A Finnish paper published an article in 1983 stating that Seb Coe dropped out of World Championships to avoid a doping positive

No it wasn't. Maaninka admitted to blood doping, not illegal at time, a year after winning a medal in Moscow 80. It was Martti Vainio who was actually caught for doping (steroids in his own blood reinfused) at the LA Olympics and banned. This happened in 84, so couldn't have had any baring on Coe getting cold feet and pulling out of Helsinki 83, as the previous poster incorrectly claimed. Unless Coe had a time machine and was able to go into the future to get his lesson!

Fentrekker wrote:

I am not a defender of Coe in his current position, but this information seems highly suspicious, and it is a distraction from the issues facing the IAAF currently. I also have a personal memory that directly contradicts something this article claims. It states that Coe was left off the team at the last minute--well I can remember where I was when I heard it announced on BBC World Service that Coe would not be competing in Helsinki, and it was six weeks before the World Champs began. That is hardly at the last minute.

Not quite:

Don't forget the Germans wrote:

Uhuh` wrote:

Just like the UK and US aren't the best sources for gossip about Russian athletes......... oh wait.............

Or German's like Seppelt about Kenyan's and Russian's.

Or the Irish Paul Kimmage going after American Lance and others.

Of course Coe was doping but this story is whack.

Diabalo wrote:

This isn't helping the reputation of the sport or carrying out a service to the public at large,

David Walsh didn't help the sport of cycling or the public either.

Fentrekker wrote:

I am not a defender of Coe in his current position, but this information seems highly suspicious, and it is a distraction from the issues facing the IAAF currently. I also have a personal memory that directly contradicts something this article claims. It states that Coe was left off the team at the last minute--well I can remember where I was when I heard it announced on BBC World Service that Coe would not be competing in Helsinki, and it was six weeks before the World Champs began. That is hardly at the last minute.

Your false memory is a distraction.

Coe is claiming to be the right person to clean up corruption. Examination of that claim is entirely in order.

How exactly does one get a blood infection without messing around with needles?

Of course Coe was dirty, but most of the Eastern Europeans and Russians were as well and they were his main competition.

Obviously blood doping will help the 800m and 1500m. It would even improve the 400m.

pluto here wrote:

How exactly does one get a blood infection without messing around with needles?

Of course Coe was dirty, but most of the Eastern Europeans and Russians were as well and they were his main competition.

Obviously blood doping will help the 800m and 1500m. It would even improve the 400m.

Millions of people have toxoplasmosis in their system from contamination from cats, soil or undercooked meat. Most people live with it without showing anything more than flu like symptoms. It can be serious if you put your body through physical stress. For an Olympic athlete training every day with a condition living off your energy sources, then it's going to result in a 1 or 2% drop in performance. That's the difference between winning in 1:42 and being in the middle of the pack in 1:45.

The practice in that period for blood transfusions by sportsmen was almost universally autologous blood doping. If he was putting his own blood back into his body then the only way he could have got it through blood transfusions would be from his own blood! Which means he must already have had it in his system through other means.

Him having toxoplasmosis is no indication at all of blood doping unless he was happy sharing used needles, which seems extremely far fetched. A total red herring.

your source is ridiculously bad. You know I read an article not from your country but one across Europe in 1983 that said you didn't make the Helsinki team because of a positive doping test.

And? What could we conclude from that?

rojo wrote:

It should be pointed out that the initial source in 1983 was Iltalehti . It's described on Wikipedia is a "Tabloid newspaper." ...

Is tabloid being used generically or does it connotate something like the National Enquirer in the US?

.....or to use a sports example, something like....LETSRUN.COM ?? Yeah, i'd say "tabloid" as in: embarrassingly bad, unreliable, not-objective, trash "journalism" like Letsrun.com. Sounds about right.

(seriously rojo?? Coe should sue you. Yes, you put the * "MB" next to the quote, but most simply see: "Seb Coe dropped out of World Championships in 1983 to avoid doping positive" as if, indeed, it is a fact, when instead it appears to be a completely unsubstantiated rumor.

And you were the one who was actually claiming with a straight face, when doping accusations were running rampant against so many athletes , and especially when they were against your pal Paula, that (more or less your words)- 'we need to be careful not to tarnish clean athletes reputations, and shouldn't be overzealous in the hunt for dopers if it ends up unfairly snaring clean athletes' (or something to that effect) ???? Really?

