Liza Hunter-Galvan running Chicago Marathon

She served her suspension, didn't she? If Chicago wants to make her ineligible for prize money, fine, but they have no right to ban her from competing.

Here is the email I received after asking:

Hello, thank you for reaching out. I’m responding on behalf of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

We appreciate you bringing our attention to this matter.

Our anti-doping policy is in effect for athletes who are invited by event organizers to participate in our elite program. It was unclear on our web site, and we’ve since updated our language to avoid any confusion.

Liza Hunter-Galvan signed up through our open field and had a qualifying time that made her eligible as being listed as part of our American Development Program.

Thank you again for reaching out,

Cindy Hamilton

ADP athletes are eligible for open prize money.

It's all fair and OKAY by the rules, but that doesn't mean is fair and okay. While some would complain about a tighter standard being held by some over others, it is often the only way to make progress on an issue. WMM taking a stand on all sanctioned athletes, invited or not, would be a step towards life-time bans, (which I think are needed).

If LHG has served her ban, why wouldn't she be eligible for the prize money?

If she has run a qualifying time, doesn't that make her eligible to compete in the women's elite division? LHG is paying her own travel expenses.

LHG HAS SERVED HER SUSPENSION......jeez, it's not rocket science.

She's American now? Scammed the people of San Antonio into helping her get on the NZ Olympic team, stole US money in road races and now wants to be "developed"? Some people have no shame.

Based on this, Rita and Liliya could enter through the American Development Program and compete for Open Prize Money. This is wrong in so many ways, not to mention bad PR for the World Marathon Majors. They should re-think this.

If I'm the race director, she can compete, as long as she wears a big red letter "D" on her forehead from start to finish.

But the actual race director is a Nice Guy, not A Bad Man.

messi wrote:

If LHG has served her ban, why wouldn't she be eligible for the prize money?

If she has run a qualifying time, doesn't that make her eligible to compete in the women's elite division? LHG is paying her own travel expenses.

LHG HAS SERVED HER SUSPENSION......jeez, it's not rocket science.

Are you replying to me? Yeah, I know. In fact I said:

Clerk wrote:

ADP athletes are eligible for open prize money.

It's all fair and OK by the rules,

The rest of the post was my opinion. I think the rules should change, and that the WMM policy should change. The latter will help encourage the former.

most doping sanctions have language stating that the athlete is "disqualified from all results obtained after xx/xx/xx, with forfeiture of all prizes and medals."

Thus, if she has yet to "forfeit," or pay back, those prizes that she won during the time of forfeiture, then she should NOT be eligible to compete again. I think this aspect of sanctions is often overlooked and/or not enforced, and it would be a great way to force dopers to reimburse what they've taken while doping before being eligible for money again.

not my real name. wrote:

most doping sanctions have language stating that the athlete is "disqualified from all results obtained after xx/xx/xx, with forfeiture of all prizes and medals."

Thus, if she has yet to "forfeit," or pay back, those prizes that she won during the time of forfeiture, then she should NOT be eligible to compete again. I think this aspect of sanctions is often overlooked and/or not enforced, and it would be a great way to force dopers to reimburse what they've taken while doping before being eligible for money again.

I agree with this. It would be a great way to start moving towards lifetime bans as some pros would rather stop competing than pay back all their stolen prize money.

I'm all for lifetime bans, but this doesn't sound bad either: "Serve your time and pay back what you stole and you can compete again."

I actually thought this was somewhat enforced, but I guess not since Liliya Shobukhova is apparently eligible for the Olympics, but hasn't paid back her million+ dollars in prize money to the WMM.

It's a win-win for non-dopers. Many dopers will stay out of the sport permanently because they won't want to pay back money, and if they do pay back money, at least the non-dopers get their appropriate prize money back.

What a bunch of drug believing sad people.

J.R. wrote:

What a bunch of drug believing sad people.

J.R., Liza went from a 2:40+ marathoner to 2:29-- you want to tell us that was placebo effect?

Everyone that became a 2:29 marathoner (or faster) was, at one time, a 2:40+ marathoner in capability.

Seriously? I expect more from LetsRun

This isn't dirty cycling yet now is it? I don't care if she served her time. How long was it? A freaking slap on the wrist probably.

Ban her for life! That name (and name of any doper) shouldn't be allowed on any race starting line/result ever. What a joke.

Isn't she close to 50? Looks it! Not like she is going to win 50 grand. Maybe she'll make enough to pay her flight and hotel?

Private event? They do have the right if the actually give a shit. It's been done before, by the directors of City-Bay in Adelaide.

http://www.irun.org.au/News/wellings-makes-a-stand

Consider this... wrote:

Everyone that became a 2:29 marathoner (or faster) was, at one time, a 2:40+ marathoner in capability.

She did it in her late 30s, with EPO of course.

dopercyclist wrote:

Ban her for life! That name (and name of any doper) shouldn't be allowed on any race starting line/result ever. What a joke.

I would go further and ban nations who are turning out large numbers of PED positives such as Kenya or Russia.

Bleu wrote:

Isn't she close to 50? Looks it! Not like she is going to win 50 grand. Maybe she'll make enough to pay her flight and hotel?

She won $10,000 in Boston...

I remember hearing that but wasn't she in the invited field?