Should we just give up and find a new sport? Gabby Thomas - formerly of Harvard - receives doping ban for missing 3 tests

Harvard University, Devry University

I told y'all the Brits were dirty! When is snooty Lord Coe going to come clean about the Bradley Wiggins package? Kick them out of the sport and stop robbing Galen of gold medals!!

Wasnt some pro who had a long career interviewed and said that he never had any whereabouts failures in his career and there's no excuse for having any let alone 3? The fact that you already have 2 shows you are either hiding something nor just a really procrastinator who's flirting with problems.

Gabby is very active on social media and is very sociable to a fault (I remember reading a rant she made on Twitter about how "hard" it was for her to be such a successful athlete at Harvard due to the "sub-par facilities" and teammates who didn't take it as "seriously" as her [she later took the thread down, I'm guessing someone told her to do so], and then about 2 months later, she shared details of her pro detail to a local newspaper that had to be taken down later because someone told her to not share such info). If she has the geo-tagging on her posts/pictures, she should be able to verify where she was on the date(s) in question. Now is that valid evidence for an appeal?

But this isn't the first time the doping protocols have been called into question due to how "grey" they are (Christian Coleman's appeal comes to mind, since they found a loophole). But there are so many athletes who are able to use the system without issue. How much more black and white can the system be?

drip too clean and clear wrote:

Wasnt some pro who had a long career interviewed and said that he never had any whereabouts failures in his career and there's no excuse for having any let alone 3? The fact that you already have 2 shows you are either hiding something nor just a really procrastinator who's flirting with problems.

Jenny Simpson said something along those lines when she was interviewed in the aftermath of the Coleman appeal.

Not sure why you make it seem surprising that an Ivy League athlete would ever cheat. The school you went to does not make you a more moral person than the next athlete.

Her 3 missed tests were April, August, and September. That's 3 missed tests in 5 months. That's pretty egregious. Missing 3 in a 12 month span is grounds for a suspension, and she missed 3 in only 5 months.

@Rojo

The whole sport is on the brink of collapse and those controlling it (ie. IOC/World Athletics) are asleep at the wheel. They feel they are untouchable. However they most certainly are not.

Athletics globally is one of the biggest and most accessible sports. It has many great things going for it. In the startup world, when you have such a massive addressable market and the status quo is so terrible, there is investment capital available available to take advantage of such a gap. The reliance on governing bodies and the widely (but incorrectly) accepted convention that they're the only show in town is the reason why they remain in power.

If the right people in the sport got together with private funding, independent of any governing bodies, and focused on building a better entertainment platform for the sport and letting the market decide the winner, you can bet the IOC/World Athletics's product and platform would look boring/old/outdated very quickly. Quiz time: Can you remember the other minority sport that nobody had much interest in until it had the right marketing/promotional platform, and now is a mutli-billion dollar empire?

We live in a connected world now where things can change in an instant. The above idea could be hatched by the right team tomorrow morning and a big budget fully crowdfunded by the end of the week. Such is the world we live in.

The world is vastly different now and in my opinion the sport is on the precipice of a new era, subject to the above turn of events. The old world is tired and lethargic. Nobody really cares about the sport due to events like you've just mentioned and why should they. It's time for the market to correct itself.

American Fake Tan wrote:

I told y'all the Brits were dirty! When is snooty Lord Coe going to come clean about the Bradley Wiggins package? Kick them out of the sport and stop robbing Galen of gold medals!!

Coevett, the three best endurance athletes ever from GB are/were dirty. You are not above reproach.

Haz Hah-vaad JAMPED Da SHARKZ?!?!?!?

Who is her coach?

I wish just one person who was caught cheating would just admit it. You got me. Yea I was doing it. Here is how and how I did it with. Always some bs story of denial.

You are showing you American brainwashing.

Harvard undergrads smart? They don’t even know the capital of their closest and best neighbor, largest trading partner, and global longest undefended border partner:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/harvard-students-freaked-out-when-they-realized-they-didnt-know-the-capital-of-canada-2013-11%3famp

They are notorious for dense equity admissions. There are many jokes about them among the grad community, many of whom are sentenced to TA and teach the undergrads.

Also, one can be a fan of the sport, but not necessarily the pro level—as I have pointed out many times. Go to a local meet—kids, adults, no money. THAT is t&f, the pro circus is NOT.

3 tests are not easily missed honestly, candorously. Neither Harvard nor any other Ivy league school has anything to do with honesty, which is why they are all on the take for admissions—the “admissions scandal” is the tip of the iceberg.

The fact that this girl attended Harvard has absolutely no bearing on either her candor or credibility. None.

We await more facts.

rojo wrote:

1) (Assuming she's dirty and was trying to avoid the testers) So many people are dirty, it's not worth being a fan if you believe people shouldn't be forced to be on drugs to be good at track at field

2) (Assuming she's clean and a mistake was made by someone) The doping control process that is needed for clean sport is so onerous/complicated that it's impossible to actually implement in an efficient manner. If a freaking ex Harvard student can't follow it, then who the heck can?

One mistake? Rather three "mistakes" in five months, lol.

rojo wrote:

Either way, the end takeaway is what's the point of being a fan.

Why is that the takeaway from one more busted cheat? We know since years that (likely more than) 44% are cheats, on average, and American sprinters aren't exactly cleaner than average.

Rojo, you think it's depressing trying to be a fan of this sport? Imagine trying to be a professional in this sport!

Here's the deal you get 3 whereabout failures. To have 1 is fine, but for these athletes to ever get a second is frankly insane. Where are their agents? Their parents? How are they not putting the fear of God into them for not updating where they are AND being available. It feels to me like that nobody is taking it remotely serious until they get 2 failures. Gabby Thomas if her appeal fails, her track career is basically over. Yet she's treating that second strike like it's no big deal. These are kids, but they are acting like 5-year-olds. Gabby is not good enough to pull a Gatlin away from the sport. She will need to get a new job. How is she being negligent?

3 missed tests in a 5 month span.

Inexcusable, no matter what her excuses are.

tin can man wrote:

3 missed tests in a 5 month span.

Inexcusable, no matter what her excuses are.

tin can man wrote:

3 missed tests in a 5 month span.

Inexcusable, no matter what her excuses are.

It's easy to say that but if you don't know the the tester is there, how can you take the test.

I think her story is basically - she got 1 as she wans't where she was supposed to be. No big deal as you get 3.

On the second, she was in the 'vacinity' but that went in the books as #2. So at this point it's time to be paranoid.

For the third, it's the off-season and she's with 10 other people it sounds like at some sort of house in New Haven. It sounds like she and her housemates say the tester didn't knock - and she missed the call.

As I think about this, moving forward, I am more optimistic than I was a few hours ago when I started this thread. The testers have smart phones. They should film themselves knocking on the door. Take a photo of a newspaper or watch or something showing the date and time, then show yourself trying to call and knocking on the door.

Easy fix, stop testing and let people dope.. Faster times, no more failed tests, and an even playing field.

HS kids wrote:

Who is her coach?

University of Texas coach Tonja Buford-Bailey, down in Austin.