But yet here you are trumpeting on your homepage: "Coe dropped out of World's to avoid doping positive" * !!! (* source says) without a SHRED of real evidence???

Pretty shameful and embarrassing. But we are all used to it by now.

Tabloid indeed.

Someone should notify Lord Coe. Hopefully he sues letsrun for libel. Letsrun slowly become tabloid running journalism themselves.

rojo wrote:

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Is Letsrun seeking an interview with Seb Coe? He needs to answer questions.

Definitely not right now. We don't speak Finnish. I'm sure there are plenty of media entities in the UK that that can ask him questions if this has any substance. If we need to follow up, we will.

In other words, rojo and wejo are too fvcking lazy to ever do any work. They always, always rely on others to put out any effort. They have bad cases of affluenza and enjoy wdubyaing their ways through life.

Don't speak Finnish. Were you planning on asking Coe questions in Finnish?

Can't write English. Well, we understand this because you guys checked out in kindergarten.

Suck it.

Lissajous wrote:

The Brosjo need to stop the witch hunt for Mr. Coen right now. Yall trippin with this google translate bs.

and

Diabalo wrote:

And LetsRun have shown themselves to be no better by having the article in pride of place on their homepage as if it is a fact. Very disappointing and ill advised.

It shows that as the host of this website we can't win. Last year, when we hosted videos of Seb Coe making his pitch to lead the IAAF, we were accused of being pro-Coe shills. Now I'm being accused of saying he doped in 1983.

I NEVER SAID THAT. The whole point of letsrun.com is to present the running news of the day on the homepage and let the community talk about that news.

We simply did that once again. I NEVER remotely came close to saying the allegations were true. On the front page, it says.

"Finnish Paper: Seb Coe Didn’t Compete At 1983 Worlds Because He Couldn’t Pass British Team’s “Own Anti-Doping Tests” A blogger has uncovered an article published in 1983 in Finland citing a source from the British “team’s inner circle.”

I specifically added "Finish Paper:" to make it clear it was just one source. Moreover, in the yellow box where the messageboard news are, I also added "Published report:" to the messageboard title, "Published Report: Seb Coe dropped out of World Championships in 1983 to avoid doping positive".

I went above and beyond to make it clear this was an allegation. I'm going to change the Mboard title (which people get mad about all the time) to make it even more clear to those who are brain dead in case there a few people who come directly to it from the forum index page and not the front page.

Where'd you get that 1-2% number from? Most people will have just a fever if anything, which doesn't last long. It's only a serious condition with serious immune system compromise, e.g. AIDS patients. If his training was so hard that his immune system resembled someone with AIDS, that's odd. And toxoplasmosis is rampant in Europe, so it's strange that you don't hear about other athletes getting this.

If I had to guess I'd call it a cover story, but of course just a guess.

Coe speaks English wrote:

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Is Letsrun seeking an interview with Seb Coe? He needs to answer questions.

rojo wrote:

Definitely not right now. We don't speak Finnish.

lol

Here is a contemporaneous account that Coe dropped out because he could not avoid testing positive.

http://www.iltasanomat.fi/yleisurheilu/art-1452839680383.html

Here is the key quote:

During the Helsinki Cup (13.8.1983) Iltalehti published a story titled "Doping kept the Coen at home." Magazine had been in contact with "the British team's inner circle" person. The source of the "Seb is simply not able to get through his own anymore doping test".

Editor's note: The title of this thread was initially, "Seb Coe dropped out of World Championships in 1983 to avoid doping positive" which we changed to make it clear this is by no means an established fact.

rojo wrote:

I'm going to change the Mboard title (which people get mad about all the time) to make it even more clear to those who are brain dead in case there a few people who come directly to it from the forum index page and not the front page.

Ok It's been changed from "Seb Coe dropped out of World Championships in 1983 to avoid doping positive "

to

"A Finnish paper published an article in 1983 stating that Seb Coe dropped out of World Championships to avoid a doping positive "

jjjjj wrote:

your source is ridiculously bad. You know I read an article not from your country but one across Europe in 1983 that said you didn't make the Helsinki team because of a positive doping test.

And? What could we conclude from that?

Don't worry, it is all coming out. Just wait...