CBC's Pre-Classic preview: "Maybe the reporter (Jonathan Gault) missed the memo, but people don't talk bad about Flo-Jo."

The article refers to another reporter.

JGault did it first the year before, but in Budapest it wasn't JGault but another reporter. I guess you could refer to him as "the next guy".

Weird wording at the end of the quote. They make it sound like she is a protected athlete or something. I think it’s totally valid to question if she’s clean, just like with El Guerrouj

Maybe this reporter missed the memo that people call out BS when they see/smell it. Get out of the 20th century guy. FloJo was undoubtedly a cheater, move along.

Hey rojo, instead of asking Jackson, why don't you pose this question to Mu at Pre?

Here is a link to when JG asked… it’s at the end. You can skip to 3:05

I am honored to not be considered “people”.

You know why people don't talk bad about her? Everybody knows what the situation was but really it's futile discussing it - especially with someone not even around anymore. It just comes across as tasteless to talk in public about too much and really doesn't serve much purpose.

Furthermore track and field just isn't a sport at the top of the public consciousness any more - not many podcasts out there discussing the merits of the womens 100m WR and the plethora of evidence that not only was that race massively wind aided, but that she was essentially an 11.0 second 100m runner that suddenly became a 10.7 runner for one season and then got even luckier by striking a day with howling wind down the home straight only for the 95+ degree heat to melt the janky 1980's era win gauge into not working just as she ran.

Typically insufferable article written by someone wanting to sound smart but who isn't. Yawn.

There's actually some evidence that at the time of the race, there were cross winds rather than rear winds. She herself specifically said that she went for the record because the wind had subsided, and Bobby Kersey told her to go for it if the wind went down. Also, it's not at all uncommon for the men's event, held at a different time of the day, to have different readings that some other events. Carl Lewis's wind reading is irrelevant here.

Flo Jo was a blatantly obvious doper. Was not aware no one was allowed to question her accomplishments. Of course Flo Jo was doping to the gills, then anyone who beats her WR is doping to the gills also. I think that is the point, the code of omerta.

A bit like your posts.

people dont bother to talk badly about flo jo because they take it for granted.

Many people don’t bash FloJo because it’s not polite to speak ill of the dead. Let her rest in peace.

The weird thing is Gault and the BroJos are so hellbent about tarnishing FloJo’s legacy and rooting for likely doped Jamaicans to break her records. I don’t get it.

You know that was tongue in cheek right?

Like he was saying in the article her record is highly suspect and then wink wink nod nod people don’t talk bad about her for some unknown reason.

he wasn’t scolding the reporter calling her out

And yet the triple jump, happening on the opposite straightaway at the same time, had only three out of 46 jumps with wind-legal readings.
The wind readings in the first three quarterfinals of the women's 100 were 0.0 (where Flo-Jo set the record), 0.0, and 5.0. In the end-of-season rankings, six of the top ten U.S. times were recorded in the two quarterfinals with 0.0 wind readings. So it's not just Flo-Jo who ran magically fast in an otherwise unimportant early-round race.
https://www.brunel.ac.uk/~spstnpl/Publications/FlojoWR(Linthorne).pdf

You are right. To acknowledge Flojo was doping immediately raises that question with any times that approach hers. Of course, they, too, will be doped. But despite the doping that pervades the sport the celebrated feats of athletes cannot be questioned. As Big Daddy says in "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof", there is a smell stinking the place up and it is the stink of "mendacity".

I recall watching the meet, and the announcers initially insisted that there was a mistake - it was so obviously wind-aided. The next day it wasn't mentioned, as if they were told to shut up about it. Just another example of the corrupt attitude of USATF. let's hide this mistake, rather than admit that they screwed up on the day - likely someone forgot to connect the auto wind-gauge to the starting system until the third QF. Initially it was thought that someone (intentionally or not) blocked the wind-gauge by standing in front of it.

Is it likely? Yes. Is it possible she had an insane race that has yet to be touched by 21st Century athletes with access to better training/tech? Less likely, but still yes. Since she is now dead and cannot defend herself, it's seriously punching down at someone who died tragically young and was an inspiration to many during her lifetime.

My stance is to that every record set and still held since that era to be suspect and just move along and focus on the here and now.