It seems clear that bicarbonate is transforming the sport. This is only the beginning. Maurten is the go-to manufacturer, but eventually there will be other companies offering something better, which will lead to something better, and so on. These products will all be legal.
Then there will come a day that we are asking how the anti-doping agencies allowed things to “get this far” and “spiral out of control.” I can see the message board threads now. And then, pre-race bicarb will be banned.
So what happens to all these times? The times that we are marveling over now? When we look back on the “Bicarb Era”, will we view the athletes as dopers, or say things like, “Yeah, the world record is x:xx.xx, but that was during bicarb”?
I’m starting to feel a bit uneasy about the way some of these super fast 800s are concluding in an all-out sprint.
I think they need to crack down on training, like why are athletes being allowed to get training stimulus and recover before races, it's not fair and its transforming the sport for the worse. Food and sleep too, pure performance enhancers
So why ban it, exactly? Bicarb is safe, unlike actual doping. It’s relatively inexpensive, and it’s widely available. It makes times a little faster, 1-2 seconds for 800m where it seems to be most effective, but so do lots of things. What is the actual harm done to the sport here?
"It makes people run faster" isn't a reason to ban something. Should we ban having a physio? That's more expensive than bicarb and affects careers positively
So why ban it, exactly? Bicarb is safe, unlike actual doping. It’s relatively inexpensive, and it’s widely available. It makes times a little faster, 1-2 seconds for 800m where it seems to be most effective, but so do lots of things. What is the actual harm done to the sport here?
Sounds like you never tried it the old fashioned way 💩
WR has yet to be broken. Times are not really that much faster, there is just more people doing it. If baking soda was anywhere near as potent as EPO the WR would have dropped probably more than once by now.
800m WR has been safe by a good margin since 2012. This was run without wave lights, bouncy shoes, bicarb, faster track, or even pacers.
How fast do you think bicarb will make 800m runners? Are you talking sub 1:40? 1:39?
This.
1. It's not detectable by testing. This shuold be obvious to anyone who has graduated high school.
2. It isn't "ruining" things the way super-suits did in swimming or EPO did for cycling and track in the 90s.
2.1. The Maurten product has been universally available for three seasons now, and it was already very common throughout 2024.
Meanwhile, in the event it helps THE MOST, the 800m:
- NOBODY has been able to beat the WR from 2012, 13 years ago. - NOBODY but the 2012 WR breaker has been able to beat the PB of the #2 man all-time. - Only 5 people in the last 10 years have been able to beat the #8 and #10 men all-time, a white Brit in 1981 and a Brazilian dude in 1984.
.
.
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Top 10 800 men all-time:
1 1:40.91 David RUDISHA 17 DEC 1988 KEN Olympic Stadium, London (GBR) 09 AUG 2012 1301
2 1:41.11 Wilson KIPKETER 12 DEC 1972 DEN Köln (GER) 24 AUG 1997 1295
2 1:41.11 Emmanuel WANYONYI 01 AUG 2004 KEN Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, Lausanne (SUI) 22 AUG 2024 1295
4 1:41.20 Marco AROP 20 SEP 1998 CAN Stade de France, Paris (FRA) 10 AUG 2024 1292
5 1:41.46 Djamel SEDJATI 03 MAY 1999 ALG Stade Louis II, Monaco (MON) 12 JUL 2024 1284
6 1:41.61 Gabriel TUAL 09 APR 1998 FRA Stade Charléty, Paris (FRA) 07 JUL 2024 1279
7 1:41.67 Bryce HOPPEL 05 SEP 1997 USA Stade de France, Paris (FRA) 10 AUG 2024 1277
8 1:41.73 Sebastian COE 29 SEP 1956 GBR Firenze (ITA) 10 JUN 1981 1275
8 1:41.73
Nijel AMOS
15 MAR 1994 BOT Olympic Stadium, London (GBR) 09 AUG 2012 1275
10 1:41.77 Joaquim CRUZ 12 MAR 1963 BRA Köln (GER) 26 AUG 1984 1274
It seems clear that bicarbonate is transforming the sport. This is only the beginning. Maurten is the go-to manufacturer, but eventually there will be other companies offering something better, which will lead to something better, and so on. These products will all be legal.
Then there will come a day that we are asking how the anti-doping agencies allowed things to “get this far” and “spiral out of control.” I can see the message board threads now. And then, pre-race bicarb will be banned.
So what happens to all these times? The times that we are marveling over now? When we look back on the “Bicarb Era”, will we view the athletes as dopers, or say things like, “Yeah, the world record is x:xx.xx, but that was during bicarb”?
I’m starting to feel a bit uneasy about the way some of these super fast 800s are concluding in an all-out sprint.
Even if a governing body wanted to ban this, the active ingredient of bicarb is sodium bicarbonate, which is also known as baking soda. Baking soda is found in cookies, cake, muffins, and other breads. Which means, if you declared it illegal, people could still use it and say "I ate bread yesterday" or perhaps "I ate a muffin yesterday" and that would be a perfectly defensible explanation for a positive test. So there's no way to administrate this proposed ban of yours.
And that's before we get into the whole "there's nothing harmful about baking soda" conversation.
People are also falling for the marketing here. Bicarbonate isn’t new. There has been 50 years of sport science research on it. And while Maurten has lovely packaging and a fancy little bowl - you can get enteric coated tablets that do the same thing (and also minimize the GI upset) for a fraction of the cost.
something better is already out there. Banning it won’t stop anything. Athletes will just learn to be more careful. Already have bouncy shoes. As if that already wasn’t enough. You know what they say: “give someone an inch…”
I think they need to crack down on training, like why are athletes being allowed to get training stimulus and recover before races, it's not fair and its transforming the sport for the worse. Food and sleep too, pure performance enhancers
It seems clear that bicarbonate is transforming the sport. This is only the beginning. Maurten is the go-to manufacturer, but eventually there will be other companies offering something better, which will lead to something better, and so on. These products will all be legal.
Then there will come a day that we are asking how the anti-doping agencies allowed things to “get this far” and “spiral out of control.” I can see the message board threads now. And then, pre-race bicarb will be banned.
So what happens to all these times? The times that we are marveling over now? When we look back on the “Bicarb Era”, will we view the athletes as dopers, or say things like, “Yeah, the world record is x:xx.xx, but that was during bicarb”?
I’m starting to feel a bit uneasy about the way some of these super fast 800s are concluding in an all-out sprint.
Seriously, do people really believe this? Baking soda is not responsible for big drops in times.
Bicarb is already beginning to feel like yesterday news. Just wait until you hear about the new broccoli sprout extract Nomio. Andreas Almgren is sponsored by this new product, for just one i Europe. They have a huge podcast sponsoring push going on this summer and every Swedish runner who's broken a PR seems to praise it.
Broccoli and the US though? I can hardly wait to hear the next round of teen phenoms coming up that say how much they love broccoli! Gatorade and Coca-Cola's gonna go corn starch bananas! ;-P