Shelby Houlihan: "I want to be very clear. I’ve never taken any performance-enhancing substances"

Rojo, you guys are some of the biggest proponents for open discussion of doping. This seems pretty cut and dry. Positive test, bad excuse, appeal rejected, 4-year ban. Do you think this is a good thing that Shelby was caught and banned?

I honestly think she is innocent.

A lot of 2:19 800m guys think not.

rojo wrote:

Shelby, Jerry and Shalane and the lawyer made some very powerful statements at the press event today.

I know many of you won't watch to an hour-;ong video so we are going turn today's press event into a podcast as it's much easier for you all to listen to something of that length while commuting or running.

In the meantime, we've also spliced out Shelby, Jerry's and Shalane's opening statements.

Some of my favorite quotes from Shelby are below.

....

Pardon my immaturity, but this made me LOL. Classic Rojo.

Also she’s guilty AF, doped to the gills.

Breakdown:

Emily Pritt, moderator – 00:00

Paul Greene, Attorney – 00:45

Shelby Houlihan statement– 08:00

Jerry Schumacher statement – 14:48

Shalane Flanagan statement – 21:41

Reporter Questions Begin– 26:20

Alison Wade (Fastwomen) to Paul Greene – 27:11

Kara Goucher to Paul Greene – 28:11

Kevin Sully (FloTrack) to Paul Greene – 29:25

Jonathan Gault (LetsRun) to Jerry Schumacher and Paul Greene – 31:35

Alex Azzi to Paul Greene – 34:45

Gordon Mack (FloTrack) to Shalane Flanagan and Shelby Houlihan – 36:44

Erik Boal (DyeStat) to Jerry Schumacher and Paul Greene – 39:52

Jonathan Gault (LetsRun) to Paul Greene – 41:36

Steve Soprano (LetsRun) to Paul Greene – 43:30

Kara Goucher to Paul Greene – 44:35

Alison Wade (Fastwomen) to Shelby Houlihan – 47:00

Betsy Riley (NBC) to Shelby Houlihan – 49:05

Johanna Gretschel to Shelby Houlihan and Paul Greene – 50:58

Kevin Sully (Flotrack) to Paul Greene – 52:34

Doug Binder to Paul Greene and Shalane Flanagan – 53:30

Do not be moved by an attorney not speaking in a court room. All medical findings have slight logical flaws an attorney can poke at. Bottom line, tainted meat narrative is phony.

Science.

I believe the science.

Funny how suddenly they care about people's lives being ruined. No one seemed to care when hurling allegations at people who did not test positive. Hearing the chutzpah of Kara Goucher on there with anything to say on this subject was absolutely stunning. Apparently only the people who beat here were doping but not he poor, sweet little innocent Shelbo.

Also, it's absolutely hilarious that Shalane says, and I want to make sure I get this exactly; "the tests by WADA are now so sensitive that they pick up trace amounts of banned substances from unexpected sources." But, apparently not sensitive enough to catch the master dopers from Ethiopia and Kenya, where they apparently have the super high tech doping system to thwart the detectors. Then she goes on to complain about losing medals to dopers during her career. Some I may add that NEVER TESTED POSITIVE as her athlete did. That takes some pretty big ones and a major mental disconnect to hold the positions that these people hold. It's freaking amazing!

She's a doper.

Career over.

The end.

I hear a barista at Starbucks is a pretty good gig.

All Shalane’s statement did was make me think that Shalane was a doper too.

Her and Jerry’s reaction make it clear they knew about Shelby’s doping. If they didn’t they’d have slightly distanced themselves without completely throwing her under the bus.

I lost a lot of respect for Shalane today, she even positioned herself in front of the American flag while she lied for a doper. Not cool.

If indeed "the tests by WADA are now so sensitive that they pick up trace amounts of banned substances from unexpected sources" wouldn't these types of false positives be a lot more common? Or was Shelby just really unlucky?

