionality.

But can drug testing in sports afford this normality?

I think not as the financial costs of such will cripple it.

So what form of controls will follow or will they have to allow some enhancers?

Columbian weight lifting hit with 3 positives when the drug found is freely used in meat production.

If you applied reasonable doubt they would be cleared by any jury.

We agree.

But how do we decide what is real Doping when we have strict liability?

What levels should we allow and what drugs?

And why ban drugs that are not enhancers ?

And why allow drugs that are?

zcxvcxzv wrote:

25's peak age for most middle distance runners. Your athlete Jake Wightman just ran 3:29 at age 26, a four second drop in two years. 1:58 for a woman's no indicator of doping. 3:29, on the other hand, is pretty interesting at that age for a guy who had a pr of 3:33 at 24. Oh, and what about that other Brit with the 3:33.98 pr at age 26 and then two 3:28s at age 30 and 32?

The latter was doping.

Do they test a random sample of the still unnamed drug?

Why not name the drug to help others?

Do they test if the trace in the sample would actually cause a positive? There is s big difference between a minor trace being in something and that being sufficient to cause a positive once its been digested.

2 British guys who had a similar case still received a ban.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/amp/wales/30415160

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Do they test a random sample of the still unnamed drug?

Why not name the drug to help others?

Do they test if the trace in the sample would actually cause a positive? There is s big difference between a minor trace being in something and that being sufficient to cause a positive once its been digested.

If I'm a drug cheat, I'm finding substances that have masking agents, but the masking agent is unlisted in the ingredients of the substance so I'm covered.

crazygerman wrote:

If I'm a drug cheat, I'm finding substances that have masking agents, but the masking agent is unlisted in the ingredients of the substance so I'm covered.

Have you read nowt.

The detection levels are now so small that they can detect substances that are well below that which has to be declared in even normal food.

The Therese Johaug defense: poor unknowing athlete ingests a prohibited substance completely accidentally and through no fault of their own.

Only available to athletes from the dominant countries in their sport.

Anyone complaining is clearly a bitter foreigner who should train better. Probably a Russian troll, too.

In the U.S. esp., there is all sorts of garbage in our drugs and food. Good thing I'm just a hobbyjogger and not a professional athlete.

That said, I see a lot of people giving her a pass while others get a lot of grief, e.g., Ajee.