Hassan Mead popped - Tests positive for ostarine and is banned for 3 years.

Do you not get he said he drank a workout drink from a vending machine.

Workout drinks in vending machines do not contain expensive SARMs that are not approved for human consumption.

He is lying about the workout drink from a vending machine to make it seem he took them accidentally, when he obviously took SARMs knowingly.

You really think tainted supplements are that rare? Why do you think pro athletes are so freaking careful about the supplements they take? Because tainted supplements are NOT rare. And the whole point of a tainted supplement is that you CAN'T get "a list of everything at GNC that will result in a positive test for SARMs"; tainted means the ingredient isn't listed, and you'd have to test the supplements to know whether the SARMs are included.

A guy who's a 6-foot-2, 138-pound waif might do it.

The reason that supplements are often tainted with unlisted ingredients is that adding doping products makes the supplements actually work, but they can't be listed, because they may be illegal and no athlete who wants to stay eligible is going to want to buy a supplement with doping products in it without special knowledge of how to take the supplement without testing positive.

I have questions about the retirement process. Mead says he retired but didn't file the paperwork. I'm sure there are many people in that situation, they retire but don't want to file the paperwork in case they get a second wind or another notion to try it again. There should be an in-between process where people can claim they are intending to retire, but don't have to drop out right away.

With all of the people who have tested positive for PEDs and then said they were retired, it seems like they are planning to retire but are hoping for one last shot and think the PEDs could get them back somehow. I would bet most of them weren't using PEDs during their career, otherwise they would be better at covering it up.

this.

Let's not deal in theoretical possibilities. Let's stay in the real world. The standard is More Likely than Not. Where did H Mead get the p.e.d? Are you and others sticking with a vending machine beverage? I don't want you to state it is possible p.e.d. came from vending machine. Either p.e.d. in this case came from vending machine or it didn't.

This is not true, at least not if you are buying supplements from a legit source and especially if they are Safe Sport certified. This is why major supplement brands test in house, or third party, every single raw material that comes in, and then the finished good is tested as well before shipment. Sure, if you buy your supplements off Alibaba and they are produced in some third world country you may have a possibility of getting something tainted (most likely it's not even tainted, just not what you thought you were buying) but you have to go to some grey market places for that to happen.

I don't see the point of discussing the likelyhood that a supplement may be tainted.

In the article it seemed implied that Meade admitted to willingly drinking a supplement that contained the banned substance as he was hitting the gym to bulk up. He is not claiming that the "doping" was involuntary. He just did not care enough to check carefully what he was drinking.
While I am generally skeptical of claims from people popped for doping, this story seems to be plausible: his contract had expired, multiple people confirm that he had retired and stopped training, he moved to a different city and started working full-time. These are a lot of changes in a few months, so I can easily believe that filing the paperwork to "officially" retire may have been at the bottom of his to-do-list. He does not really seem to care about T&F anymore and has moved to a new phase of his life, I wish him well.

I’m sure he cares about his reputation, and his club, teammates, college team, coaches, and agents reputation. All he needs to do is post a photo of the offending drink online and this will all fade away. But, he can’t because it’s all bs. Preworkout drinks from vending machines don’t have SARMs stacked like that.
He took supplements knowingly.

I challenge anyone in here to post a photo of a drink in a vending machine, or any drink of that matter, that would have even a 1% chance of being laced with two expensive SARMs

Yeah I'm not stoked to see this.

At BEST he was negligent. At worst he had been doping. US runners shouldn't be going to the mat for an error like this. It's on him either way.

I think if athletes are clean and they care about their reputations, they will put in the time, complete the paperwork, have someone double check it, fill in the whereabouts, and take the tests. If they don't care, they'll get Popped and find a way to blame the system.

Did Mead also tell Merber that the latter was a shoe-in for a sub-2:20 marathon?

I think we'll see something ridiculous. My prediction is 2:11:52.

Feel free to laugh if she runs 2:18+!

Sorry, that was supposed to be in the Gidey thread.

I believe that he was clean while he was running but I don't believe his story about the drink. He obviously started taking steroids while lifting. Which, in my view is completely fine. He wasn't competing in a sport taking money and prizes from clean athletes, he just wanted to get a bit stronger. Thousands of lifters do it. No big deal.

Hey if he came out and said" I want to get bigger than Ryan Hall. Part of that is loading up on grey zone supplements", I might be willing to believe him. The I bought a random drink from a vending machine (i.e. a product that is going to have some quality control unlike those supplements you are buying off some sketchy web site) and that must be why I tested positive excuse though is pretty unbelievable. Eating a sketchy food truck burrito seems more likely....

Post a photo of a pre workout drink that could have SARMs in it!

I am NOT saying this is true in Hassan Mead’s case (I don’t have enough evidence) but 9 times out of 10 the coverup is worse than the crime.