This is getting interesting. Instead of addressing the allegations, many people are trying to attack the messenger or claim other groups do similar things. The level of conversation on some of the people speaking out loudest about the NOP is rather low. At the very least acknowledge these are serious allegations reported by 2 very well respected organizations. To ppretend this is just a smear campaign is crazy talk.I spoke to Matt Lawton when he was in town last week and the visit Alberto's house story is the exact same that he told me. He showed me a photo of Alberto's house and has even emailed it to me and said I could share it. It is funny that some of you don't think he should be trusted because he used the word JoBros. Most of the allegations are from BBC and ProPublica so I'm not sure what good attacking him does. He was the UK Sports Journalist of the Year. I asked him if he regularly went to people's homes and if I remember correctly it was the first time he had ever done it. It is an effective way to show someone you at least tried to get their comment when Nike will not respond with a comment. Most journalists don't want to print something without at least trying to get comment from the person.
Lies? The BBC and Pro Publica spent great time researching and talking to numerous sources who testified to similar things. That is called reporting. Do you really think the BBC and Pro Publica are in the business of telling lies? I guess you could argue that all 17 athletes are telling lies. It's highly unlikely. Sure some of the athletes could be telling lies. The BBC gave Alberto advance notice in terms of more than a week for Alberto's response.
Do you know what blood spinning is? It is completely different from blood doping. Wall Street Journal article on blood spinning to help deal with injuries.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304370304575151732675970098https://huntsvilleprp.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/differentiating-blood-spinning-from-blood-doping/I have always said Pete Julian is one of the good guys in track and field.
How are we defaming Alberto? We are reporting what others are reporting.
I have no hatred for the NOP. I don't hate Alberto. I tried to not hate anyone. It doesn't serve any purpose to let hatred rule. I think he can be a bully and is used to getting his way. We are all humans with our flaws. For years I believe he has tried to make LetsRun.coe out to be the bad guy. When Farah went to Alberto's group, on an interior page of a message board thread I posted that it was perfectly reasonable for people to ask Farah what supplements he was on and whether he was on thyroid medication. Alberto called me and in the course of his conversation said his guys would never speak to LRC again. I told him that was his right but if that was the case, we would need to state that they were doing that and why. I told him I thought it would make his group look bad. He reversed course and said he would not tell his athletes what to do. Before I spoke to Alberto but after he left a message, I showed the same post to a friend of mine and he said, "he's calling to congratulate you for being fair minded." I laughed and said "no he is not".
At the Olympics after Mo and Galen went 1-2 Alberto said "Another big problem I believe was there's too many people who use the excuse of drugs, that anyone who runs fast is on drugs. The second you start thinking that as a coach or as an athlete you're basically saying you're not good enough to compete with other people unless you cheat. What I've always told our guys is 'Don't believe all that bull. Those are the losers that say that.' Rather than trying to change their own training to get better they use that as excuse and it's a defeatist attitude. A lot of the mind-set for us was 'We can beat these guys. We've just got to train smart.'"
http://www.letsrun.com/2012/farah-rupp-0804.phpThe next day or a few days after that I asked him about that comment in light of what he said at Duke, "“I believe that it is currently difficult to be among the top 5 in the world in any of the distance events without using EPO or Human Growth Hormone."
He did not like the question and definitely let me know it. I need to find the audio off an old computer.
I didn't quite realizing the timing of this but then when I got back from the Olympics we got a letter from his lawyer asking for the IP addresses and "identification information" of 117 different poster's names who he claimed were defaming his client. I told him we were not legally liable for the information posters posted but that if he would send me the posts that he deemed were defamatory I would look into them. I viewed it totally as an intimidation tactic or an attempt to find out who his critics were. The lawyer did not write back with a single post that was defamatory.
We never disclosed these incidents on LetsRun.com but perhaps we should have because there is more than a lot of tension with us and Alberto and it makes doing our job harder. My concern was if we disclosed them people would have said we had an agenda against Alberto. Looking in the rear view mirror, I realize now I don't have a problem with reporting factual information.