Howman suspects the Armstrong investigation could be as significant as the BALCO case



baker3

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Howman suspects the Armstrong investigation could be as significant as the BALCO case
The director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency David Howman has suggested the US federal investigation currently embroiling Lance Armstrong could become as significant as the BALCO investigation that exposed the use of steroids in baseball and athletics.

Much of the BALCO investigation work was carried out by federal agent Jeff Novitzky. He is also investigating Armstrong and other riders following Floyd Landis' claims of wide-spread doping at the U.S. Postal Service team.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/howman-suspects-the-armstrong-investigation-could-be-as-significant-as-the-balco-case
 
I hope not. It'd be nice to have an investigation that actually did something... I thought the Festina Affair was a joke and that the PDM intralipid, EPO in a bag on a stick (ok it wasn't but they did use drips for 'other stuff'), affair was a farce but Balco topped the lot.

It was well known that steroids were taking in athletics. It was known that they were taking in baseball - it was just that MLB, for whatever reason, didn't test at that time and their penalties for positives are still laughable. Nothing 'new' was uncovered.

So what has changed? A few guys in the Bay Area got a couple of months in prison and stepped back their operation to selling vitamins. Marion Jones got busted primarily for a check fraud scheme and oddly got a very reduced sentence - one can presume because she admitted doping guilt. Sure she lost her Olympic medals but wasn't someones toy in the prison showers for a decade or so for the fraud scheme, so I'd say she got off pretty well. Jason Giambi... he admitted he took BALCO's product and nothing happened to him. Bill Romanowski - all doping charges against him were swept under the table and he even admitted to taking BALCO stuff. Barry Bond... ah Barry. About 1/2 a decade and they still can't get his case to trial. They're rumoured to have a date for sometime the middle of next year. Rumoured. He's the only one to get burned. A $40million per year pay check disappeared and there seems to be not enough proof to get him in court, let alone prosecute for anything just yet. It'd be a sweet day if Barry could file a law suit against Novitzky for lost earnings.

A farce isn't it...

It'd be nice if MLB would have similar sanctions to all other sports. Ain't gonna happen though - a 2 month (well, 50 game) smack on the wrist for a first offence. Doesn't hurt too much when the minimum salary is $400K per year. Compare that to a 2 year ban for a domestique on a continental pro team that not even earning a 1/10th of that.

All that hullabaloo with Congress being involved that was horse sh1t. Those guys do little enough as it is, why don't they get on with something useful for the general populace? Ah the images of Mark McGwire... a bit of TV shame and nothing happened about him taking 'roids.

Significant? I really hope that the investigation into Postal is conducted a little better than the Balco pantomime.
 
Originally Posted by swampy1970 .

A farce isn't it...

It'd be nice if MLB would have similar sanctions to all other sports. Ain't gonna happen though - a 2 month (well, 50 game) smack on the wrist for a first offence. Doesn't hurt too much when the minimum salary is $400K per year. Compare that to a 2 year ban for a domestique on a continental pro team that not even earning a 1/10th of that.
Interesting, our local version of football when facing the media, often takes the high moral ground in regards to drugs. They have a 3 strikes policy which makes the MLB sanctioning appear harsh.
 
not exactly the issues howman raised, swampy. my take on this is how balco showed how pervasive ped usage is in the american sports industry.

one must admit, swampy, that the message underlying your recap of the balco investigation is an american public unwilling to be outraged by the doping issue in any manner like that applied in cycling. given the amounts of money to be had in each professional league in this country, one understands why the owners don't care to have their athletes punished, why the athletes don't want to see their earnings taken away, & why the fans of those teams don't want to see the chance of a championship diminished. and the prospect of earning that jackpot of riches informs why parents seem to be uninterested in an application of testing for their children. quite frankly, the only ones who seem to have any concern about how ped's are filtering down in the amateur ranks are the parents whose children have died due to some connection to ped's (mostly steroid). perhaps in time, this country will come around to understanding the nobility of "fair play" over the simple satisfaction of a greater medal haul through better methods of cheating.
 

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