Perhaps what doesn't sit well with you is my radical re-definition of when a drug "works". If you think of work like a job, then I think one of the "jobs" for top athletes is setting world records, not setting European indoor records, Ireland national outdoor records, or US Masters records.One way to look at it is looking at individuals and relative time barriers. To complete this view, you need more data to determine the "clean" versus "doped" times. But an even bigger issue is that the only individuals we have data for have weak bodies and/or weak minds.You may not agree with my "thesis", but what I radically propose here is another way to look at it: how did EPO impact record level performances during the EPO-era? If EPO unquestionably had a big impact, why not ask the question, where can we see the impact? This is not looking at the micro level of the weak individual, lost in the noise of mediocrity, progressing from slow to local champion times, but the macro level of runners significantly advancing national, area, and ultimately world records.I'm not looking at the 13:45 runner doping to 13:25, when he would still be half a lap behind the 1970's elite. I don't doubt EPO helps those with weak bodies and/or weak minds. Many studies and anecdotes confirm that.The unanswered question is whether EPO helps athletes with strong minds when their bodies are strong. Unfortunately there is zero data for that, so the question remains unanswered.When we look at the period often identified as the EPO-era, let's generously widen it to say 1986-2009, I find it incredible (as in not credible) that America, South America, Europe, Russia, India, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, were unable to supply at least one "doped" athlete that could compete against the hundreds of East Africans (including juniors), and a dozen or so North Africans.
Mr. Obvious wrote:
It's a really poor thesis statement. The test of whether a drug works is no whether a runner on it can break some arbitrary time barrier.
If the Russian man was a 13:45 runner and with the EPO and other drugs was able to run 13:25, well, the drugs worked. Repeat with the other time barriers.
We don't have a valid baseline of what caliber of runner these are, since they have been using drugs for a long, long time.