Mo Trafeh, 2-time FL finallist, 8-time US champ, US 25k record holder, has been caught with EPO, will retire from sport

Who?

I honestly thought he was busted already--this was so obvious for years.

Was hoping for obvious drug cheats like Bolt or Makhloufi to get shot down, but Trafeh will have to do. Down with all drug cheats.

"Insulting questions" is how the guilty try to slink away from dealing with the hard truth, if they're not forced to. Good for LetsRun for exposing a cheat.

That is, claiming that questions are "insulting" because they trap them in the corner of their lies and cheating is how the guilty try to slink away.

Disappointed wrote:

I honestly thought he was busted already--this was so obvious for years.

Many people I'm sure will have the same reaction which is interesting. I told his lawyer as such and told him that people were going to find his statement to be less than satisfying.

I told his lawyer that he long was suspected. His lawyer's rebuttal was along the lines of this is a guy who was a HS star, right near Ryan Hall at times, what's surprising about his times? He's never failed a drug test.

What do you think? I didn't really even know the details myslef.

My response was along the lines of, "I don't know exactly. It may not be fair but he's long been suspected and now he gets caught with EPO. Now, as a result, it's going to be virtually impossible for him to win the public relations battle on this one."

Haymitch Abernathy wrote:

That is, claiming that questions are "insulting" because they trap them in the corner of their lies and cheating is how the guilty try to slink away.

They were not well-constructed questions. A journalist who wants to uncover more truth knows how to use tact to draw answers.

"You realize your story is hard to believe, right?" Um, how's he supposed to answer that? Just a stupid question. Using the word "busted" is a very poor choice. Each question was poorly constructed and rude.

Regardless of whether or not Trafeh is a liar and a cheater, he is still in a vulnerable position. He's not happy to be in this position, even if he brought it upon himself. Those questions come across as attacking and immediately ended any potential dialogue. Poorly done.

I knew that 25k record was suspicious.

curt kobaine wrote:

Those questions had zero tact. Did you guys even discuss what questions to ask and how to ask them, or did you do that completely on a whim?

Why do I need to do tact? I want the truth.

When they first approached us, he said to me, "What do you guys want from us?" and I was like, "The truth."

The questions were direct and what anyone who is deeply involved in the sport as we are is thinking. I sent them exactly what I wanted to know.

I didn't want to do an email interview and was giving the questions I wanted to ask over the phone to them as a courtesy so they wouldn't come out of left field.

What do you want me to do. Do you want me to lie to him just to protect his feelings?

Should I lie and say "Given that USADA tested you more than 10 times in 2012 or 2013 (they really went after him one year it looks like when I looked at the testig data) and you never tested positive, this comes as a real shock?"

No, to me. All the test indicate they suspected something or had a tip. Now he gets caught.

Tone gets lost a bit on email, but basically, I wanted to know all of the details.

"Your questions were understandably insulting to Mohamed. To be frank, an objective person reading your questions would think that you had some sort of personal resentment against him. Not as if this is a story and you were doing your job, but that you subjectively have ill-will towards him."

This is 100% correct. Those questions had zero tact. Did you guys even discuss what questions to ask and how to ask them, or did you do that completely on a whim?

couldn't disagree more wrote:

curt kobaine wrote:

"Your questions were understandably insulting to Mohamed. To be frank, an objective person reading your questions would think that you had some sort of personal resentment against him. Not as if this is a story and you were doing your job, but that you subjectively have ill-will towards him."

This is 100% correct. Those questions had zero tact. Did you guys even discuss what questions to ask and how to ask them, or did you do that completely on a whim? Wow that is poor journalism.

Couldn't disagree more. Sick of mamby pamby journalists lobbing nerf softballs to PED-using athletes. It's time someone cuts through the lame lawyerese to expose what a minimal confession Trafeh made. Trafeh needs to fess up that he's just a PED-using punk.

It's not about lobbing softballs. It's about starting a dialogue that will hopefully lead to more truths. You want someone to give you answers? You need to give them a reason; you need them to trust you. You don't go right for the kill, and that's what they did. And it obviously failed.

curt kobaine wrote:

"Your questions were understandably insulting to Mohamed. To be frank, an objective person reading your questions would think that you had some sort of personal resentment against him. Not as if this is a story and you were doing your job, but that you subjectively have ill-will towards him."

This is 100% correct. Those questions had zero tact. Did you guys even discuss what questions to ask and how to ask them, or did you do that completely on a whim?

