The Intelligent Ato Boldon sums it up nicely while LetsRunners eat their own...

whoa whoa whoa - and Ato Boldin was not a cheat? His entire career with John Smith, Mo Greene, Marion Jones and HSI?

One of the last effing people I want to hear about doping from is this hypocritical a$$wipe.

Theodore Steamstitch wrote:

His entire career with John Smith, Mo Greene, Marion Jones and HSI?

you are such a f*cking failure

Lets Run is not eating their young - it's attempting to protect the young from those who cannot stand to compete fair and square.

Life isn't fair - but the rules of the sport need to be.

Simple: don't do drugs.

lost in Boston wrote:

Lets Run is not eating their young - it's attempting to protect the young from those who cannot stand to compete fair and square.

Life isn't fair - but the rules of the sport need to be.

Simple: don't do drugs.

If that was the case, they would refrain from pouncing guilt on someone when there is no evidence of wrongdoing.

What I find interesting is that Letsrun has not officially commented on Boldons statement. Usually when there is something like that posted as the quote of the day, they add a little "we agree" etc next to it.

So whats the deal Brojos?

Tommy2Nuttz wrote:

What I find interesting is that Letsrun has not officially commented on Boldons statement. Usually when there is something like that posted as the quote of the day, they add a little "we agree" etc next to it.

So whats the deal Brojos?

They've been too busy whipping Tyson Gay. When they're done with his bloody carcass they'll comment

#supplements and stimulants#

There already is a supplement is something that you could get from your normal diet anyway in concenrated form most of which would make barely any difference to your performance (if you ate the right foods) any more than you gf is getting vitamins through her shampoo

A stimulant is a drug

So let me get this straight. Ato Boldon is now "The Intelligent Ato Boldon" after he says things like:

""Some of these things these guys are getting popped for, it's like, really? It's a stimulant," he said. "The person I'm competing against is doing something so someone comes to me and gives me something that's really close to being legal, and everyone feels like this is how I keep my competitive edge."

Wow, Boldon truly is the second coming of Albert Einstein. Move over, Steven Hawking, and I'll take that Lucasian Chair in Mathematics at Cambridge University from you.

Translation of Boldon's statement: "Ahh, they're only cheating a little bit! And anyway, it's tough being a sprinter, because naturally you're always being offered various pharmaceutical products to enhance your performance, and it's so hard to choose!"

I think what he means is that there are obvious performance enhancers, the hard stuff like steroids and such, and little things that may or may not help, e.g. coffee or these random stimulants etc. While it is down to the science to study and say, I think the jist of it is that he doesn't want clean athletes to be thrown out for some random thing, which may or may not have helped, with all the connotations of a hard drug user, perhaps as has happened with Powell here despite the warnings of his coach.

Remember, this is the guy that told Darren Campbell (someone who quit athletics disgusted with the drug era, and said no to drugs himself), just after Sydney 2000 200m, arguably an event he should have won himself, "it's alright - you'll be upgraded to Gold tomorrow" (i.e. Kenteris is a doper), but that never happened despite Kenteris f'in up at Athens 2004.

Seeing that letter he wrote to John Smith - leads me to believe that Boldon was the dominant clean athlete after Burrell and Bailey, along with Fredericks, possibly until Collins and then Powell came along. I.e. Greene was in cahoots with Smith to dope to victory, while Boldon was resigned to 2nd place as he was faster naturally but didn't have the dope required to drop that last tenth of a second for WR. Boldon and Fredericks were right on 9.84, with both running just a fraction slower into a headwind or lack of tailwind.

You can see Boldon had already gotten to 10.07 by the time he got to Smith (despite taking up athletics later after football, similar to Campbell) and believes that improved technique/training etc. could only get him another two tenths - he'd have definitely cracked 9.7s on roids! Boldon always looked a little less strong than Greene, which gave him a little less stride length, and with that extra bit he would definitely have gotten the WR. Powell looks similar, not too bulky but smooth, and uses his height for greater leverage - the same with Bolt, who looks a little more muscular (he's just fleshed it out somewhat from his junior days).

Sydney 2000 200m - Johnson, Boldon, Campbell would be a fair result IMO.

From Boldons article:

Boldon: "You can’t blame Bolt for something Powell does any more than you could have blamed Gay when Justin Gatlin tested positive in 2006."

NO you cant, but you can certainly question how he beats all these talented men who are on "supplements".

Boldon: "They will not go into the steroid/human growth hormone area. They will not risk it. However, they will take supplements."

As if there is no grey area between HGH/steroids and supplements.

Boldon: "Now is the time to make a big distinction, to allow athletes to take certain supplements up to a certain category. Anything past that level, don’t ask for leniency."

And who decides that limit? And why wouldn't that limit be changed year by yr as newer "supplements" come on the market?

Its a lame article overall, clearly an attempt to legitimize drug use in track. I'm still eagerly awaiting the Brojos comments on this article.

HEEERRRRESSSS ATO!!!! wrote:

Written by ATO BOLDON to John Smith of HSI

This letter circluating around was allegedly written by a former member of HSI.

To Benedict Arnold, aka the Great Betrayer .

. . .

R . I . P . H . S . I

Wait--what? Why is no one asking about this letter?

Where is it circulating? How did you get a copy? When was it sent? I'm sure people who know more about sprinting/sprinters would have other (more specific and pertinent) questions about it.

No body not the IOC, not the IAAF, national bodies, testing entities are serious about eliminatng drug use in sport.

If you really want to get rid of this stuff make it one and done , first offense lifetime ban, no exceptions ever!

Since that will never happen slap with a six year ban for first offense.

anyone used to read the old "speed kills" message board thing on AOL back in the late 90s? That place was pretty interesting, with HSI guys (including bolden if i'm recalling correctly) and some others posting all the time.

I was just a high school kid and I remember sending a random instant message to Danny Macfarlane and talking to him for a while (sidenote unrelated to that message board, I also managed to track down Rich Kenah's AOL and I remember sending him an IM while he was at work...haha. He was nice about it though and emailed me back later).

Anyways, that was a fun forum to be a (small and insignificant) part of back before the internet got huge. I wish I had all that stuff saved, because there was definitely some interesting stuff on there.

When I ran everybody was taking some type of supplement. For a period, I was taking Bee Pollen and Tigers Milk and to this day, I can't tell you for sure what was in either of those products. All I can tell you is that I as told by people I trusted that the products were legal and that the guys beating me were taking it and that's all I needed to know. As far back as high school I've tried different supplements, which at times were provided by a coach. I don't think I've ever taken anything illegal, I certainly didn't intend to, but I don't know for sure.

An athlete is responsible for what goes into their bodies; I think that is a good rule. As an athlete, training takes all of your focus and you put your faith in a lot of people for the small things. You assume those people are the smart guys and they are watching out for you. I am a big supporter of USADA/WADA anti-doping efforts and wish they could catch all of the cheaters, but not every athlete who gets busted is this demon with out a soul. During my career, I never wanted to cheat my way to success, but looking back, I could have come up positive and I have a soul.

For the record, I was never anywhere near Tyson Gay's level, but I have been in and around elite athletes and everybody was on something. If you join a pro training group one of the first things you get is an analysis of your blood chemistry and you are immediately put on something to correct deficiencies. Unless you have a pharmacology degree and/or are really diligent, you put your trust in the smart guys and expect them to have your back.

Used to be good wrote:

The single best thread ever about PEDs and our sport. There's some very thoughtful, well-informed stuff on here starting after the first 5-6 posts or so:

http://www.tracktalk.net/drugged-gills-t7931.html

Did anybody else scroll through this thread? It's long but theres some damn good stuff on there.