Just wondered if we need to go back to the date it hit the market and strike all world records made after that point. Then, start with new ones that wouldn't be tainted by the spector of EPO. Yeah, Yeah I know there are always going to be some new drug or a way around the testing. Just a thought.
I think your idea is ridiculous. But, there is an article somewhere on letsrun by ROJO that shows post/pre-EPO era record comparisons. It's food for thought.
Yeah, it is far-fetched, but even Sports Illustrated did an article a few years ago referring to Koman/Geb and drugs. And this being from a magazine that doesn't carry any running related articles anymore.
Amgen brought Epogen to the market June of 1989. The link below shows the record progressions of all events over 25 years. You do the math.
I am 26 years old. Why have there been so many threads about me? Leave me alone.
I think I remember hearing about this new "wonder" drug around 1990 or 1991. It was the year Yobes Ondieki was tearing it up and broke 27:00 for the first time. Tim Hacker, who incidentally beat Ondieki regularly in college, told me everyone was talking about it when he was over in Europe.
I also remember Ron Clarke forcasting the effects of this drug on the sport in a paragraph in TnF back in 1993. He was pretty against it then buit seems to have changed his tune now (as long as you aren't from high altitude).
You're right on Malmo, amazing how around 91' the records took a dramatic drop. Suddenly then in the late 90's as drug testing started to be formulated to counter EPO, records mysteriously stopped occurring. I live/grew up in the midwest, remember watching the dream mile on ABC in the summer with Coe/Scott etc. I didn't want to believe that drugs were/are so prevalent. Guess I was just naive. Wish we could go back to the days that the guy/gal that worked the hardest was likely to win. Still remember the article in Runners World(yes they used to have good articles)with Ovett running up the sand dunes with Harry Wilson his coaching sitting at the top timing him. Scaring to say what Coe and Ovett could do on EPO. Don't think Hicham would be the world record holder right now.
EPO has been used in elite cycling since the late 1980's. In fact, at the time is was discovered as the ultimate endurance enhancement, the levels used by cyclists must have been obscene. I have read reports that during that time over 60 European cyclists dropped dead of cardiac arrest due to blood clots. I guess they were the first guinea pigs as to what levels are too much for the human body.
I am a bit curious about the recent Moroccan athletes busted for apparant use of EPO. I would think their pharmacists are skilled enough to know what amounts would be needed and still stay under the radar - or the science of this form of blood doping is still not perfected.
I was curious as to any major road races in the U.S. that test for high levels of red blood cells. I would suspect few to none.
If you look at all events the linear trend of the top 10 average is right about what one would expect. However, the comparison to the world record drops is out of scale. I imagine if you made a comparison of the top ten average to the top performance of each year, the story would be the same.
It would be interesting to extend the graphs to current date, including data since the announcement by the IAAF in 2000 that they have a test for EPO.
addedum:
I just found an article that EPO was introduced into the medical community in 1985, and that x-c skiers were also one of the first to discover its effects.
Beginning at the world championships in 1989 and continuing through to the "trial worlds" in Trondheim, Norway in February 1996, the International Ski Federation (FIS) began randomly drawing blood samples from male and female skiers to monitor hemoglobin levels. In 89, the average values were actually just under normal population levels (15 g/dl). By 1996 they were far over normal levels. Some individual measurements revealed hemoglobin concentrations of over 19 g/dl, even in females. Only in rare cases have hemoglobin levels reached up to 17 g/dl when training at altitude over time.
60 dead cyclists? Are you sure you didn't get that off DyeStat? If that were true it would be on the cover of Time and Newsweek.
Hey tried that posting under another name for another thread, forgot to change back, but the rapper comment was from me. This board regularly posts about drugs/predominately about drugs and AW. Yes, have read Swoosh(thanks Malmo for the recommendation)there were steroids and other drugs. My thought though, performance wise for a distance runner, those drugs paled in comparison with EPO for increasing performance and times. All drugs in my opinion should be banned in relation to athletics, but what can you do? People willing to experiment and risk being caught always seem to be one step ahead of the testers.
I agree, I follow cycling also, and I think that there have only been a handful(3-4) deaths attributed to EPO. Not that cycling hasn't been traditionally one of the dirtiest sports.
Most of the articles I've read have stated around 20, except I found this from salon.com which stated 80.
I'm a big time seller of 20.
Supposedly EPO is old hat now that Oxygent and synthetic hemoglobin products are channeling out of Australia. i think this new stuff is undetectable to date.
Bannister was on EPO so its been out for a while