Why Was A Man With A 10-Year Doping Ban Enjoying The 2012 US Olympic Track & Field Trials From The Nike Sky Box?

Congratualtions on voicing this.

It's great that some media are finally putting this open secret more "out there". I have seen as both a coach and athlete here in two Asian countries where doping is far less tolerated (Japan / Hong Kong)that a ban on any sort of cheating is more precisely enforced.Violations are infinitely rarer because of this in my view. I am not sure whether it is a purely cultural or policy result, but rigid enforcement is what matters when handing out punishment as a deterrent .Whatever the case, it seems that some points in the Block/USADA's case should be made even more obvious to your readers:

1. A ten year ban has no substantial effect or deterrent if the accused is allowed to hang out as a spectator or otherwise at the meets that matter most to the integrity of the sport.Therefore it must be argued that his presence is clearly a violation of a ban of any substance.Indeed it mocks the whole concept.

2. The complicity of the NIKE corporation in this is a key point. Turning a blind eye does not constitute non-invovement. In fact, it is still a pro-active stance of acceptance towards the dopers.

3. The corporate mythology that Nike has carefully preserved (clean,hard competetion ,i.e. prefontaine) will be challenged by any associations with such cheating individuals.Therefore the best way to deal with this is to rightfully associate the name of the corporation that is so accepting. Then...watch them clean their own house! Malpractice by Nike in Chinese children's labour was brought to attention only after Michael Jordan pointed it out.,..effecting their bottom dollar.

just my two cents

rojo wrote:

Check out the homepage which will be archived at this address:

http://www.letsrun.com/2012/homepageblock.php

I think our story pretty much says it all.

And it's the most interesting thing I've read on letsrun.

jimjeff - Do you really not understand or are you just playing dumb? I will use small words. Nike should not associate with convicted drug cheats. Particularly drugs cheats who are currently serving a 10 year ban. Get it?

Actually if you read the details of his ban posted earlier in this thread and others he is in clear violation of his ban. Particularly having dinner with athletes he was "formerly" managing. As others have noted if Brian mcnamee was at Yankee stadium in a Steinbrenner box the country would be on fire at the moment.

Keep digging brojos, I bet the rabbit hole goes a ways

This thread just got gutted with a machete.

How about we agree that the message boards could be better, via the multitude of ways people have suggested over the years. I've been a fan of registration for years, although I've lost some interest because plenty of sites requiring registration have just as much vile stuff.

That being said, having a comment section that is loosely moderated doesn't make a site incabable of good stories, and I think they are on to one. I have no idea of the details of Blocks ban, but even if somehow he has met the letter of the law, it still is a terrible PR move by Nike and USATF. Drugs are a huge reason as to why most non-track followers tune out, so to send the message that you can both be a cheat and a VIP is asinine. The standard question I get at work from all my colleagues come the Olympics is "so aren't they all on drugs anyways?", and until stuff likethis doesn't just get a wink and a chuckle, that's where the sport stays. An obscure series of events won by the best cheaters, with an occasional bust to make it look like things are being policed.

Dennis Reynolds wrote:

This thread just got gutted with a machete.

Thread hijacked by A Duck. Thread fixed.

A Duck wrote:

Again, agree.

The brojo's once gave me, via email, the excuse that they tolerated Rupp being called gay and worse on this board, because they understood that "fans" out there were jealous of the support Rupp has gotten his entire career .

Instead of addressing the issue people are going on red herring attacks.

I like Robert and pleased with the tremendous support in this thread and the emails from people as well.

However, I have to address this issue above because it is false. The post above is not true. We put in a filter so people could not post the words "rupp" and "gay" in the same post. So for two or three years if you wanted to post about Galen Rupp and Tyson Gay in the same thread you could not for that reason.

What we probably told the poster is some people are not going to like Rupp. Who cares? That is sport. People hate the NY Yankees because they buy their way to championships.

I repeat we have a "Report a post" feature. We take those posts that are reported seriously. Yes posts can not be pre-screened but the discussion on here is way above what you see on most newssites. Read an article about Obama on a major news site.

Right now there is not a recent post on the forum that has been reported as Offensive by more than one person that is still up on the forum or that has not been approved by a moderator. If you don't like something please report it.

Now let's stay on track. Mark Block should not be in the VIP section of the Olympic Trials. Anyone who says so is an apologist for dopers in my mind.

jimjeff wrote:

Everyone is aware that Block hasn't violated the terms of his ban right?

Just checking everyone is aware of this..

Now carry on with your nonsense.

I would like to see some discussion of whether this is or isn't a violation of the consent decree.

