whacha say mon wrote:
The entire island of Jamaica is... DOPED TO THE GILLS!
Their history (once going through an entire 12 months prior to an Olympics with essentially no out of competition testing on the entire island) and the dominance absolutely invites the scepticism.
For me Thompson and Price I am kind of numb to - as in I assume they are and have been for years anyway so no big deal. But Sherika Jackson just makes me laugh. She was obviously a good 400m runner - a 3 x bronze medalist (2 at WC and 1 OC) and had a PR of 49.47 which is very solid.
Between 2017 and 2019 she posted 100m times of 11.24, 11.13, 11.30, did not post a 100m in 2020 and in 2021 just explodes down to 10.76 (and has now clocked 3 sub 10.8 times this year!!!) I'm sorry but THAT is absolutely ridiculous. It's so implausible it's just comical. Nothing ETH and SAFP did is that shocking but Jackson is the give away here about what still goes on in the world of Jamaican sprinting.
And yes, I'm well aware of someone on the US team in the 100m that has an eerily similar career trajectory from being an elite 400m runner to now completely reversing that and becoming elite over 100m - probably more evidence that there is something fashionable doing the rounds at the moment that supports these simply apparently impossible transitions down events.