Kawauchi continues to be our hero -he isn't opposed to athletes being mandates to wear GPS devices to prevent doping

Rojo- this is literally the dumbest idea I have ever heard of. Even if I was clean, I'd tell someone to go f*ck themselves if they wanted to track where I was all of the time.

swaggyp wrote:

Rojo- this is literally the dumbest idea I have ever heard of. Even if I was clean, I'd tell someone to go f*ck themselves if they wanted to track where I was all of the time.

Moreover, lets say I am an attractive woman athlete, I'd be pretty scared that someone would hack the system and have the ability to see where I am all of the time. Next thing you know some creep is tracking where I run and knows when I will be alone and then rapes me.... great idea to make them all wear gpses though

I have only lived and worked in the UK. 24 years as a Lecturer at a sixth form college (age 16-19) and 4 years as a Civil Servant. In both jobs i had to be in certain places at certain times and conduct myself according to some fairly strict codes of conduct. But once my working hours were done for the day I did not feel compelled in any way to account for my whereabouts and actions to my employer. It was none of their business where I went or what I did outside of work provided I turned up for work the next day in a fit condition to do my job I am pretty sure that the same applies to the vast majority of paid employment - on both sides of the Atlantic.

But my basic point was that we have to be careful that we don't try and apply to athletes burdens and restrictions that would be considered intolerable (and illegal?) in any other walk of life.

swaggyp wrote:

Rojo- this is literally the dumbest idea I have ever heard of. Even if I was clean, I'd tell someone to go f*ck themselves if they wanted to track where I was all of the time.

Easy ... don't run in any sports events of any kind. Be a lone wolf to protect your "privacy." You can dope all you want and claim your "clean" PRs here on LRC.

rojo, would you want to be an elite runner these days? Under such restrictions?

And as the restrictions and rules increase, there is always going to be athletes doping and not failing drugs tests isn't there? There is always going to be corruption.

How about this: Get rid of the IAAF?

That's a dumb idea wrote:

The Guilty are Scared wrote:

So will cry out the guilty.

Sounds like you're the scared one, little pansy boy.

....oh, and no one will ever catch mean. You can't be caught if you never hear the doorbell.

non competitor wrote:

swaggyp wrote:

Rojo- this is literally the dumbest idea I have ever heard of. Even if I was clean, I'd tell someone to go f*ck themselves if they wanted to track where I was all of the time.

Easy ... don't run in any sports events of any kind. Be a lone wolf to protect your "privacy." You can dope all you want and claim your "clean" PRs here on LRC.

I am clean, i dont even race, just run for fun. I was saying, if I were a pro athlete and still clean, I wouldnt let someone track me by GPS. Dont care about sharing my PRs on letsrun brah

Requiring athletes to wear GPS tracking devices will provide exciting new revenue opportunities to the administrators! They will then be able to accept bribes from stalkers in exchange for whereabouts info on whichever athletes the stalkers are obsessed with. Jamin will finally get to meet some elite track women! (save up your pennies, Jamin, the bribes won't be cheap!)

There are definite benefits to GPS mainly in being able to track an athletes movements; however, the most important thing for testers is being able to know where an athlete currently is and/or were they will be when you want to test them. Christine Ohuruogu who lives in the same city as UKADA, missed 3 test in a 12 month period (2005-2006) and then had her best season in 2007. Missing 3 tests should be an automatic 4-year suspension, no excuses. Abuse of the whereabouts system is definitely problem, but it is on the low end of things that need to be addressed. It's not too difficult to locate and track sprinters because they tend to be less migratory, they do over 90% of their training in one location because all they need is a track and a weight room. However, the average elite middle and distance runner will have 3-4 training locations and sometimes those locations will be thousands of miles apart. Mo for example trains on 3 different continents. It seems almost inhumane to require 'all' athletes to submit to a GPS process; however, an athlete like Mo who trains all over the globe and more importantly, has had 2 whereabouts violations should be required submit to GPS. Btw, I would not recommend all athletes wear some sort of GPS device (that's crazy!), simply putting a GPS device on the phone of whereabouts violators would do the job.

With all of that said, half of the doping problems would ago away if what should happen actually happens in that (1) all athletes receive a minimum number of random OOC tests, (2) those tests are processed legitimately and (3) the violators are processed to the full extent the process allows. The problem isn't just Russia, there are Caribbean and African 3rd-world countries where the athletes are national heroes and those national federations simply aren't going to bust one of their star athletes.

What difference would this make to Mo Farah away training in africa?

Reality Bath wrote:

More important is getting 24/7 testing like cycling to close the EPO microdosing window. Sucks for athletes getting woken at night, but if it cleans things up a notch it's the cost of being a pro.

No. That's not happening. One event is doing it during their stage race.

Kawauchi is THE MAN. He is probably the best clean marathon runner in the world right now with nothing to hide and his idea is very good.

However, as some posters have pointed out on this thread the problem is not the controls that are in place or controls that could be developed. The problem is that these things have been and can be corrupted by the regulatory authorities. The current testing system in place is actually quite effective but sadly huge numbers of positive results have been swept under the carpet by the IAAF over the last 15 years because of bribes, old boy networks etc..

swaggyp wrote:

I am clean, i dont even race, just run for fun. I was saying, if I were a pro athlete and still clean, I wouldnt let someone track me by GPS. Dont care about sharing my PRs on letsrun brah

Right; that's the point.

The same for me with all the other invasive procedures.

I would not be a pro runner in these modern times for that reason.

kawauchi fan wrote:

If the governing bodies effectively made track and field amateur again, a large part of the doping problem would be eliminated and the sport would actually grow in popularity again.

You mean, the governing bodies keep ALL the sponsorship money and give NONE to the runners? Do you know how many financial scandals there were in the old days? Life bans for getting a tad more than travel expenses?

A better bet would be for the athletes to run the sport, on a global level, with NGBs having the tiny job of organising national teams. The 80-90% who want to compete clean would be absolutely merciless about catching the 10-20% who are doping.

Absolute magical thinking that this would ever work and especially without onerous side-effects. The lengths some are prepared to go to to create the illusion of a PED-free sport...

Athletes wearing GPS devices is not the solution. That is stepping over a line that should not be crossed.

I do not have the answer, but this idea is wrong, treating people like animals. It'd be a slippery slope from there.

I'm reminded of the increasing surveillance in all aspects of life. We take for granted video cameras everywhere and government and corporate tracking of our electronic presence. Not too long ago, today's level of spying would have chilled us to the bone. Now we take it for granted.

To me, a guy like Ed Snowden is a real hero, actually a true patriot.

This is just a straight up invasion of privacy

GPS Shackles wrote:

the uproar will be major.

Yes, and this thread proves it.

LOL, by the responses on this thread, there's to be professionals posting their thoughts. No surprise, they do n't like it.