To compete with East Germany and Russia I’m guessing no. Thoughts?
To compete with East Germany and Russia I’m guessing no. Thoughts?
FlowingOnTheJoe wrote:
To compete with East Germany and Russia I’m guessing no. Thoughts?
I'm not one to make accusations without there being a positive testing result, but she clearly was. The change in her physique and incredible improvement over one year, was not possible. She was as obvious as Barry Bonds.
East Germany and the Soviet Union were crumbling in 1988.
Even Evelyn Ashford of the US got Silver in the 100.
FlowingOnTheJoe wrote:
To compete with East Germany and Russia I’m guessing no. Thoughts?
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Flo-Jo was one of the most blatantly obvious extreme doping cases in T&F history.
The sudden improvement after years of mediocrity, accompanied by equally sudden radical change in physique, were almost exactly parallel to the story of Ben Johnson. But since she was never caught (as far as we know), and was American, and had already been *anointed* as the new US Superstar/marketing-sensation, etc., she was allowed to skate away and profit immensely from her extreme cheating.
It's really one of the greatest embarrassments in modern US track history.
Then, of course, the fact that she died so young (and no reasonable person can help but wonder if that was a result of her drug abuse) allowed to her to continue to skate --posthumously-- without any real scrutiny for years longer.
It wasn't really till Lance was exposed for the piece of sh*t he is that the popular perception of Flo began to catch up, a little bit, with the obvious reality.
Even worse (as with *all* these stories) is the recognition, glory, money and success she *stole* from clean athletes she beat.
Evelyn Ashford, for instance (who I think was *probably* clean --but who knows) was one of the great sprinters in US history, and is almost completely forgotten because of the way she was utterly overshadowed by the sudden rise of Flo-Jo.
One more giant black mark on the history of this beautiful but incredibly sleazy sport.
sp2 wrote:
Flo-Jo was one of the most blatantly obvious extreme doping cases in T&F history.
The sudden improvement after years of mediocrity,
Not saying she was clean but she won a Silver medal in the 200m in 1987 (21.96) before winning the golds in 1988.
And she ran 10.99 in 1984.
That's not mediocre.
This is what makes her blatantly obvious:
https://fondofbeetles.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/flo-jo.jpg?w=660That woman way back in second place ran 10.83, currently the 30th best ever.
FlowingOnTheJoe wrote:
To compete with East Germany and Russia I’m guessing no. Thoughts?
100% no. I was told by a very credible source that she came up positive in Seoul after Ben Johnson. The Games could not afford to have two positives. So, they allowed her to finish competing with a promise that she would not win any further races (notice she did not pass in the 4x4), and to retire after the Games.
Even Carl Lewis said she was on drugs:
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/26522/LEWIS-BACKTRACKS-ON-HAVING-LINKED-FLO-JO-DRUGS.html
And Darrell Robinson:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-09-21-8901150081-story.html
And Lornah Boothe:
100% science experiment wrote:
FlowingOnTheJoe wrote:
To compete with East Germany and Russia I’m guessing no. Thoughts?
100% no. I was told by a very credible source that she came up positive in Seoul after Ben Johnson. The Games could not afford to have two positives. So, they allowed her to finish competing with a promise that she would not win any further races (notice she did not pass in the 4x4), and to retire after the Games.
I find that hard to believe and even harder to believe that it could have been kept secret all these years. Why didn't you blow the lid on the story?
Like Really Bro wrote:
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/11/02/sports/02flojo2print/02flojo2print-superJumbo-v3.jpg?quality=90&auto=webpNeed you say more?
If you juxtapose this picture with one from her college days (her face is very different) it is even more obvious.
100% science experiment wrote:
The Games could not afford to have two positives. So, they allowed her to finish competing with a promise that she would not win any further races (notice she did not pass in the 4x4), and to retire after the Games.
She still split 48.08 in the 4x4 and was chasing the Olympic 400m champion who split 47.80.
Considering she wasn't a 400m runner, I think she was going all out to try and win.
^...like she’d be going only 88.88% ..right ?!
FlowingOnTheJoe wrote:
To compete with East Germany and Russia I’m guessing no. Thoughts?
Absolutely not. Before 1987 - 1988, she was a very good runner. Then all of a sudden she became the greatest in the history of planet Earth. Then she quit right after her greatest triumph in 1988, leaving millions unearned. She was taking all sorts of illegal drugs, she probably tested positive at the Olympics or some other meet, and was quietly forced out.
What I meant was “absolutely she was doping.”
Mikeh33 wrote:
FlowingOnTheJoe wrote:
To compete with East Germany and Russia I’m guessing no. Thoughts?
Absolutely not. Before 1987 - 1988, she was a very good runner. Then all of a sudden she became the greatest in the history of planet Earth. Then she quit right after her greatest triumph in 1988, leaving millions unearned. She was taking all sorts of illegal drugs, she probably tested positive at the Olympics or some other meet, and was quietly forced out.
The story was that she quit because random, out of season testing was to commence after 1988.
Please quit with the conspiracy stuff.
SDSU Aztec wrote:
The story was that she quit because random, out of season testing was to commence after 1988.
Please quit with the conspiracy stuff.
You may be right, but consider that there were probably hundreds of world class track athletes who used drugs before the advent of out of competition testing, who simply adjusted their methods of intake after the new testing regime began. Yet Joyner quit, leaving millions of dollars on the table. Why?
I always thought it was weird that she was so conscious of her appearance and yet she left her mustache apart from shaving it.
Mikeh33 wrote:
SDSU Aztec wrote:
The story was that she quit because random, out of season testing was to commence after 1988.
Please quit with the conspiracy stuff.
You may be right, but consider that there were probably hundreds of world class track athletes who used drugs before the advent of out of competition testing, who simply adjusted their methods of intake after the new testing regime began. Yet Joyner quit, leaving millions of dollars on the table. Why?
Hard to know how she made her decision. Seeing the huge negative reaction to Ben Johnson, alone, could have made up her mind. She was one of the most famous athletes in the world after the 88 Olympics and she had a lot to lose if she got caught.
You don't know for a fact that there were hundreds of athletes who simply adjusted their methods of intake. Would that mean there wasn't a single day out of the year that they would test positive?
SDSU Aztec wrote:
100% science experiment wrote:
100% no. I was told by a very credible source that she came up positive in Seoul after Ben Johnson. The Games could not afford to have two positives. So, they allowed her to finish competing with a promise that she would not win any further races (notice she did not pass in the 4x4), and to retire after the Games.
I find that hard to believe and even harder to believe that it could have been kept secret all these years. Why didn't you blow the lid on the story?
It was 31 years ago. I was 19 years old, and there was certainly no internet. The former USA Today T and F writer would corroborate the story. He was in the room when the meeting to decide what to do took place. What does it even matter now? You’d have to be a fool to believe she wasn’t on drugs even not knowing the backstory.
I loved watching FloJo back in the day, but, no, no way she was clean, sorry to say. Sadly, apparently the drugs contributed to her early demise.
I had higher hopes with Marion Jones, and was more disappointed when she got caught.
