Winston5212 wrote:
After learning that nandrolone has healing benefits for injuries and is good for muscle rebuilding and tendon strength, here's my question: Were Houlihan, Jager, and Quigley all using the same supplement that contained nandrolone to help heal injuries? What if BTC knew that the supplement they were all taking (presumably prescribed by a team doctor) had small amounts of nandrolone, but the doctor wasn't aware that it's a banned substance or the doctor believed the amounts were small enough to go undetected; or maybe they trusted the doctor and did not know the supplement even had nandrolone in it. Then, Shelby tests positive on January 14, and Colleen reacts strongly - takes it to the higher ups of Nike because she is displeased by the situation and the risk it exposes her to, but the higher ups at Nike essentially say, "we don't care; this will all be resolved," an answer that Colleen does not like. Then, when re-signing her, Nike gives a lower agreement after realizing she may not be "all-in" on the Nike culture. Colleen gets pissed and decides to leave BTC on February 4 (the day she announced on social media).
In an attempt to explain Houlihan's test result, Shelby's lawyer and Nike come up with the burrito excuse, which we have all learned is extremely improbable and honestly a very inadequate explanation given her levels (she would have had to eat quite a bit of that meat - significantly more than just a burrito's worth, and the chances of the meat being contaminated are even more far-fetched). Maybe they felt admitting to her taking this supplement would have no chance of clearing her because CAS and WADA would have easily asserted that she was knowingly taking this supplement and they should have done their due diligence on what was in it - case closed.
Think Colleen's situation through - her pulling out of the trials is extremely suspicious and shocking in my mind for several reasons. She has been posting non-stop this past month and even within days of her withdrawal announcement that she can't wait to make her second Olympic team so soon. She posted on June 10: "Sticking with a red, white, and blue motif until I make my second Olympic team in 2 weeks from today." She also posted a video of a track workout at altitude just six days ago. She also posted on her instastory a pic of her and her coach AT Hayward Field on Wednesday or Thursday (don't recall the exact day of the posting). It seems like she had every intention of lacing up for the steeple trials. Also, we know she is an open book on social media, and she has not mentioned any injuries that have derailed her training (she is always someone that supplements her training with cross training, so seeing her instastories about swimming and biking are not out of the ordinary for her training-wise). She seems poised to toe the line, and then suddenly, the day before the steeple prelims - once she is already at Hayward/in Eugene - she announces she is pulling out for an undisclosed injury (when she is usually an open book on these things?). It seems highly suspicious and does not add up. Why travel to Eugene if you have apparently been struggling with an injury, only to pull out 24 hours before your race? Could she have been drug tested by USATF/USADA, registered a positive test due to a supplement she has been on, and been told by USATF that she can either walk away quietly and stop taking the doctor-prescribed supplement (she is injury-prone, so her continuing to take a supplement from when she was on BTC that was working for her would not be too far-fetched) or can risk racing the trials and having this come out, which would completely derail her influencer reputation and her career as an athlete? Her abrupt, last-minute withdrawal doesn't add up in my mind, especially considering everything she has posted leading up to this and given the fact she is extremely vague about this apparently season-ending injury that she has - from the looks of it - been able to train very aggressively through? I don't buy the theory she pulled out because she was worried she wouldn't make the team - she is a fierce competitor and thinks very highly of her talent and fitness, and I think she would have been building up the injury story for months if that really was the case.
Lastly, could Jager have been on this same supplement too? I know he spoke fairly specifically to an injury as the cause of his withdrawal, but the timing is still interesting. I know his teammates and he himself have said that he has been dealing with an injury for a while now, but that could also mean that he was taking the same supplement for healing purposes.
All three - Houlihan, Jager, and Colleen - were mysteriously and noticeably absent from the racing scene this spring (aside from Quigley running that one 3k on February 6, and Jager pacing McGorty in that one steeple). Could it have been because they did not want to risk putting themselves as targets to be tested until they figured out how the Houlihan situation would play out? Then, once Houlihan's ban is upheld and announced, Jager and Quigley announce their withdrawals from the trials as well, both citing injuries.
I know this is a hot take; however, the pieces oddly fit together and make sense. I think a part of the reason Shelby and the BTC team are so adamant that she did not cheat is because she genuinely doesn't think she did and genuinely had no desire to do so. Maybe they trusted the doctor (i.e. truly did not know about the nandrolone content in it), and the doctor did not think the amount would be an issue or the doctor did not realize that nandrolone was banned (apparently nandrolone is prescribed at times in the medical world for injuries, so the doctor may not have seen it as an issue). All in all, Houlihan, and potentially Quigley and Jager too, took a supplement from a team doctor that they thought would be a non-issue, but, turns out, it has become a major scandal.
Synthetic (like made in a lab through very specific organic synthesis) anabolic steroids don't just magically make it into some supplement.
Also jfc no one is reading this dude get a hobby.