Hassan, who will run London, on Chepngetich's 2:09:56 WR: "I don’t care how [Ruth] did it, it just showed me it is possible."

Many things are possible if you're willing to do everything it takes to achieve it.

Say what you want about Chepngetich's WR but you have to admire Hassan for the way she adopts the challenge of a 2:09. London probably ain't the place but you have to fancy a great run if she's healthy in build up!

Unbelievable athletes are often relieved of the doping accusations if they’re able to maintain their unbelievable level year after year. This has largely happened for Hassan, who is still one of the most likely dopers around.

2019, Salazar gets banned and then Hassan closes the Doha 10k in 3:59 and front-runs a 3:51 on pure hate? Sure.

Sorry but if Jess Hull and Georgia bell can run 3:50-3:52 and Kipyegon can run 3:49.04 there's nothing particualrly suspicious about super talent Hassan front running 3:51 high

Especially when you "don't care" how it was achieved

Of course one of the most sus runners in the sport takes inspiration from another extremely sus runner.

That was great, wide ranging, interview with Hassan. Therefore it's a bit disappointing that you're leading with the one quote that makes her look a bit shady 😐

Super talent Hassan never placed higher than 3rd in a global championship before 2019, when she was 26 and had been working with Salazar for a year. On her 26th birthday her 1500 PR was 3:56. Then days after Salazar is banned by US anti-doping she’s closing a 10k in 3:59 and front-running a negative split 3:51 high. Even her physical appearance changed markedly after working with Salazar, the same as Mo Farah, she went from looking like a normal healthy human being to being 100% wiry. She’s the female Mo Farah and both are successful dopers.

theguardian.com

Laura Muir says 'cloud' hangs over Sifan Hassan's stunning 1500m victory

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/seaningle

Sifan Hassan won 1500m gold medal in Doha but Laura Muir believes the win is tainted because of her association with the banned coach Alberto Salazar

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athleticsillustrated.com

Sifan Hassan's jaw-dropping double in Doha clouded in controversy - Athletics Illustrated

Athleticsillustrated

Inspiring the culture of the sport of athletics with well prepared and thought-provoking content, that is written, podcast, video and images.

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People knew it was sketchy then and nothing has changed. If you think the other women you mentioned are dirty too that’s fine, but it doesn’t change my suspicion of Hassan.

I don't think it makes Hassan look shady at all, maybe Chepngetich.

But I get your point. And to be fair, that's the reason why I didn't feature that quote as the QOD. Jonatahn Gault told me she wasn't asked at all about whether she thought Ruth was clean or not so we didn't want to focus on the quote on the front page.

But it is a money quote so we gave it secondary importance.

You presume the white girls are clean?

No, he's presuming that white girls cant run as fast as an Ethiopian descent runner.

No, he's holding them up as clean examples, which is A) racist, and B) blissfuly naive.

Quip Litton did a very nice job laying out the case against Hassan. Sketchy coach, sketchy progression, unbelievable performances. Come on, don't keep your head buried in the sand.

That is one tough mindset.

How does accepting that Chepngetich may have doped to run 2:09-- i.e. saying that she still "did it"-- not make Hassan herself look shady?

Wouldn't the phrasing of a person who did not accept the legitimacy of doped performances in sport have been something more like "if she did it legitimately, then I think I could do it too". Clean athletes in particular tend to care a lot about how people "do" their performances, for obvious reasons.

And remember, the context of the quote is a discussion about whether Hassan herself (the arguable top female marathon in the world at the moment) could run 2:09-- a context in which it should matter very much "how she (Chepngetich) did it".

That is, unless Hassan is suggesting that she is so talented that she could beat a possibly doped performance like this one without herself doping, even it if meant knocking several minutes off of her PR while already being at what must be very close to the peak of her powers.

I remember thinking after Doha, no, this is too good to be true, but now looking back now and seeing all the amazing, outlying performances of Kipyegon or Chebet or Chepngetich, etc since, it doesn’t seem so crazy at all. Hassan gets beat all the time. Did she temporarily go drug free in 2022, only to return to them in 2023? Rather, I think over the past decade we’ve seen a cadre of super elite women level up collectively and ascribing this all to doping is not a compelling argument. Hassan is just one of five or six women doing things since 2019 that were felt to be impossible.

To all the people who are "being realistic" and claiming that everyone is probably doped, why do you still follow the sport at the pro level?

You actually might be right, I am not arguing that runners are always clean just because they haven't tested positive. You might be right about Hassan and Hull and all the rest.

But if Hull is dirty and Mu is dirty and Bell is dirty and Kara Goucher was dirty, then why do you still think the sport is fun to watch?

I know doping is a serious problem in our sport but I also have to draw a line somewhere. For me, that "somewhere" is:

1) an actual positive test or a national doping program like East Germany

or

2) a performance that is out of line with the rest of humanity (like the women's 400, 800, and marathon WRs).

Those two criteria create my "line in the sand" but if I move that line to include "everyone who is good" then there would be nobody left to watch in pro running. Which as you might say, could be the case! Fine. But if so, why are you still on these pro running threads?

p.s. Here, for example is someone who crossed "my line" of having a performance that is out of touch with the rest of the women in history. 400m in 47.60 is not possible for a clean biologically female runner (at least not in that era). Here is the all-time top-4:

47.60 Marita KOCH (doper)
47.99 Jarmila KRATOCHVÍLOVÁ (doper)
48.14 Salwa Eid NASER (doper)
48.17 Marileidy PAULINO

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Honest answer: I don't, at least not at the pro level. Is that my fault? I'll turn this around on you. By your own criteria, the tippy top of the women's fields are all compromised, including Hassan. How do you justify supporting cheaters?

We used to think the moral corruption was limited to the evil socialists (E. Germany and Russia) or a poor few who had been seduced by the dark side (Makhloufi, Marion Jones). Then it turned out our own USADA was complicit in enabling doping at a high level.

There's a part of me that still believes that, even among the farther reaches of the bell curve, you can have exceptions to the exception. I believed that about Asbel Kiprop. He had ridiculous proportions, his form oozed efficiency, he seemed like an anomaly amongst anomalies. Then he got popped.

So I don't know, Ruxton. I don't know how anyone can look at this landscape and enjoy it without intentionally skewing their own moral compass. But I do know that my jaded feelings aren't my fault. I lay them at the feet of Kiprop, and Makhloufi, and Alberto Salazar, and Shelby Houlihan, and USADA, and every athlete, coach, and organization that has supported cheating over the decades.

To be fair, we don't know the question that preceded that quote. The sentence in the article that precedes the quote is "Was Chepngetich’s breakthrough due to better shoes? Better fueling? Better training? Better drugs?" But LetsRun says they didn't ask Hassan about drugs. I'll add one more factor not mentioned, which I believe is huge and also contributed "better/more agressive male pacing" So Hassan's quote could be referring to many possible factors - maybe drugs, but maybe not, who knows.

You think Hassan is clean because there have been equally sus performances by women from a country that has been beset by doping scandals? 🧐