GOOSEBUMPS: Statement from USATF CEO

Bramer wrote:

What other sport is cracking down on drug-use/abuse as systematically and openly as OUR SPORT??!! (well, perhaps cycling...)

Well, except that "OUR SPORT" never managed to catch Marion.

Cycling is so far above and beyond what track and field is in regards to cracking down on the dope. Not even close.

Exactly, and cycling has an independent, motivated media to thank for it. The only media members who give even half a rip about T&F and the rampant cheating are the small, outsider voices like Letsrun (or at least it used to be).

bug precious wrote:

Cycling is so far above and beyond what track and field is in regards to cracking down on the dope. Not even close.

i think that's nonsense..........

Well it's true, and I'm no fan of cycling. Cycling used to be the dirtiest sport on the planet, but they're really cleaning up their act and now T&F occupies that distinctive spot. That's why there remains so much suspicion regarding any top performance or athlete in T&F, and rightly so. Cycling is cleaning house, they've been catching and throwing out the top riders.

Needles McCheater wrote:

... Cycling used to be the dirtiest sport on the planet, but they're really cleaning up their act and now T&F occupies that distinctive spot. ....

how dare you call track the dirtiest sport?!?

dude.....

#1 - pro basketball (HGH)

#2 - pro football (all drugs, plus kitchen sink)

#3 - MLB

#4 - triathlon

Pro basketball? What guys in the NBA look bulked-up on HGH? The only guy that even somewhat fit that bill was Karl Malone (and he did play dirty). Kevin Garnett? Dwayne Wade? LBJ? Melo? Nash? Please. NBA is the league of coke and weed, not PEDs.

At least the NFL has caught and suspended some top players, such as Merriman. At its base, though, it's a skill sport and no PEDs can produce a tight spiral or soft hands.

MLB is also a skill sport, hitting a pitched ball in the MLB is the most difficult thing to do in any sport. It wouldn't surprise me if many top players have and do use PEDs to recover better from injury or just the daily grind or (same for NFLers) to send their fly balls to deep left 20+ feet further. Both MLB and the NFL have pretty token drug policies in place, but it isn't as if they have looked the other way and done nothing like cycling did for so long or haven't been suspending players at a rate close to that of T&F.

Triathlon? Really? Triathlon is still a sport of the affluent, it doesn't have the worldwide popularity and accessibility or the income potential that T&F does for top athletes.

T&F is not a skill sport, very little training is devoted to technique. The bulk of what can get a decent athlete to a much higher level lies in PEDs, especially in distance running. See Cathal Lombard. If it did what it did for him, just think of what it could do for someone who could run his aided times while clean. That plus the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is coming up with new and more effective substances to improve on EPO and can be used in dosages that won't show up in testing or can easily be masked. Also consider that T&F lacks the popularity to recover from the PR hits it takes with every positive test announcement, there's an incentive for the administration to not out and punish dopers unless their ability to keep it a secret is compromised. Many in the mainstream sports media consider T&F to just be a circus of unreal competition, anyway, much like the WWE.

Needles McCheater wrote:

Pro basketball? What guys in the NBA look bulked-up on HGH?

oh yes. the "look" test. always works. that's how guys like jason grimsley, jerry hairston jr., and all sorts of other huge guys were caught.

seriously, let's get over the stereotype of the jose canseco-esque body type for PED users.

chuck d wrote:

oh yes. the "look" test. always works.

I didn't mean that it was the only measure, just the only one that any of us have available on any NBAers right now.

that's how guys like jason grimsley, jerry hairston jr., and all sorts of other huge guys were caught.

I don't follow the NBA as closely as I used to, who did those guys play for?

seriously, let's get over the stereotype of the jose canseco-esque body type for PED users.

What does HGH do, then? I'm not saying that HGH is the only PED, but the person I was responding to indicated that HGH use is rampant in the NBA. Anyway, even if HGH use is more frequent than rare in the NBA, the NBA isn't suffering from any image deficit because of it. Athletic performances in the NBA aren't fueled by it and the public isn't concerned with it. Not anywhere near the degree that it's true for T&F, anyway.

Very little training is dedicated to technique? You obviously are not a good track and field athlete. Track and field is perhaps the most intricate sport when dealing with biomechanics and technique.

Needles McCheater wrote:

T&F is not a skill sport, very little training is devoted to technique. The bulk of what can get a decent athlete to a much higher level lies in PEDs.

Many in the mainstream sports media consider T&F to just be a circus of unreal competition, anyway, much like the WWE.

Yeah, Track and Field is just like the WWE, you're an idiot.

IGRT wrote:

Very little training is dedicated to technique? You obviously are not a good track and field athlete. Track and field is perhaps the most intricate sport when dealing with biomechanics and technique.

Not compared with pro baseball or football. Maybe not even compared with basketball (defense, footwork). T&F athletes (aside from relay sprinters) don't spend any time learning to run strategic plays with teammates, either. You're really ignorant if you don't know the big differences between training for T&F and training for football, baseball, or basketball at a similar level.

