Eddy did not go out there and steal in a direct way....by doping, however, a few people might have missed their chance for prize money. Nothing more than that. Again, he did not deliberately steal. For Eddy, everything was about running faster and improving his times, and being competitive, even in his early forties.
The European psyche is more flexible, because we (Europeans) recognize that people are fallible and imperfect. That does not prevent one from being, on the whole, decent human beings.
So it is with Eddy, who has done a lot for the sport, but people simply focus on the small time frame (2001 - 2004) when he doped....a small part of an otherwise long and honorable career. He never set out to steal deliberately, but others may have lost some money when Eddy placed ahead of them in races. He is certainly no career criminal. Do you think hundreds of athletes from all corners of the world would have elected domicile in the Hellebuyck house if that had been the case? Unlikely. If someone is really a villain, people will 'vote with their feet' and escape, which was never the case, as far as we know.
One has to listen to Plaatjes, a trained and certified physical therapist and trainer to understand the talent Eddy possessed. Plaatjes feels that Eddy was far more talented than he (Plaatjes) ever was, despite the fact that Plaatjes won a World Champ. gold in the marathon. Plaatjes claims that Eddy was 'near perfect' in build for the marathon. When you get that from a world champion, one has to acknowledge that as being the voice of reason. Eddy would have still run well under 2.20 as a master without doping - there is no doubt about that.
Ghost in Saudi.
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