Was Alberto Juantorena Dirty When He Won the 400/800 Double at the Olympic Games?

Gallop, Cuba wrote:

He had a sick stride. I don't really care how he did it, he still did it.

That's what I was going to say. He had such physical advantages it seemed unfair. Perfect build. There was lots of talk that he could shift to NFL and dominate at wide receiver.

Think it was Lydiard stated that while 400m runners have the speed; they often don't have the patience to do the endurance training that would allow them to be good at 800m as well.

"And there goes Juantorena down the back straight, opening his legs and showing his class"

Is the Pope Argentinian?

LRC has a doping obsession problem.

Considering that banned substances are widespread, can you affirm that Juantorena opponents were all clean?

Doping alone doesn't win medals or break WR. He was a superlative athlete.

His 400 semi final run in Montréal was one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen.

He stood up off his blocks and virtually jogged the first 100, then he opened up his 9ft stride along the back straight and still won in 45

Enough is enough wrote:

LRC has a doping obsession problem.

Considering that banned substances are widespread, can you affirm that Juantorena opponents were all clean?

Doping alone doesn't win medals or break WR. He was a superlative athlete.

Leave him alone. I loved to watch him and his foundation does wonderful work.

You're only saying this because she identifies as a women and you feel insecure around massively muscled females whose serve is magically 25% faster than other world class players.

He/she never tested positive.

ayecaramba wrote:

Is the Pope Argentinian?

Is the cardinal a real bugger?

HRH wrote:

His 400 semi final run in Montréal was one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen.

He stood up off his blocks and virtually jogged the first 100, then he opened up his 9ft stride along the back straight and still won in 45

He virtually jogged the last 100m too and crossed the line in 45:09. If he hadn't developed foot problems after Montreal surely capable of sub 44 and sub 1:43.

Most likely dirty. Cuba was very tight with the Soviet Union and East Germany at the time.

The double was much easier then, lack of depth w/ half as many people on the planet.

And as for the out of nowhere, his nowhere included a 44.8 400m and a 44 relay split.

dsrunner wrote:

The double was much easier then, lack of depth w/ half as many people on the planet.

And as for the out of nowhere, his nowhere included a 44.8 400m and a 44 relay split.

Half as many people but likely 10 x as many young people pursuing athletics as their chosen sport.

Also, Western baby boomers were in their athletic prime in the 60's and 70's. Much fitter generation too.

If you look at Alberto's results from 1977 and 78, he was like a machine. In 77 he had something like 8 of the top 10 times that year in both distances. He ran 45.08 in the 76 semi jogging for half the race - after having ran four or five races in the previous 7 days including a 1:43 WR 800m Olympic final.

In his best form he would be a contender for medals in the 400 and 800 today.

The question of whether Cuban athletes doped has always been a tough one. Ivan Pedroso, Javier Sotomayor, Roberto Hernandez, Alberto Juantorena and Ana Quirot all pass the eye test for superior talent and a number of other factors for being clean. However and it is a very big however; it is almost inconceivable that a country lead by a communist dictator whose primary PR export was sports would not have a win at all cause mentality. Also, without a doubt the Cuban sports programs were heavily connected to dirty Russian/Eastern European programs.

They had all been training hard for years.