Couldn't disagree more. Sick of mamby pamby journalists lobbing nerf softballs to PED-using athletes. It's time someone cuts through the lame lawyerese to expose what a minimal confession Trafeh made. Trafeh needs to fess up that he's just a PED-using punk.

Does anyone really care about this BS? Who in this world (besides the true running following,if that exists anymore)really knows who Mo Trefah is anyway? That's how sad our sport is. I and probably 90% of the passersby on this board never heard of him. This is embarrassing. Big story?

curt kobaine wrote:

It's not about lobbing softballs. It's about starting a dialogue that will hopefully lead to more truths. You want someone to give you answers? You need to give them a reason; you need them to trust you. You don't go right for the kill, and that's what they did. And it obviously failed.

You are forgetting one key thing - they came to us. THe first time they contacted us I was like, "Why are you coming to us? What are you getting out of it?"

The only reason why was because running was important to Mo Trafeh. This is the only place where people care about his accomplishments.

If he wanted to salvage his reputation int he running community, there was and still is only one way to do it. Be 100% truthful. Let everyone see EVERYTHING so they can then believe your story which most people will find implausible.

rojo wrote:

Tone gets lost a bit on email, but basically, I wanted to know all of the details.

In your experience as a journalist, have you found that asking the most direct questions right off the bat have yielded the most details?

Here's an example of an absolutely unnecessary and inappropriate question, given the time and circumstances: "Given Bernard Lagat’s past history with an EPO ‘A’ sample, did you see any illegal drug usage while at Arizona?"

Mo Trafeh has just been busted and wants to tell his side of the story. Do you really think he's in any mood to out other people, or friends of his? No absolutely not. He went down, but he is not gonna take down others with him. Not YET at least. Maybe with some massaging he'd eventually shed light on others. But come on, you want to know the details about HIM, and now you're asking him to out others, while name dropping one of the most popular runners out there. That's not gonna get it done.

curt kobaine wrote:

couldn't disagree more wrote:

Couldn't disagree more. Sick of mamby pamby journalists lobbing nerf softballs to PED-using athletes. It's time someone cuts through the lame lawyerese to expose what a minimal confession Trafeh made. Trafeh needs to fess up that he's just a PED-using punk.

It's not about lobbing softballs. It's about starting a dialogue that will hopefully lead to more truths. You want someone to give you answers? You need to give them a reason; you need them to trust you. You don't go right for the kill, and that's what they did. And it obviously failed.

You can stick your "dialogue" where the sun doesn't shine. Trafeh is a lying, PED-using liar who also lies. He's a lying drug cheat.

So let's sit down over tea and crumpets and have a bonding moment? Puuullleeezzzeee.

otpiillusional wrote:

Does anyone really care about this BS? Who in this world (besides the true running following,if that exists anymore)really knows who Mo Trefah is anyway? That's how sad our sport is. I and probably 90% of the passersby on this board never heard of him. This is embarrassing that they called it a big story?

You're on a running messageboard at 2 am but never heard of a guy who was a STUD in HS, was a favorite for the 2012 US Olympic marathon team and once led the London marathon?

That's what's embarrassing.

I'm not forgetting that they came to you. That doesn't change anything though. Your number one goal here should've been to create an open dialogue with him, a dialogue that might be ongoing. But instead you let your passion for trying to out cheaters cause you to jump the gun.

Look, rojo, I'm not blaming you for your goals. I share those goals. I want to see cheaters busted; all of them, even busts who might hurt the sport. But I think you missed an opportunity to create a real source with those questions.

I'm just curious how david monti is going to distance himself from this one. he was always quick to gush about trafeh, bring him to nyc (didn't he run like 60flat there a week after destroying the field at grr?), despite the obvious fact that he was dirty, has a dirty manager, and is generally considering an all around jackass. I'm sure monti will pull a "pistorious," on this one (for those of you that forgot, google his comments shortly after the pisto story broke).

for the rest of us, this has been obvious since 2009, when he went from running barely sub 30min 10k's and 66min 1/2's, to 60flat and 28's in one year. bollox.

Does anyone know how much EPO costs? I honestly have no idea, but I can't imagine it's cheap. He claims he made less than $30,000 running last year, so how was he affording EPO?

I, too, struggle to believe he got caught on his first attempt. On one hand, it's not very encouraging that he passed all those drug tests. That raises a lot of questions about people being able to beat the tests. However, it's a little bit encouraging that USAD/WADA seemed to be going after someone they felt was suspicious.

As for Rojo's questions, anyone who follows Let's Run knows where they stand on PED use. I don't think anyone would expect "softball" questions from them. The cheater should be able to see right through that even if Rojo tried asking them in a soft way.