Banned Kenyan athletes struggling with depression, experts call for help

You have still nostalgy of the era (1979-1982) when you were using East African as "minions" to pace your fake kings for WR?

If I'm fair enough, the Kenyan Ondieki (that paced the Aouita in his 3000m WR 1989) or or John Ngugi (finalist 5000m 1987), or the "pacer" Billy Konchellah deserves more place in history than any British middle distance runner.

I always trust the Spanish and Italians to display integrity and practice fair sportsmanship.

Quote from article:

"Under WADA’s strict liability rule, athletes are responsible for any banned substance found in their bodies, even without intent. The study notes that this principle “makes successful appeals seem futile, leaving athletes feeling powerless.” The result, researchers say, is deep hopelessness and mistrust.
The rule states that “it is not necessary that intent, fault, negligence or knowing use on the athlete’s part be demonstrated to establish an anti-doping rule violation.”
Dr Damaris Ogama, a Kenyan lawyer and researcher on doping interventions, said this rule potentially leads to unjust punishments for innocent athletes who ingest prohibited substances inadvertently.
“Contamination of supplements is becoming an acute problem. Research has found that certain vitamins and protein powders contain additives that are not declared because of poor manufacturing standards. An athlete who consumes such a product in good faith may end up testing positive and suffer career-threatening ramifications,” she wrote recently

Ghost1 comment:

This is unfair on athletes who inadvertently took substances which are prohibited. I would say that there are many cases in which athletes inadvertently ingested prohibited substances to their detriment long-term.

Coevett, what do you think should happen in these cases? No, I don't think it is a good things that banned athletes become depressed, but these banned athletes I strongly feel should not be able to return to the world of sport in either a competitive or support role. Yes, inadvertent consumption happens, yes, false positives happen, so I acknowledge it is a tough call. But, I believe and I think that the evidence supports that doping gives life long benefits, so even inadvertent use confers an unfair life long advantage.

People who defraud others should become depressed when they face consequences. This is a good thing. Their handlers should face consequences too. If we can link coaches or agents to procuring peds, they should face jail time - minimum 10 year sentence.

We could mix Prozac into their protein powders

Most of the Kenyan runners come from poor households and lack good education. They are often manipulated into taking "vitamins" from others who oversee their careers. Facing lifelong bans when there was no intent to cheat is a gross miscarriage of justice, I think. I think many of the Kenyan cases fall into this category, unfortunately.

Why din’t you be a man and get off that welfare you collect and get rid of the free tax-payer aubsidized apartment you live in. Leave France. Go back to Morocco and complain about whitey from there, while showing us what you can do on your own.

Come on man.

The whole 'Kenyans are too stupid and backwards to even know what cheating is' was an excuse that went out of fashion about a decade ago.

They know they're cheating, and they don't care because they just want the cash.

The athletes know exactly what’s going on. This defensive pandering is disgraceful. They act like the athletes are six year old children, when in fact they ‘anything goes’ cheats.

The coaches and handlers should also be banned so they can all be depressed together.

Do I need to send you a photograph of me in this town North of Morocco where I'm? not so far from Berkane. (*)

Or is it only your imagination working out of loop?

(*) I'm way way way ... more proud than any African living and seeking his food in the West. But I dont blame them.

Inadvertently taking banned substances is just a reason to penalized coaches and agents for athletes who get caught. We should add those punishments to what we already do with the athletes.

In Kanya they have a Kan do attitude.

I believe that some know they're cheating and some don't. I have a friend in Iten who told me that a lot of coaches or agents give something to their athletes saying "Take this. It will help you run faster" without saying what it is and the athletes do.

Is that naivete? Is it willfull naivete? I don't know. I do know that most of these athletes don't spend tons of time looking at Letsrun and reading all the doping news. I do recall a conversation decades ago with a woman who in her time had been one of the better 800 meter runners in East Germany about the doping situation there. She told me that most of their doped athletes did not know they were doping. A coach or doctor gave them something and said "Take this. It will help you run faster (or throw farther or jump higher or longer.) "And you took it," she told me. "You did not ask questions."

If we're talking about Kenyans or anyone else who knowingly took something illegal and is now depressed because they got caught and suspended I can only think that they gambled and lost. But I do feel for someone who really trusted a coach or agent mistakenly.

I think your 'friend in Iten' is just downplaying the athletes' involvement in the whole cheating episode.

It's just pushing the 'poor innocent Kenyan athletes' and 'evil foreign agents/coaches' narrative which is used to move the blame away from the athletes and Kenya in general.

It's this inability to take any sort of responsibility for the problem which stops anything actually being done about things.

Says the weirdo who always posts under unregistered four or five letter lazily randomized usernames and then pretends that it's not obvious to even some of the imbeciles here that you're the same weirdo every time.