Folks, actually "Good Question" has a very valid point.
i certainly don't believe many of those guys are doping. however, the facts are that people like asmae legzouie (sp?) and pamela chepkumba and lombard slipped through the cracks for quite some time, much longer than if they were subject to regular OOC testing, as many US athletes are subject to.
Guys look, I am a us athlete who knows that any day usada can knock on my door and ask for a sample. knowing that, even if i was of the mind to do drugs, i wouldn't, because the risk is way too great of being caught when you have the possibility of OOC testing. even eddy tried to aviod the testers and they caught him after only 4 months of being on the OOC pool. that's what i call a deterrent!
Now, if i was non-US, and not subject to OOC testing, i can tell you that i could make over 100K per year running US road races, along with minor track meets, as many of us know good and well which races test and which ones don't. it's not very hard to avoid testing if you want to be a dirty bastard, especially if you're not subject to OOC testing.
again, i think many, if not all of those ethiopians and kenyans are clean. however, fact remains that many of them are not on the iaaf OOC pool, whereas any US athlete who makes a world cross team, world outdoor team, top three at indoors, etc., is automatically on the OOC pool for at least one year. that's a heck of a deterrent to using drugs, at least in my opinion.