Another American busted

[Bro Deal]

Not a cyclists, but Marion Jones tested positive for EPO in June. Her B sample is still to be tested.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/sports/19Track.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin

I am glad they finally got her. The head of BALCO released her doping schedule. Her husband was banned for doping and he testified to a grand jury that he had witnessed Jones injecting herself with dope. Her boyfriend was banned for doping. Her coach has had numerous athletes busted for doping, most recently Gatlin. And just recently she was whinging about not being invited to to race in Germany.

She made a mockery of sport, showing up muscled like He Man, so obviously doped up it was not even funny.

 

[SaintAndrew]

no surprise. sux though.

 

[meb]

no surprise. sux though.

You're not surprised to hear of a sprinter using EPO?

What would a sprinter gain from EPO?

 

[micron]

what any athlete gains from EPO - the ability to recover better and faster and therefore train longer and harder

 

[poulidor]

Not a cyclists, but Marion Jones tested positive for EPO in June. Her B sample is still to be tested.

She had never failed a test before, as many other cheaters.
And here it'snt an european-french conspiracy and leaks from LNDD!

 

[Scotttri]

Who cares, you prob dont either but are probably just after a bite from a pro American poster.

 

[Capt.Injury]

Who cares, you prob dont either but are probably just after a bite from a pro American poster.

Actually i am not sure you get much of an arguement about her period. Her perception before this latest positive, was right around there with Barry Bonds, a pretty self centered kinda person who everyone believe doped, just nothing concrete yet.

 

[limerickman]

Not a cyclists, but Marion Jones tested positive for EPO in June. Her B sample is still to be tested.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/sports/19Track.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin

I am glad they finally got her. The head of BALCO released her doping schedule. Her husband was banned for doping and he testified to a grand jury that he had witnessed Jones injecting herself with dope. Her boyfriend was banned for doping. Her coach has had numerous athletes busted for doping, most recently Gatlin. And just recently she was whinging about not being invited to to race in Germany.

She made a mockery of sport, showing up muscled like He Man, so obviously doped up it was not even funny.

Jones tried to distance herself when Montgomery testified against her.
The fact that she failed a test - merely confirmed the widespread scepticism
regarding her and her cheating.

Good riddance to her and her kind.


The worrying thing though is that BALCO only came to public prominence after the two of the directors of BALCO had a commercial dispute.
If that dispute hadn't happened - no one would be aware of the designer PED THG developed by BALCO.

Unfortunately the brave journalists who reported the BALCO case are being persecuted see here :

The real heroes of the war on drugs are heading for prison

Lawrence Donegan
Thursday August 17, 2006
The Guardian

There are few heroes in the seedy corner of professional sport where drugs are common currency so it is hardly surprising to find some people rushing to embrace Darren Campbell following his protest at the inclusion of Dwain Chambers in the British 4x100m relay team at the European Championships. This instinct is understandable, not least because the sprinter has a long and admirable record of speaking out against the cheats who have wrecked his sport's credibility, but in this case it is misplaced.

Campbell, I'm sad to say, isn't a hero but a fool and a self-defeating grandstander: a fool for allowing himself to be used as a proxy in British athletics' very own 100-year war between Linford Christie (his own coach) and John Regis (Chambers' coach), and self-defeating because he has turned the target of his protest into a sympathetic figure - a remarkable feat, given Chambers' deplorable history as a drugs cheat.

A couple of years ago I spent an evening at Chabot Junior college near San Francisco, where Chambers was trying to break into the world of American football after being banned from athletics. It was a bit like finding Martin Amis knocking out news stories for the Daily Sport, with Chambers, who had run 9.87 seconds for the 100 metres, albeit drug-fuelled, working out alongside thin-limbed college kids whose only chance of matching his speed was to hitch a lift in a passing Lotus Elan.

Needless to say, Chambers was wallowing in self-pity. "Life ain't as fun as it used to be," he whimpered. Just as it should be, I thought to myself , and I depart Chabot college with even greater admiration for the two men whose journalism had confined Chambers, and countless drug cheats like him, to their miserable sporting purgatory.

Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams of the San Francisco Chronicle single-handedly broke the story of the city's Balco laboratory, which supplied many elite American athletes, as well as Chambers, with performance-enhancing drugs. They did so by diligent investigation and the patient nurturing of sources. Their revelations led to the conviction of five people, including Balco's founder Victor Conte, the discrediting of Barry Bonds, the most famous player in baseball and a man whom they revealed to be a serial user of performance-enhancing drugs, and the imposition of a creditable anti-doping regime in baseball.

Eventually Fainaru-Wada and Williams wrote a book about the case, Game of Shadows, which stands as one of the finest sports books of this or any other generation. Their reward for this outstanding work was not a Pulitzer Prize or the grateful thanks of a nation for doing the work of cowardly sporting authorities but a visit from US government officials demanding they reveal their sources to a grand jury investigating the leaking of testimony to journalists who covered the original case. They refused, citing the press's constitutional right to freedom of expression when they publish information that is in the public interest.