But without a doubt, it is indeed unseemly if he was in fact invited to a Nike private box. Did they also invite Ben

Johnson, Regina Jacobs, Trevor Graham, and Marion Jones to keep him company?

I would like to know who (and how) granted him credentials.

This thread is doing well.

Many of the posts defending Block or trying to deflect the attention to whether LRC should require registration are by the same guy posting under different handles.

Haha Nike/TotalSports trying to cover their asses. This thread is now legit. Thanks Wejo.

This is a great post. More of these questions should be posed. Johnson did a great job asking questions. The best word used here is "appropriate" Is it Appropriate? I believe not.

as frank shorter puts out, doping has made everything questionable since the late 70s, since the east german athletes dominated in 76.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LB0bSQbgTw

inspiring lecture by frank shorter. The part on doping really starts at 20:30. Damn, I didn't know EPO gives a 1-2% boost. That can make a world of difference in the marathon.

He says the independent testing has helped some. But says that it was rampant in the late 90s. Steve Holman, who had an up and down career, spoke of this too. When EPO emerged in the very early 90s, so many times just dropped like crazy.

The doping in track and field has ruined the sport for me. All of this evidence is circumstantial but any reasonable person can see that the sport is corrupt.

I still have faith in my heroes Solinsky, Tegenkamp, and Lamong. If these guys failed drug tests I would probably never watch professional track and field again. Currently I consider the sprints as legitimate as the WWE. If this becomes my perception for distance running, I will need to leave the sport behind me.

The best outcome is Nike tells Jeter to dump Block and he is removed from the sport. The truth is Block is small potatoes and the sport is exactly where it was eight years ago with BALCO.

Hopefully some of you aren't as dejected as myself.

Sad Stuff :( wrote:

The doping in track and field has ruined the sport for me. All of this evidence is circumstantial but any reasonable person can see that the sport is corrupt.

I still have faith in my heroes Solinsky, Tegenkamp, and Lamong. If these guys failed drug tests I would probably never watch professional track and field again. Currently I consider the sprints as legitimate as the WWE. If this becomes my perception for distance running, I will need to leave the sport behind me.

The best outcome is Nike tells Jeter to dump Block and he is removed from the sport. The truth is Block is small potatoes and the sport is exactly where it was eight years ago with BALCO.

Hopefully some of you aren't as dejected as myself.

I'm not dejected. I just wish the powers that be would recognize that they can't stop the tide of drugs so they should just open the flood gates. Make it legal. Let's see how freaking huge and fast we can really get. I truly believe that most at the top of the sport are doing it anyway, they're just careful to not do too much because it would arouse suspicion. Microdosing EPO is impossible to detect unless you're stupid. A little test here and there will make you superwoman but won't show up after a day. Imagine the performances we would see if everything was out in the open. It would be like when the year when Sosa and Mcgwire were hitting everything out of the park. Everyone who had their rookie cards knew they were on something but we didn't care because it was incredible to watch.

I just wanted to express my appreciation that you guys went after this story. While I think you're interviews are sometimes cringe worthy I appreciate how deeply you care about the sport and your efforts to make it clean again. I thought the attempted interview with Block was really top notch, although as someone pointed out you could have started with softball questions and then tried to nail him.

On an unrelated note I personally have always thought that not requiring registration is one of the best parts of the letsrun message board. Anonymity on the internet is incredibly important to a healthy flow of information and despite what people think if you use the same name for long enough eventually you aren't going to be anonymous anymore.

This is just the tip of the ice berg. It will become known as Trackgate and the Brojo's are the modern day Woodward and Bernstein

^ This right here!!! Registration has nothing to do with forcing people to use their real names. Anonymous registration would fix so much of what is wrong with the boards. The current setup is certainly not improving the quality of the messages being posted. I've been lurking here for years and they have been in steady decline for some time now.

Please, Brojos, just implement this one simple modification (required registration) and it will greatly improve your site.

Also, thank you for breaking this story. It's stories like this that keep me coming back here.

And what cheating led to the dismissal of Cap from coaching position at KSU?Did not prevent Nike from hiring him, thanks to Steve Miller.

Cap's Corner wrote:

The pics of Mark Block That LR has up on the front page ARE from Cap's Corner. You absolutely need a Nike credential to sit in those seats, I know, I've sat in them myself. Free food, free beer, and top athletes, former athletes, and those with Nike connections or top Nike employees and their families. Each end has an entrance and there is a security person at each end only letting the proper colored credential for Cap's Corner up into that area. The picture of Mark Block is from Cap's Corner.