Barry Badrinath wrote:

Rojo, you guys are some of the biggest proponents for open discussion of doping. This seems pretty cut and dry. Positive test, bad excuse, appeal rejected, 4-year ban. Do you think this is a good thing that Shelby was caught and banned?

Let me start by saying I've been busy with my son most of the night and then editing the homepage and haven't read the forum at all tonight and only hear maybe 10 minutes of the press conference.

While I consider letsrun to be leaders of the anti-doping movement*, I don't rejoice in all doping convictions. Think of this as like the police. Some people blindly back the blue. I love the police but do not blindly back them. The same thing is true here. I support them but hold them to a very high standard.

Along those lines, I had Jonathan Gault spend a lot of time and resources into the Jarrion Lawson case .

So my initial response to you is as follows. How do we know she was justly "caught" and "banned." Why is it a bad excuse? The part of the press conference that I did listen to was her lawyer saying how this was listed in the WADA documents as something they should consider. It seemed persuasive to me (but I haven't heard the other side).

RIght now, what I want to know is the following.

1) Show me the receipts. Jon Gault spoke to the lawyer after the event as told him I wanted tos ee receipts. The lawyer said that they had geo location and receipts proving she got the burrito adn that CAS accepted that fact. I'd like to see that as if she really did eat pork at food tuck adn it's known to cause this type of positive I don't get why she woulnt' have been cleared immediately.

2) why did CAS reject the appeal?

The full decision is out. I like to deal in facts, not innuendo. So far I've only heard the bowerman story.

3) Regardless of what is true in this case. The system has to be reformed. USADA Must either lower the limite for positive tests or tell people not to eat certain foods We can't have one major US star testing positive and then getting off or getting banned per year due to this crap.

The head of USADA Tavis Tygart told us way before this the system needs to be changed as the US food supply is contaminated. USADA beleives this and consistently lets people off. If Shelby had been charged by USADA, I imagine she'd have gotten off. I don't want to h ear crap about how USADA doesn't want to bust people. They busted Salazar/Lance/Gatlin/Coleman.

I think ti's a good think if a doper is caught and banned. I think it's a TRAVESTY if an innocent person is caught and banned.

I'll say one thing. Without hesitation, I'd be my life that Jerry Schumacher has never knowingly doped one of his athletes. I couldn't say the same thing about Alberto Salazar. That being said, the Salazar ban didn't sit well with me. Catch him doping his athletes. Instead Salazar is banned for doping his son and a retired assistant coach? If anyone is crazy enough to worry about contamination, it woud be Alberto himself.

Along those lines. I was defending Jama Aden to a staff member this week. Just this week, a staff member went ballistic as they heard that Gidey - or someone like that - is secretly coached by Aden. Aden may be dirty but if you raid his hotel room and don't ban him, what else can we do? We can't keep judging people based on who we like and don't. That being said, I'd like for WADA to at least tell us whatever the hell happened with that doping raid. EPO was found in fridges. You don't ban anyone there? Realy? Yet you are going to devote a ton of resources here?

Does that mean Lawson and Houlihan and Slaazar are all clean? Hell no. They could all be dirty but I know one thing- you don't convict someone without proof. And I want to see the full reasoned decision. As one thing that's tough for Shelby is she didn't get two trials., Normally you get a trial and an appeal. She only got the appeal.

Lastly, I've heard one of the witnesses in the case against Houlihan was someone who should never be allowed to testify in court again. A totally discredited witness in the Lawson case. I want to look into this. Do I think it's possible someone could have been embarrassed there and wanted to take it out on an another American? ABSOLUTELY.

Does this mean she's clean? No. I need more info.

-Rojo

PS. We've been obsessed with doping on here since day 1. Back in the days of Bonds vs McGuire when the media just ignored doping, I had the guts to ask Regina Jacobs about why she pulled out of the Olympics days after an EP0 test was announced. It was so obvious to me she was a doper yet all the meet promoters just accepted her with open arms.