This argument might have been expected to prevail in normal times but these are not normal times in the USA. In recent years American courts have shown little sympathy for journalists who have used a public interest defence to protect their sources and it came as little surprise on Tuesday when a federal judge rejected the journalists' case and ordered them to reveal their sources. "The court finds itself bound by the law to subordinate [the reporters'] interests to the interests of the grand jury," wrote US district judge Jeffrey White with a pomposity that suggested he was under the mistaken impression the US's national security had been undermined by Fainaru-Wada and Williams' work and not the nefarious activities of a cabal of drug cheats.

For their part, the journalists said yesterday they will refuse to reveal their sources, a decision that almost inevitably will see them land in jail. Meanwhile, many of the people they exposed continue to go unpunished. As ironies go this one might be funny if it weren't so serious, but it does at least offer a helping hand for anyone who is looking for a little heroism in this saddest of sporting tragedies: look not to the antics of Campbell on a track in Gothenburg but to the conduct of Fainaru-Wada and Williams on the steps of a Californian courthouse.

 

[Zerman]

What ? Another American tested positive ?

Well it's not a surprise ...

 

[bobke]

I think the issue in not that another "American" tested positive, but that another world class athlete tested positive.

And for those who don't think Jan is going to go down, Marion Jones husband was banned with no positive drug test because of the info from the Balco investigation, which was very complete but perhaps not even as complete as Operacion Puerto. So yes, Jan is going down.


from MSNBC:
"in December 2005, the father of her son, sprinter Tim Montgomery, retired from the sport after he was banned for two years for doping violations. He never tested positive but was punished based on information gathered in the BALCO probe"

 

[House]

I think the issue in not that another "American" tested positive, but that another world class athlete tested positive.

Bobke, you have to realize these people don't care who it is or how good the evidence is as long as it's an American getting busted so they can celebrate.

 

[dclee]

According to information released during BALCO, EPO was one of the drugs of choice for track sprinters - owing to the fact it increased oxygen carrying blood cells and its short clearing time period. Kelly White, top track sprinter, was banned for life based on reports during BALCO that she frequently used EPO amongst other drugs - no positive drug test of course, only records of use.

I am really surprised there has not been a more thorough judicial investigation of American track along the lines of the Ben Johnson inquiry. It seems doping is endemic to track like it is to cycling, but with track there is a stronger connection to national team programs than professional cycling - suggesting that the government should dig deep into what is going on in track.

 

[earth_dweller]

So how come no one is up in arms that this information was leaked before test B was done? Is it because she is not well liked? Is it because everyone involved is american and the tests were done in a US lab?

 

[El Loto]

You're not surprised to hear of a sprinter using EPO?

What would a sprinter gain from EPO?

This is the first thing that came to mind when I swa who had tested positive. Well we know Flo-Jo was on drugs, and Carl Lewis. Does anyone remember CJ Hunter, Jones' ex-husband, failing a test for nandrolone and also testifying to the BALCO inquiry that he saw Jones injecting into her stomach in the Sydney Olympic Village?

 

[Ullefan]

I recall an interview on tv with Jone's by former athlete Denise Lewis. In it she asked her how she could get a stomach like hers (ripped). She told her to stay off the sweet stuff. I think this was during or after the 2000 olympics.

 

[burton3eleven]

Actually i am not sure you get much of an arguement about her period.

are you speaking of the female menstrual cycle? does that really make a difference in testing

 

[Minnaert]

What ? Another American tested positive ?

Well it's not a surprise ...

Isn't Basso a Euro? Oh yea what about every other positive, all have to be american?

This is not about national origin but rather what the world as a whole has come to expect from the men and women who compete! Come on making lame remarks about american or euro is ****. This is more about trying to teach the kids in the world that you need to have morals!

 

[burton3eleven]

Isn't Basso a Euro? Oh yea what about every other positive, all have to be american?

This is not about national origin but rather what the world as a whole has come to expect from the men and women who compete! Come on making lame remarks about american or euro is ****. This is more about trying to teach the kids in the world that you need to have morals!

yes, but with all the controversy over another american (need i mention gatlin, landis?, armstrong???) it just doesnt look helpful to the american cause

 

[nns1400]

yes, but with all the controversy over another american (need i mention gatlin, landis?, armstrong???) it just doesnt look helpful to the american cause

What cause?

 

[karlotta]

So how come no one is up in arms that this information was leaked before test B was done? Is it because she is not well liked? Is it because everyone involved is american and the tests were done in a US lab?

+1. American Lab, American athlete, American federation, American newspaper.

Sad thing that any athlete uses performance-enhancing drugs. Wherever it happens, whoever does the testing, sanctioning, reporting.