Oh the irony! S Flanagan: “ "My career would look enormously different if the playing field was level."

So it’s then end of page 3 - can we start to discuss where her career would be much different? I get the Beijing Bronze turned silver. And likely the Boston year were she went out hard with the doper and fader. What other races though?

pot, meet mr. kettle wrote:

https://twitter.com/usantidoping/status/1244459624713064448?s=20

Is she crazy?

In my mind, if the playing field was even and she didn’t have the Vaporflys, she would have never won NYC or made the 2016 Olympics.

Doping is wrong but so is mechanical doping.

How does she still get away with mechanical doping. No balls at USATF!

pumpkin eaters wrote:

She is talking about cheating. Do some of you not understand or do you just dislike Nike that much?

I didn't waste my time reading the article but my disdain and hatred for nike is every bit as strong as it is for espn. One is out to ruin running for their own profit and the other is out to ruin the viewing of all sports for their own profit.

The only reason those shoes AREN'T illegal is because nike is in bed with the iaaf who miraculously ruled the "legal" stack height just happened to be .5 cm higher than the nike shoes already produced. What a coincidence. wink wink

nothelpful wrote:

Been on thyroid meds for 18 years and based on my performances, nobody would ever accuse me of doping.

I think people are giving thyroid replacement too much credit.

Same here. Plus I've been on asthma meds for most of my life. A lot of us are just struggling to reach normal. And yes, I know a lot of other burnout cases like myself who ended up on thyroid meds.

The East African myth was just epo wrote:

We could consider what her career might have looked like without all the epo cheats. Since this is LRC we will instead have posts about her looks, if certain posters find her attractive or not, white privilege, and how old men think women should only speak if spoken to.

Stuff like this is impossible to figure out. Look at every woman runner in the 80s/90s who lost out to know dopers and hit is hard to evaluate where they would be. And you can't just take the dopers out of the results. Their presence in the race effected how the races were run.

As it is right now in track and field, we don't know if finals are just a half dozen dopers crushing the clean runners or if it is like cycling where everyone in the top 10 is doped to the gills. Seriously look at how many of the tour top 10 from those years hasn't had some serious doping issues.

She cheated bigtime during the trials. I don't believe that she didn't know she had a significant advantage. No one decides to take off in a championship marathon like that without prior knowledge.

Not sure how you managed to do it but your little jump to ethnicity and homeland doesn’t make much sense. When it comes to distance running it’s actually an advantage and quite common to be born African, at altitude, with no way out of poverty save pro running, and be way better than any white person. Congrats, you made a normally dumb statement somehow be even dumber

WooHoo Wuhan Flu! wrote:

"If the playing field WERE level."

Why is the subjunctive so difficult to grasp?

About the extent to which this thread is needed.

Does she want a little cheese with that wine? Lol. There is no such thing as an even playing field. There never has been.

John Wesley Harding wrote:

When I see Flanagan and Coburn make statements like this, I see that the very conceptual existence of doping allows them to believe that they are the absolute standard of excellence, and to write off anyone who beats them as cheating.

As someone less personally invested, I can imagine others being legitimately faster than them.

The professional world of running is very small. Only a couple degrees of separation. So any pro as connected as those two women are going to be hearing from people they trust about so and so who actually IS doping but getting away with it. It's super frustrating to feel helpless in that way.

Yes, they clearly have had so many more opportunities to succeed than most in the sport. It can make it look as if they don't appreciate that by complaining about the doping, but you should also understand that until one no longer has something it's tough to truly appreciate it. I cut them some slack because of that. It's understandable that they may watching past races in their head and constantly saying "what if" or feeling like they were cheated. Life can be a real mindf..k

Why are you thinking in this way? there are so many possibilities are available to become more powerful in your way. If you need any kind of help then just PM me.

Regards,

Sharapova

dadsfadsfdasfdsafdas wrote:

Stuff like this is impossible to figure out. Look at every woman runner in the 80s/90s who lost out to know dopers and hit is hard to evaluate where they would be. And you can't just take the dopers out of the results. Their presence in the race effected how the races were run.

As it is right now in track and field, we don't know if finals are just a half dozen dopers crushing the clean runners or if it is like cycling where everyone in the top 10 is doped to the gills. Seriously look at how many of the tour top 10 from those years hasn't had some serious doping issues.

Well, thanks to four studies of the last ten years, we do know that about 15-20% of world championship endurance athletes are blood dopers, and including all kinds of doping, roughly half of the athletes are dopers. That refers to the championships, so it stands to reason that a majority of the finalists, not to mention the medalists, are cheats.

We know very few of those dopers by name, so yes, stuff like this is impossible to figure out.

And of course we don't know where Shalane stands. No positive test, no unbelievable performances, but her training partner was at the top of the list of IAAF's likely doping list in 2016.

And he was nowhere the same athlete after that came out.

same bolt of cloth wrote:

1. Kara Goucher used thyroid meds and introduced Salazar to Dr. Brown. Then complained about the shoes at the 2012 Trials.

2. Des Linden also on thyroid meds also complained about the shoes in 2016. She was outspoken about the shoe wars but wore Brooks version for her only win of her career at Boston and has wore them in every race since.

3. Now Shalane who has been on thyroid meds her entire career back to the Cook days and wore cheaterflys before any of us were aware they were a thing is crying about an even playing field.

American women are very tough to cheer for.

*has worn

ShilohDoesntCare wrote:

She cheated bigtime during the trials. I don't believe that she didn't know she had a significant advantage. No one decides to take off in a championship marathon like that without prior knowledge.

The magic shoes helped Amy Cragg win.

She has a valid point. The shoe argument aside she ran 15 years without them and was very accomplished. Also don't forget some feeling of accomplishment was loss before her Olympic medal was upgraded. She was always fun to watch run because she came to perform her best and win!

Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t Sara hall and Ryan hall also on thyroid medication and complained about the shoes...

Once again you are all missing the point.

She is obviously referring to doping, which is illegal, provides clear advantages and is cheating. There are rules against them.

While these other factors like better shoes, better coaches, facilities and money provide definite advantages they aren't illegal so aren't cheating. There are no rules against them. So treating them, the same as doping is silly. What is someone suppose to do, run in crappy shoes? take a smaller shoe contract? stick with their high school coach?

I guess, as a life long enthusiastic runner who trained very hard but with marginal talent, I can feel everybody ahead of me cheated because they had different parents. But what's the point?

lwood wrote:

Just do it.

Just shut up, Shalane