Is coach Stephen Francis a fraud?

Fraser-Pryce, by her own admission, is the most widely suspected doper on the circuit, by the athletes that compete against her:

http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2013/09/18/shelly-ann-fraser-pryce-track-and-field-world-championships-doping/

Then there's Asafa Powell, now coached by his brother Donovan, both with doping positives. And there's also Asafa's MVP Club teammate Sherone Simpson, also positive for doping.

I don't expect Elaine Thompson's reputation to be different from Fraser Pryce, or Bolt or Blake. But don't forget:

--English Gardner--11.56 as a high school senior and 11.03 as a freshman at Oregon

--Hannah Cunliffe--11.62 in 2014 and 11.75 in 2015....and 10.99 at Oregon after being not able to train at Oklahoma aft annoucing that she was leaving

Steve Francis, like Charlie (no relation) is a good coach, but pharmacology is part of the package.

So is Francis just better than other coaches at operating in the grey area between doping and legal supplement?

coach d wrote:

Then there's Asafa Powell, now coached by his brother Donovan, both with doping positives. And there's also Asafa's MVP Club teammate Sherone Simpson, also positive for doping.

You mean for Asafa's test that was shortened to 6 months after appeal to CAS, and later out-of-court settlement with the company he sued for having mislabeled supplements?

coach d wrote:

Fraser-Pryce, by her own admission, is the most widely suspected doper on the circuit, by the athletes that compete against her:

http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2013/09/18/shelly-ann-fraser-pryce-track-and-field-world-championships-doping/

Then there's Asafa Powell, now coached by his brother Donovan, both with doping positives. And there's also Asafa's MVP Club teammate Sherone Simpson, also positive for doping.

I don't expect Elaine Thompson's reputation to be different from Fraser Pryce, or Bolt or Blake. But don't forget:

--English Gardner--11.56 as a high school senior and 11.03 as a freshman at Oregon

--Hannah Cunliffe--11.62 in 2014 and 11.75 in 2015....and 10.99 at Oregon after being not able to train at Oklahoma aft annoucing that she was leaving

Steve Francis, like Charlie (no relation) is a good coach, but pharmacology is part of the package.

But I thought the general consensus on letsrun is that NCAA athletes don't and can't dope? Where would Gardner and Cunliffe get the drugs? Do their coaches know about this?

Wait but there are many differences between English Gardner and what SFP and ET did:

- we know that many athletes have 11.0x potential, while this is certainly not true for 10.7x or 21.6x

- ET and SFP where 2-3 years older and were already racing a lot in important races before their breakthrough, while English Gardner wasn't racing much in high school (just check her all-athletics profile)

- EG ran 11.61 when she was 15, while neither ET or SFP showed such sign of talent

"You mean for Asafa's test that was shortened to 6 months after appeal to CAS, and later out-of-court settlement with the company he sued for having mislabeled supplements?"

EXACTLY!!!!

I do not understand how so many athletes, experts, and fans of our sport know so little about "test results" and their "findings".

The supplement company had added "special" ingredients without listing them on the label. This is also why Sherone Simpson also tested positive (name of the supplement - Epiphany D1).

It is similar to people claiming Justin Gatlin is a TWO time drug cheat. His FIRST offence was for ADHD medicine that he has been taking since he was 10. The USADA themselves admit it was NOT CHEATING but an administrative oversight - but everyone keeps say "two-times drug cheat".

The same thing with Carl Lewis and Linford Christie. They tested positive for drinking TEA (ephedrine/stimulants). Carl and Linford sent in samples and the various testing agencies bought the tea in random stores and found that ALL the samples would have triggered a positive test (hence the "inadvertent use exemption"). But everyone insists that these guys are bad news.

When I first discovered this forum I was impressed by the intelligence, insight, and overall tone of the forum. Over the years this forum has gone down considerably in quality.

Bolt: "Coach is a genius..an evil genius!"(hearty laugh).

Asafa Powell and Sherone tested positive for Oxilofrine, it was so minor a supplement that a prominent European Lab director questioned if Powell should be even suspended. Anyway CAS and the lawsuit that they won already set the record straight.

What's interesting is the Asafa case caused USADA to issue a warning about supplements previously viewed as "safe" on their site.

ALL elite sprint coaches are frauds. Smith, Hart, Charlie Francis, Syephen Francis, Dan Pfaff, Lauren Seagrave, Tellez, Glenn Mills....ALL are frauds.

coach d wrote:

Fraser-Pryce, by her own admission, is the most widely suspected doper on the circuit, by the athletes that compete against her:

http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2013/09/18/shelly-ann-fraser-pryce-track-and-field-world-championships-doping/

Then there's Asafa Powell, now coached by his brother Donovan, both with doping positives. And there's also Asafa's MVP Club teammate Sherone Simpson, also positive for doping.

I don't expect Elaine Thompson's reputation to be different from Fraser Pryce, or Bolt or Blake. But don't forget:

--English Gardner--11.56 as a high school senior and 11.03 as a freshman at Oregon

--Hannah Cunliffe--11.62 in 2014 and 11.75 in 2015....and 10.99 at Oregon after being not able to train at Oklahoma aft annoucing that she was leaving

Steve Francis, like Charlie (no relation) is a good coach, but pharmacology is part of the package.

To be fair Cunliffe and Gardner ran some of their best times as H.S. underclassmen and did not have great senior seasons because of injury. Also, no one should question the progress someone makes in a 4 year period going from high school to college. Thompson and SAFP made their progress in one year, almost immediately when they came under Francis. Of all of the athletes in the track & field universe, Thompson and SAFP are at the top of my list of suspected dopers.