You take drugs so you can train harder and recover more. They don't work by magic. They let you do more work. So the fact that Ma's Army "worked harder" - as if that's a new idea - suggests they were doping. You certainly allow for the possibility of doping, but I think it's more than a possibility, it's all but certain. And the hard work they did only reinforces our suspicions.
EPO is my middle name wrote:
It's not unlikely at all that they were doping. But let's not forget that, as Renato Canova has said, never in history has a group of female athletes ever trained so hard. Both their mileage and intensity are and were completely unprecedented. Their training and devotion was simply on another plane from any other female runner. Canova went so far as to say that never has a male athlete ever trained that hard, not even Gerry Lindgren because everyone knows that Lindgren is full of shit. The reason I think it is very possible they doped is the same reason I don't find it difficult at all to believe the NOP might dope. Because both are and were totally committed, absolutely getting the most out of their running in every way possible, and are and were known to do some grey area stuff, why would they draw a line in the sand around doping? The past character of Junren and Salazar certainly destroys the notion that they are morally pure or dedicated to or believe in "clean sport" as Rupp constantly repeats.