I knew she was a doper without proof. Here. I want to see the proof as I never had any real suspicions before rumors of this started a few weeks ago.and since this isstream of conciousness. The one thing I don't liek about this is the fact that we heard this rumor weeks ago and called up her agent. He told us he had never heard this and thought if she'd been charged he'd know. So did he lie to us? Or did he really not know? If he lied, it makes me more skeptical for some reason. Don't bullshit me.

That being said, at today's press event, they said most of her teammates didn't know until this week so maybe she kept this super tight.

This is a complete nightmare for Shelby if she's telling the truth, so I want to be sympathetic, but I don't like how this press conference is just sprung on you and then it kind of seems like they expect running journalists to take a sympathetic tone. (Kara and the guy from dyestat did not help.) Good on Jon for asking specifics like amount of nandrolene found in her urine. They gave no one any time to research the context around this.

And the lawyer (30:08) refers to the pig offal burrito she ingested a couple of times but from her statement and Jerry's, it doesn't seem like she ordered a pork stomach or brain burrito. They both say the food truck serves offal so are assuming cross-contamination. I think reporters get a different sense from their presentation than were you to just read Shelby's IG post first.

She says she was at her then-boyfriend's place the morning of the drug test in December. Would that be Centro? Anyway, is there a witness to this burrito consumption? Christian Coleman got taken down in part by a trip to Chipotle and now this...

Barry Badrinath wrote:

Rojo, you guys are some of the biggest proponents for open discussion of doping. This seems pretty cut and dry. Positive test, bad excuse, appeal rejected, 4-year ban. Do you think this is a good thing that Shelby was caught and banned?

did you miss the fact that she is AMERICAN-BORN!?!

^This

rojo wrote:

3) Regardless of what is true in this case. The system has to be reformed. USADA Must either lower the limite for positive tests or tell people not to eat certain foods We can't have one major US star testing positive and then getting off or getting banned per year due to this crap.

Athletes should know to avoid foods that could potentially cause them to test positive for nandrolone. If you can't do that you can't participate in anti-doping efforts. Sorry. Either she's guilty or failed the IQ test, either way she needs to be gone.

Brilliant post Rojo. I tried quoting it but the forum wouldn't let me.

Really respect your thoughts and opinion.

Shalane had a prepared statement that she wrote (and rehearsed) 2 nights ago and it's clear that she was the one that wrote the statement that Shelby read. Both of those prepared, rehearsed, propaganda offerings were written by the same person and meant to induce sympathy - 100% guaranteed. Someone please ask them who wrote Shelby's statement and how many times she rehearsed it.

Here’s what I think about the food excuse. Why is it ONLY Americans that have positive tests due to food? Do other countries not eat any food?

This excuse is garbage and anyone who believes it is stupid in my opinion. It’s like a married person who gets an STD and says I never cheated on you. The evidence is you cheated and you’re just looking for every excuse to get out of it.

It is irrelevant if she actually ate food. Are people not realizing you can dope and then go out and eat pork and then use that as the excuse? That’s why they have to draw a line in the sand. Athletes will dope all they want and go eat pork every day and save the receipts and say, look it’s just the food.

The fact is simple. Shelby cheated. And tried to hide it by eating a burrito and showing evidence she ate a burrito. After all, who saves receipts from eating burritos? Nobody. Unless your lawyer told you to save it for your future doping case because he’s supplying you with PED’s.

I think it’s great when cheaters get banned. We’re only debating this because she’s American. If she was from ant African country or Russian we’d take it as face value and move on.

And they also know when they are going to be tested because they have to be available during a certain window. How convenient that she ate the pork 10 hours prior to testing, the perfect timing to explain having those levels in her system according to he lawyer.

She's an adjudicated doper. Her guilt is not in question anymore, they exhausted that process and lost. I distinctly remember when Caster Semenya was taking her case to the Swiss Federal Tribunal everyone said it was stupid and a waste of time and she should just accept the decision.

Yeah... remember that?

Guilty

Case closed

Barista