Remember the Fancy Bears doping leak?

Kiprop also had the maximum of *** but only passport suspicious, not quite "likely doping", and got caught a year later.

Jager and HInge have confirmed that they were indeed flagged, and target-tested. We can also see that Rupp was also target-tested by USADA around those years.

I'd love to see Houlihan's ABP, as USADA also ramped up her testing quite substantially from 2019 - 2022, f. ex. compared to the more successful Frerichs from the same team.

Overall the list with only 50ish runners was ludicrously small, compared to f. ex. the 15-18% who used blood doping in competition at the 2011 and 2013 worlds with over 1700 athletes each, especially when noting that several of that list were road runners and or not good enough to make it to worlds.

It is worth noting that the men's world records in the steeplechase, 5k and 10k were stuck at roughly 8;00, 13:00 and 27:00, respectively, before EPO came along in the early 1990s. Then within a few years people began running much faster. My guess is that anyone significantly under those thresholds prior to super shoes was using some kind of performance-enhancing substance. No hard proof obviously, but this is my guess.

I do vaguely remember fancy bears. Some big busts followed, but I felt some must have gotten away with cheating their whole pro careers. It does seem that there is an effort to cover up doping positives. It wouldn't surprise me to learn every Chinese pro is doped for instance.

I take a little solace in knowing our sport is at least better than others - for instance in basketball and football what is the penalty for ped use? Like a month at most? They warn athletes of upcoming tests for basketball and football more frequently.

I think a lot of ped use is going on in the NCAA right now because of lack of testing.

Boulami ran - with EPO, so it was DQ'd - 7:53.17 back in 2002, from the front!

worldathletics.org

Boulami storms Zurich with World Steeplechase Record | NEWS | World Athletics

Morocco's Brahim Boulami produced a defiant front running victory in the face of the best Kenyan steeplechasers to lower his own World 3000m steeplechase record to 7:53.17, to produce the highlight of a great night at Zurich'...

Open link

Now we are over 22 years later, and only 1 athlete - after all those tech advances from super spikes to super tracks - has ever run faster (namely in 2023).

Or, looking at it pre-super spikes (2019): the 7:53.17 still was the fastest ever, and only 11 other athletes went under 8:00.

This is why I think the ~2008 to ~2015 period looks like the cleanest period in a long while for the sport. Things are muddy now with the influence of shoes. It's funny how during that period there was lots of complaining about nobody trying to run fast or chase records. Lots of sit and kick races. Maybe, just maybe, it was never realistic for runners to go out and chase records every week on the DL circuit and especially not in WC/OLY races with everything on the line without having some chemical assistance. From memory, almost all of the "dominant" runners in that period are known/highly likely dopers. Remember the mysterious Kenyan 1500 collapse at every championship? We all wondered why the Ethiopian 10k teams didn't just run away from Mo Farah (not saying he was clean either). If I had to guess, the testing was ahead of doping in that period. I will never forget watching Genzebe Dibaba run a 3:50 1500 in Monaco (in old spikes) and knowing doping was back. I'm probably off but, in my memory, that was right around when doping won and then the Rio Olympics made a mockery of the sport. I still believe NOP and Rupp (NOT Farah with his special trips to Spain/Morocco) were absolutely pushing the limits of what was allowable without crossing the line and barely reaching the top level of the sport until that stopped being enough and the squeaky clean Bowerman Babes started collecting records and medals. Before widespread EPO usage and ~2008 to ~2015 look strangely similar compared to the times between and since...

Don’t need any type of leak to deduce any of this. In short, if you are in a world-class championship final, you didn’t get there on hard work and gumption and a few LT workouts alone. Simple as that.

I agree with much of this, but don’t dismiss the strong circumstantial evidence that suggests that AlSal may have been giving Rupp androgel massages during that period. As a reminder:

-AlSal had a prescription for androgel

-AlSal had his androgel on him frequently, including at training camps

-AlSal conducted an experiment in the Nike lab to determine exactly how much of his androgel could be applied to someone before triggering a positive test

-AlSal regularly gave massages to Rupp despite having access to licensed massage therapists

-A Nike doctor reported that Rupp was on “testosterone medication” at the age of 16

Am I missing anything?

I saw speculation Ritz was on androgel. Rojo posted that someone emailed him this, but when you’re in your early 30s and not running that well and have a couple kids, you wouldn’t let Alberto massage you and not ask any questions?

Alberto was at the forefront of what is now the micro-dosing era. Only those who get sloppy, like burrito girl, get caught.

+ Salazar was banned for possession of testosterone (and using a forbidden method and tampering).

I believe that some of the results attached to athletes were also fabricated as well?

And I believe that Ritz and Farah were both implicated as having used the IV transfusion of L-Carnitine? Farah initially denied this, but his attorneys then suggested he return to the deposition and state that he had "misremembered".

It was not "testosterone medication". It was an over the counter gym bro supplement bought at a Vitamin World near you.

Farah was the son that Jama Aden never had. Secret trips to Sabadell spoiled by Farah's overwhelming need to post pictures on his social media ruined that. Remember that Farah also had long training camps in Ethiopia with Aden overseeing them.

Interesting thought, but the second sentence is not quite correct. Five athletes ran 2:02/2:03 in the marathon in 2008 - 2015, Gebrhiwet ran 12:47 in 2012, Koech and Alamirew 12:48 in 2012, Rotich 26:43 in 2011, and Rupp 26:44 in 2014. For comparisons, the world records in 1990 were 2:06:50, 12:58 and 27:08.

But yes, male track times were definitely slower in those years than say, between 1998 and 2008.

2009 btw was the official beginning of the ABP.

"testosterone medication" was shown on the photo. To be precise: in 2002, Rupp was "presently on prednisone and testosterone medication". The counter story was Salazar's and Rupp's unproven but possible explanation.

See for example here:

runnersworld.com

What Does “Testosterone Medication” Mean?

The ambiguous notation on Galen Rupp’s blood report is subject to more than one interpretation, doctors say.

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+ 2 more:

-Salazar was notoriously obsessive about his athletes’ testosterone levels and was uniquely obsessive about Rupp in particular

-Salazar was coaching Mary Decker Slaney in the 1990s around the time she was banned for a positive testosterone test

Some could say that without Alberto we wouldn’t have the Americans performing at the level they’re performing today.

Not denying that there were fast performances but they were rare (maybe 1-2 fast 5ks on the DL circuit per year) which I think fits with some offseason doping in remote locations (e.g. Almaz Ayana) with a shorter peak. I also want to clarify that I'm not guaranteeing that NOP was clean. I think my point is more that Farah was very very very clearly doping with Jama Aden and the fact that he felt the need to leave NOP for training camps in Spain/Morocco and then pretend he was somewhere else at least gives me some confidence that NOP wasn't on a Jama Aden-esque EPO regimen. I think it might be accurate to say that Salazar is responsible for much of the success of US running spost-NOP using gray area (thyroid meds) or straight up micro-dosing methods. However, nobody can convince me Farah wasn't as dirty as Dibaba and the rest of the Jama Aden cohort unless we're supposed to believe Jama Aden was using all of that therapeutic EPO on himself at their training camps.