Centro defends Shelby

Stop being a Sheep wrote:

reasonableperson001 wrote:

Track and field media has done nothing to challenge this story. LetsRun, SI/Chris Chavez/Citius Mag, and Kara Goucher and the NBC crew are all complicit in letting this slip through the cracks without serious investigation into the team or whatever really happened here.

But this is what we get when we let Make a Wish kids like Chris Chavez get real track journalism jobs... all he wants is to be friends with these athletes.

This has been one of my biggest issues. Especially letsruns support of Shelby has been extremely disappointing. Essentially the only prominent figure in the sport that came out and called BS is Ross Tucker. Given he is an actual scientist and did not even entertain her story should be pretty telling.

She popped and made the burrito offal excuse. Those two are cold hard facts. If she hadn’t made that claim I might have entertained a doubt about the actual testing, but she gave herself up with that story. Come on, man! 🌮

Captain Obviously wrote:

They have to discriminate. It is too expensive and impractical to test everyone so the next best approach is too focus on the group that is most likely cheating. Fortunately, this subset is very easy to identify - they are the ones at the top of the rankings. I’m not saying all those at the top are cheating, but that is where cheaters are most heavily concentrated.

If I was going to create a system full of corruption and dark money- this would be it.

I’d allow “officials” to know and plan in advance about tests, and I’d also allow those officials to pick and choose who gets tested (and doesn’t get tested) and when and where that testing is done.

Seriously- think about that. It makes very little sense. I cannot fathom why the system is not randomized.

When athletes get busted the coach should too. The team should then be on probation. Lets get serious about stopping the drug cheats.

Gwalkerruns wrote:

When athletes get busted the coach should too. The team should then be on probation. Lets get serious about stopping the drug cheats.

This is a great idea. Accountability.

Double standards much?? Salazar basically got thrown under a bus for drug cheating even though his runners were never convicted of it! Shelby test positive for drugs and its the burrito?? really?? Lmao

Dwightarm wrote:

I believe that she isn’t a doper. I believe that Centro believes she wasn’t doping.

HOWEVER: She was still caught with nandrolone levels above the legal limit for this test and did not conclusively prove it was from the burrito.

Whether innocently or not, tainted supplement or not, it was in her body and it falls upon her to prove how it got there. Just proclaiming she’s innocent doesn’t cut it.

Game...Set...Match!

Stop being a Sheep wrote:

reasonableperson001 wrote:

Track and field media has done nothing to challenge this story. LetsRun, SI/Chris Chavez/Citius Mag, and Kara Goucher and the NBC crew are all complicit in letting this slip through the cracks without serious investigation into the team or whatever really happened here.

But this is what we get when we let Make a Wish kids like Chris Chavez get real track journalism jobs... all he wants is to be friends with these athletes.

This has been one of my biggest issues. Especially letsruns support of Shelby has been extremely disappointing. Essentially the only prominent figure in the sport that came out and called BS is Ross Tucker. Given he is an actual scientist and did not even entertain her story should be pretty telling.

all true. everyone, from coe down, via nike, is too invested. and it shows.

You can be friendly, likable, well respected, treat people well, and still be up to nefarious activities. Not everyone cheating or looking to gain an advantage has a Salazar type of personalty. Albertos undoing was he made it very easy to come out and attack the guy giving the various events over the years involving his antics.

Frank Shorters father was well respected and liked. Jerry Sandusky as well. Some people too easily assume evildoers are all like Bond villains or like German Nazis with how perfectly evil they present themselves.

I don't think this is surprising at all. Is he gonna say she's dirty when that isn't the company line & then have someone say he's dirty & start a back & forth? I don't think teammates are who I'm looking to when something like this happens. Let her clear her name with our international doping & governing bodies. Everyone on Bowerman has a script of carefully crafted talking points. I'm taking anything coming from Nike/Bowerman with a grain of salt.

nhlgoalie wrote:

They all need to just stop with this burrito BS. It was not the f*cking burrito.

Exactly!

HashTag wrote:

It appears to me that Centro actually confesses to doping in the video: “Truth be told…ummmm…. I could have been in the position she’s (Shelby) in.” To me that is Centro confessing to doping.

Honestly, when I saw she got busted and blamed it on the burrito, I burst out laughing. It is one of the more laughable excuses I have ever heard in track and field. From what I know about using steroids, there has to be precise timing periods and use of masking agents to avoid detection. I mean it plays out like they are covering things up, especially when Schumacher says he has no idea what Nandolerone is. Never heard of it was the gist. Anyone remember BALCO?

Yes, athletes in track and field know what steroids are and other PEDs. Come on. Doping is a wide-spread problem. The whole story about the burrito stinks. I believe life-time bans would deter some of the use. Four years can pretty much derail a distance runner but a sprinter, they can come back. And they have. And just because an athlete comes off as being great on and off the track, does not mean they are "nice". Yes, look at Lance Armstrong who powered up mountains on a bike and also threatened his teammates.

Most top athletes look for an advantage. Some get caught. End of story. If you ain't cheating you ain't trying. I give her props for keeping up with the Jones's. Here's another thought - Which runners were ranked above/near her since she became a top level runner? You think they're doping? There were some pretty spectacular times run at the US trials by some pretty ripped athletes, probs all natural right? Some of the cross fit competitors were complaining that the track athletes don't look natty.

The answer is simple: resources. These are limited - way more cash goes into sponsorship than antidoping - and they have to cover all sports, not just running. So targetting OC testing makes more sense.

Yes very good point. USADA had suspended testing and this was kind of well known by American athletes - the AIU hadn't and my guess would be there was some confusion as to if testing was happening at all (given the majority of tests for American athletes are conducted by USADA).

You make a great point - athlete thought they had a better chance of getting away with it which they did - but it was a huge mistake to think there was a 100% chance of getting away with it (because there wasn't).

Having see the press conferences, heard the story etc etc I'm going to guess that Shelby was in fact stupid enough to think there was no chance of a tester knocking on her door - well guess what.... ^^

HashTag wrote:

It appears to me that Centro actually confesses to doping in the video: “Truth be told…ummmm…. I could have been in the position she’s (Shelby) in.” To me that is Centro confessing to doping.

You need to get out of your mom's basement and get out more.

Yeah, andJerry’s Trumpian attack on the AIU smacks of insincerity. Just attack the fact finders when you don’t have plausible defenses.

Better yet, escrow prize money unless and until it’s absolutely certain the performance wasn’t tainted. A lot of prize money will NEVER be paid out.

Is it weird that they both got tested the same day? SO AIU just did a 2 for 1 since it wasn't USATF if they had curtailed testing due to COVID?

It would be interesting to know if any of those runners have been back to that food truck since knowing of the news. I mean, some have known for a lot longer than the public.