SIMON VROEMEN POSITIVE TEST

What a P.o.S.

As an older runner who has admired him, this is so disappointing.

Finally.

Hopefully he confessed it all. Let me guess. He will

keep his money and write a book for more money?

It crossed my mind that he might have made the recent comeback just to get caught.

Simon says . wrote:

Athletic friends and others, I want to inform you that one of the anti-doping tests I did has revealed minimum amounts of a forbidden medicine in my urine a few weeks ago. The compound, named metandienone, increases muscle weight and volume (not so much strenth) and is therefore popular in the body building scene. As a steeple chase runner, one would probably only be disadvantaged by its consequences. It appears to be traceable up to 9 months in your urine and is hence unlikely to be used consciously by sportsmen as a performance-enhancing substance.

His credibility is not enhanced by his description of metandienone as a "medicine," his attempt to downplay the advantages of such an anabolic steroid for a steeplechase competitor, and his claim that metandienone is unlikely to be used as a performance-enhancing drug because it's easily detected. Its use as a performance-enhancing drug is well-established, and new tests for detecting its use have been developed and refined in recent years. And his suggestion that he might have tested positive because of a little sloppiness in his use of medicine sounds ridiculous. Who takes Dianabol for a common illness?

On the other hand:

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tandf/tejs/2003/00000003/00000001/art00001

;jsessionid=1dt36iauso2sj.alexandra

Sounds like his plan was to retire to avoid out of competition drug testing for his Olympic buildup and he probably assumed that stuff would be out of his system by the time he would be tested.

If this is true I want to kick this guys ass. Seriously punch him in the face repeatedly.

Avocados Number wrote:

On the other hand:

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tandf/tejs/2003/00000003/00000001/art00001

;jsessionid=1dt36iauso2sj.alexandra

No excuse. That report is from 2003.

johnny chimpo wrote:

No excuse. That report is from 2003.

I'm not making excuses for him. Quite the opposite. This is the same drug that eleven members of the Bulgarian weightlifting team were busted for just last month, so it's silly for him to suggest that real athletes wouldn't take it because it doesn't do much for strength and is easily detected.

My citation to that report was simply an acknowledgment that there have been documented cases of contamination. That particular report revealed contamination from U.S. sources of dietary supplements. More recent allegations of contamination have been directed at Asian sources. But my own belief is that this guy, like the Bulgarians, just got caught by more sensitive testing.

I wonder how much his former girlfriend knew about it. When I saw that picture of him shaking the hand of the Kenyan one of my first thoughts was that his arms were really defined.

Apologies, AN, didn't realise you had commented on your own post.

Thanks, Mr. Chimpo. Apology accepted.

Simon says . wrote:

I have an athletic career of 15 years behind me with a thousand of tests

This guy is full of shit, but I imagine a lot of his goofiness is a result of less-than=perfect English. How many times s he claiming to have been tested here? One thousand? Two? Either way, that's about one every six days for 15 straight years. Impressive.

False positives do occur, and it is within the realm of possibility that he put something in his body that he didn't know about.

If he is taking drugs, you would think that he'd use something that didn't take 9-Months to leave his system. This guy has a degree in Molecular Science...he should damn well know better. The question is, did he get "greedy and stupid"?? That's also very possible and within the realm of human nature.

MAYEROFF wrote:

If he is taking drugs, you would think that he'd use something that didn't take 9-Months to leave his system.

That's one reason that I mentioned the eleven Bulgarian weightlifters who tested positive for the same drug at almost the exact same time. I don't believe that all of these world-class athletes would have been taking a drug that they knew would be easily detected. Nor do I believe that there was a sudden rash of "false positives" or a sudden worldwide contamination of food or dietary supplements with methandienon, although it's certainly "within the realm of possibility." I'm guessing that all of these athletes knew how to clear or mask the drug under previously-existing tests, and the recent and unannounced introduction of a more sensitive test for methandienon caught them all. But I have no inside information on the matter.

I do want to point out that the entire Bulgarian weightlifting team -- not just the members who tested positive for methandienon last month -- has withdrawn from the Olympic Games in Beijing. This reminds me of the 1983 Pan American Games in Venezuela, when new and more sensitive steroid tests caught some athletes, after which all of the U.S. weight men suddenly packed up and headed home before they got caught, too.

Born 1969

Yearly progression 3000m steeple

1994 8:36.61 1 Utrecht 12 Aug

1995 8:33.52 1 APM Hengelo 5 Jun

1996 8:37.36 9 EAA Hechtel 6 Jul

1997 8:19.16 3 NA Hechtel 19 Jul

1998 8:45.70 4 PapG Arnhem 18 Jul

1999 8:19.52 10 GGala Roma 7 Jul

2000 8:13.45 3 GGala Roma 30 Jun

2001 8:20.67 7 Herc Monaco 20 Jul

2002 8:06.91 AR 3 Herc Monaco 19 Jul

2003 8:09.18 3 VD Bruxelles 5 Sep

2004 8:13.25 6 OG Athína 24 Aug

2005 8:04.95 AR 2 VD Bruxelles 26 Aug

2006 8:15.37 4 KBC Heusden 22 Jul

2007 8:35.40 1 NC Amsterdam 1 Jul

2008 8:12.50 1 Cottbus 11 Jun

He was working with Helmut Stechemesser, who not only was doping teenagers in east germany back in the days but also coaching several athletes who have been caught lately(Ceplak for example).

This is good news for T&F, everyone with some insight knew that Vroemen was a cheater.

Waahhh wrote:Protestations??? Baumann passed a lie detector test as well as a hair analysis (which can trace drug use up to 6 months).

as pointed out - people can pass lie-detector tests

also if hair analysis is supposedly so damn good, why don't wada/authorities ditch their expensively researched urine/blood tests & simply go to a $10 mass spec test on a hair sample ???

besides, the statement that he insisted on having a dope test after running this 8'12 qualifier for 'king, to officialise the clocking, suggests to me that this isn't a doper ( certainly NOT actions of a doper )

why not? If he knew his body was currently clean, or his masking agent was in, he might as well get tested to appear clean.

masking agent is pretty much a joke - they are also on the banned list

i've looked at wada list & there is plenty under "masking agent" category ( wada appears to have thought out pretty much all the ways a drug can be "masked" - it's just basic pharmacology ) - get caught for 1 of those & you have a 2y ban for those

bandying about "masking agent" as a throwaway line to steroid use is not the reality - they don't work very well & you get same ban if they are themselves detected

ventolin wrote:

the statement that he insisted on having a dope test after running this 8'12 qualifier for 'king, to officialise the clocking, suggests to me that this isn't a doper ( certainly NOT actions of a doper )

To me, they sound EXACTLY like the actions of a 39-year-old doper whose only route to the Olympic Games is to submit to a doping test that he has passed many times before, and who doesn't know that a more sensitive doping test for this specific drug has recently been put into use.

In any event, if the "B" sample is positive (which he seems resigned to, since he's already pulled out of the Games), and he appeals (which I'm guessing he won't, offering the usual grounds that he's decided to retire, save his money, and try to put this matter behind him and move on with his life), then the facts will be laid out for public scrutiny in an arbitration ruling.