Detroit Free Press Marathon: New Anti-Doping Policy... affects a major US agent?

Fantastic policy and I wish the majors adopted it. Agents lazily taking no responsibility for a stable of dodgy athletes.

My read is that no Chris Layne/Steve Haas athlete would be eligible. Likewise no Mark Rowland athlete - as he has had Amos and Mead popped.

This is the usual policy already for most real races. This race will still suck given their reputation.

There would have to clauses in the agent/athlete contract that state an athlete can drop their agent without any consequence if another athlete that the agent represents tests positive. Otherwise, the athlete would just be stuck in their contract and not able to race any races if all events adopted this policy.

That sounds like a great policy. I wonder though, if the powers that be will put pressure on them for essentially not recognizing the end of a suspension.

I'm glad there is a thread on this.

I get the intent of this rule but am not sure if they totally thought this one out.

I was wondering about what elites would be ineligible. Tons of them like the Olympic champ Peres Jepchirchir aren't eligible as she is a Rosa athlete.

Who else might be ineligible for the race. Would Eliud Kipchoge be eligible?

I know one of his training partners was popped, presumably also represented by Valentin Truow. Anyone else?

Seems good in theory, but terrible in practice. If an agent has 100 athletes and 2 have tested positive at some point, seems ridiculous that the other athletes can't compete? Vs someone that has only 3 athletes and 2 of them have tested positive.

Yes, Sang had two of his athletes popped, but Russo's ban was for ABP irregularities, formally not for using a prohibited substance. So Kipchoge could be ok.

Plus, many of those cheats got banned by AIU, or their NADOs, not USADA or WADA.

Houlihan of course got banned by CAS for intentional doping, so maybe Haas is ok.

Potentially nice loopholes, depending on the actual wordings (so far we have only seen a brief summary). Hilarious.

Yeah it seems like the wording could cause some issues. I think it affects more athletes than maybe what they envisioned. Coaches/agents, but "not limited to" so would that include say, a massage therapist?

The idea behind the ruling is great, I think the first two points are essential for every race and the lack of that was what caused Detroit FP Marathon a lot of problems in the past. The third point on associations with coaches/agents is being praised by clean sport advocates, but definitely bound for complications and loopholes. Coaches and agents should be held accountable in their role with dirty athletes, but it feels like this could blowback on clean and innocent athletes.

i'm wondering if we're thinking the same thing re: intent because to me, this reads like a thinly veiled "ban" on non-american competitors.

This policy wouldn't survive an appeal to CAS.

How many athletes with coaches and/or agents are actually running this race?

Zero to one.