Nick Willis had some fascinating things to say about doping today. Plenty of good and bad news!

LetsRun.com wrote:

some additional footage from before I stared film in is on RunnerSpace here but that doesn't include the key part of my video, which begins at 2:55) but I'll give you the highlights.

Will someone please translate that into English? I have no skills in the Trustafarian or Affluenza languages.

Deregulation wrote:

LetsRun.com wrote:

some additional footage from before I stared film in is on RunnerSpace here but that doesn't include the key part of my video, which begins at 2:55) but I'll give you the highlights.

Will someone please translate that into English? I have no skills in the Trustafarian or Affluenza languages.

Johnson brothers may as well be writing in Martian.

UMMMMMMM wrote:

Deregulation wrote:

Will someone please translate that into English? I have no skills in the Trustafarian or Affluenza languages.

Johnson brothers may as well be writing in Martian.

They have one of those magnetic poetry kits on their refrigerator and just string together a bunch of random words in no logical order. At least some of the words aren't misspelled.

Explain, I'm sure you are right. But as T&F fan listening to Willis, are you not being told that whoever stands on the podium with the gold medal is highly suspect? After all. that is by definition, a "top" athlete so he has specifically identified someone whether he meant to or not. So Willis is effectively defaming him. Any lawsuit would probably be thrown out, but largely because Willis doesn't know what he is talking about and its so vague. But that brings us to the point. Willis, should just shut the hell up. His comments are devoid of any value whatsoever to anyone, no matter how you look at. He would be a better benefit to himself and society by just staying home and watching porn rather than making those comments to the press.

you're not much of a lawyer wrote:

ryan foreman wrote:He puts himself at legal risk by suggesting that just a few of the "top" athletes are doping.

No he doesn't.

No one on earth is going to sue Nick Willis for stating his belief that many top tier runners dope. That isn't libel, it's an opinion.

Willis is a pro athlete who probably hears all kinds of rumors, many of which turn out to be true, and I'd guess that's where he's coming from. He can't say "I heard so and so is doping", but he can say that top runners in general are doping. And why the hell are you so angry about him giving his opinion?

So Willis says the top athletes are doping, those furthest ahead of everyone else, its not tier 2 athletes. Canova says just the opposite. That these athletes wouldn't dope or if they did it would be due to misinformation as doping would not help them. Who am I to believe? That outliers are gaming the system and cheating, or they just happened to be born that way and no one else who was discovered their natural talent for athletics?

letsracer wrote:

So Willis says the top athletes are doping, those furthest ahead of everyone else, its not tier 2 athletes. Canova says just the opposite. That these athletes wouldn't dope or if they did it would be due to misinformation as doping would not help them. Who am I to believe?

The one not coaching the people who beat everyone.

The training camp isn't feasible because I assume most of these athletes have coaches, training partners, family. And other above board resources that can't all relocate.

But I like the idea.

Read carefully wrote:

He doesn't want a training camp. He just wants them to move to a country with proper testing. Maybe certain Letsrunners need to keep their keyboards closed.

... If they are from a country that doesn't have those places -- a lot of my competitors are from Kenya, Ethiopia, or Djibouti, a lot of places that don't have the funds to [have compliant testing facilities]. If you are a top-10 or top-15 athlete in the world, you have the sponsors, you have the means to go and train in Flagstaff as opposed to altitude there. ...

Flagstaff isn't THAT big. A town that small hosting the top 10-15 athletes for 10 months of the year? That's simply not going to happen.

"move to a country with proper testing" - Flagstaff ... uh huh, that works, because we all know how little doping there is going on in this country. Look at how clean sprinting is here.

Why not suggest putting some of his sponsorship money towards facilitating compliant testing in Djibouti? Or Iten?

Because that's not going to happen either.

It's simply a stupid proposal. I'm thinking he works for a gov/t agency.

Ho Hum wrote:

...

Willis is a pro athlete who probably hears all kinds of rumors, many of which turn out to be true, and I'd guess that's where he's coming from. He can't say "I heard so and so is doping", but he can say that top runners in general are doping. And why the hell are you so angry about him giving his opinion?

Then he has appropriate channels through which to deal with that. And if that isn't effective, rather than whine about it to any whore with a microphone, like rojo, then go to the press (the real press) and complain about the corruption going on at the higher tiers of the sport that prevent the functionality of those channels.

What's the point of all this complaining about testing when the higher levels of the sport are shown to be corrupt enough that the testing results don't matter anyway?

Broot wrote:

Nick's proposal is brilliant. If you are going to extract money and madals from civilized countries you should adhere to civilized rules. Aden laughs at the world from his Ethiopian hideaway.

Lmao. What?!

IAAF email to Rudisha:

"Hey! Congratulations for being one of the best runners in the world. Due to this, you must now leave your country. Our recommendation: Uproot your family, leave your extended family and all your friends behind. Forget about your culture, you can just assimilate to ours! Don't know the language? Learn! And, remember, congratulations on your accomplishments!"

More so, 50% of the letsrun community is convinced that Galen Rupp is doping. So, you'd have to drop the US from the list of "trustworthy, developed" countries.

This thread is boring. I'm going back to the juicy Jill Greathouse thread.

I like Nick as much as anyone and have enjoyed watching his success from college to now.

His plan is just not sensible.

And when you apply his logic to who he guesses is doping (he doesn't claim to actually know any facts) he fits the description as well as anyone.

He's a guy who won an Olympic medal in his prime and has run his fastest times in his 30's even after having great success at age 18.

If you feel sure he is clean that should believe anyone is clean that hasn't been popped yet.

Or you believe he is the most talented guy in the whole world and the others needed an edge to beat him.

I have the same suspicions that he has.

But it's not fair for me to take him out of the suspicious list.

I'm not accusing him but I am also not accusing anyone specifically.

I am also not giving anyone a pass, including him.

Willis essentially saying "If I can't beat them, they must be doping" is not only hilarious but betrays a sense of entitlement masked behind a veneer of humility that has Letsrunners eating out of his hand. Fantastic entertainment for those of us who can see it for what it is.

macdaddy wrote:

More so, 50% of the letsrun community is convinced that Galen Rupp is doping. So, you'd have to drop the US from the list of "trustworthy, developed" countries.

No they don't . I would guess it is the same 20 people.

Nick Willis is not dumb. I think he knows this sort of thing won't happen, he's just not sure what the solution is and is brainstorming.

El Keniano wrote:

Willis essentially saying "If I can't beat them, they must be doping" is not only hilarious but betrays a sense of entitlement masked behind a veneer of humility that has Letsrunners eating out of his hand. Fantastic entertainment for those of us who can see it for what it is.

Except that's not what he is saying at all.

What is fantastic entertainment is your explaining away any legitimate criticism of things related to Kenyan athletes and doping.

Willis is the only athlete running consistently among these guys who is a native English-speaker. And he has done so for 10 years. His opinion carries far more weight than the bleatings of board plankton.