Many in the mainstream sports media consider T&F to just be a circus of unreal competition, anyway, much like the WWE.

Yeah, Track and Field is just like the WWE, you're an idiot.

The idiot here would be the one who thinks that he just restated the first statement, then looks back on his own attempted restatement and still can't see the difference. (BIG HINT: "much" doesn't mean the same as "just" and neither does "consider" mean the same as "is", moron.)

Drugs in sport, Blackwater, Military in Middle East, Illegal contributions for Politicians, Corporate scandals, (Enron Corp) Years past, now, our country, other countries,this is the way it is... Money and or Power is corrupting and part of our human experience.

Of coarse the head of USATF will say these words, but we can all assume the truth that stands behind these words will never be spoken.

I will not say that Craig has any specific knowledge, but it is common knowledge in the field, so I will only assume that the urgency to declare or even to bear witness is not there. Kind of like Schultz from Hogan's Heroes(" I know nothing").

Don't know if I can blame him. The wave of power and influence wouldn't make me a puritan, even though I want to.

I wouldn't want the house of cards to fall on my watch. I'm glad not to be in his position. The politics and pressure to live by ones own philosophies would be impossible.

I hope this Jones scandal, Floyd Landis, will start a wave of political interest that really does make it hard to cheat, but I'm not optimistic.

True or False:

Increased muscular strength and/or power is a plus in all sports?

True or False:

Increased recovery is a plus in all sports?

True or False:

Certain steroids can lead to muscular strength without an increase in size?

True or False:

Steroids can lead to increased recovery through an increase in protein synthesis?

If you answered true to all of the above then you win today's prize:

Any sport that has a long season (baseball, basketball, hockey) is going to have a huge problem with aphetamine and stimilant use.

Alan

Runningart2004 wrote:

Any sport that has a long season (baseball, basketball, hockey) is going to have a huge problem with aphetamine and stimilant use.

So all those "narcoleptic" sprinters were suffering from the effects of a "long season"? Please, Allen. Sprinters and jumpers use stimulants when they perform as often as infielders do.

Needles McCheater wrote:

Not compared with pro baseball or football. Maybe not even compared with basketball (defense, footwork).

Although, your point is correct in general, basketball is and always will be a skill based sport (particularly on offense), much more so than baseball or football. There are far fewer situations in any basketball game where superior strength, speed or jumping ability are favored over skill. Don't get me wrong, any NBA player under 6'5" is an elite athlete by any measure. But many scrub NBA players run and jump at Dwyane Wade's level, but few can dribble or shoot while doing so.

I actually agree with you on the dichotomy between football and basketball. However, it's not quite so clear-cut between basketball and baseball. I'd say that the average NBA player is a better athlete than the average MLB player. Then again, though MLB has had guys like John Kruk and C.C. Sabathia among others, the NBA has had guys like Shaq O'Neal, Stanley Roberts, John Williams, Oliver Miller, and Tractor Traylor.

Needles McCheater wrote:

Anyway, even if HGH use is more frequent than rare in the NBA, the NBA isn't suffering from any image deficit because of it. Athletic performances in the NBA aren't fueled by it and the public isn't concerned with it. Not anywhere near the degree that it's true for T&F, anyway.

Because the NBA was smart enough (and deceitful enough) to know that the best way to have a drug free image was to not test (or at least test seriously).

He forgot to apologize for USATF and their promotion of this athlete for nearly a decade. If he was unaware of her involvement with drugs before this time. then he really doesn't have a clue of what is going on in the sport that he is supposed to be in charge of.

Coelacanth wrote:

Because the NBA was smart enough (and deceitful enough) to know that the best way to have a drug free image was to not test (or at least test seriously).

I don't disagree, but that's not the only factor involved there. There also seems to be less benefit or incentive in that sport to use PEDs, particularly illegal ones (of which hGH is not one), compared with MLB, NFL or T&F. As noted above, it doesn't matter how much faster you can run or how much higher you can jump or how much stronger you are or how much more quickly you recover from game soreness and fatigue if you don't have a good enough skill set to play the game at that level in the first place. Was Jordan on 'roids or hGH or greenies? Eh, maybe he was, but there is little evidence or historical precedent that he needed them to play at that level or that they would benefit his ability to a degree that he would consider bothering with them. Certainly not to the degree that we've seen in T&F. Remember, too, that Ms. Marion was never caught (to any of our knowledge, at least) by T&F's "serious" testing program. So T&F's plan to have a drug free image appears to be to either not test seriously enough to catch someone as obvious as M. Jones or be selective in who among the cheaters who got caught would be publicly tarred and feathered as scapegoats. At least T&F conducts out-of-competition tests, which on the face appear to be more stringent than what these other sports do, but who really knows how effective any of the testing done by T&F really is? Is it all a charade, mere window-dressing, smoke and mirrors, lip service?