The whole deal with the TUE story is the Russian hackers are unhappy that Russia was singled out for a ban when it is widely known that pretty much everyone pushes the limits (i.e., cheats). Rich Western sponsors/backers/governments with close ties to anti-doping agencies and sporting federations get to use TUEs (and other arenas too I’m sure) to legally do shady shit because there is ample room for interpretation by well-paid docs and well-placed handlers.
I don’t know how this is far-fetched to anyone interested in cycling after years of Armstrong bullshit. Look at the Olympic medal counts and the GDPs of the countries behind them. Yeah, we just have that much more natural talent, uh-huh… Sports is business. At the highest level it is show business.[/quote]
I don’t disagree with your analysis, but it leaves out one aspect which led to Russia being singled out. Rather than game the system like everyone else with TUEs they engaged in systematic evasion of doping controls.
Doping is fine, just pee in the cup not on the rules
The whole deal with the TUE story is the Russian hackers are unhappy that Russia was singled out for a ban when it is widely known that pretty much everyone pushes the limits (i.e., cheats). Rich Western sponsors/backers/governments with close ties to anti-doping agencies and sporting federations get to use TUEs (and other arenas too I’m sure) to legally do shady shit because there is ample room for interpretation by well-paid docs and well-placed handlers.
I don’t know how this is far-fetched to anyone interested in cycling after years of Armstrong bullshit. Look at the Olympic medal counts and the GDPs of the countries behind them. Yeah, we just have that much more natural talent, uh-huh… Sports is business. At the highest level it is show business.[/quote]
Yeah everyone has something to be ashamed of but there is little doubt that Russia is a far worse offender than any major Western country. They had a full-on state-sponsored doping/coverup programme involving the FSB (formerly known as the KGB), with doping labs flat out faking the test results to allow unlimited doping by top russian athletes. This wasn’t the usual minor trickery around the edges by some shady individuals.
[quote=dorth]yeah it’s not really that interesting. tues for cortisone janws and attention deficit meds can’t be that rare or controversial… even with biles - she posted this on twitter
I would agree most of this seems prett legit. not as juicy as I hoped tbh[/quote]
lots of athletes legitimately have ADHD.
Part of the reason for this is that really intense exercise (interval training, specifically) actually treats ADHD effectively. That being said, it affects all areas of your life, as ADHD has a strong emotional dysregulatory component, which means you get in trouble a lot for doing and saying mean/terrible things far more often than others.
LeMond talks about his own experience with it, Phelps is pretty open about it.
One of the reasons I stopped racing was my antidepressant is on the watch list of substances, and I was ashamed of it for a long time. This sucks because racing really helped temporarily cure my depression issues. ADHD is very similar.
more interesting facts: Dr Russell Barkley talks a bit about how ADHD is slightly more common in America, and the thought is that, since we know it’s hereditary (family incidence and twin concordance studies) we think that people who thought emigrating to the US was a good idea were much more likely to be risk-ignorant via some type of ADHD. We now think there are subtypes of ADHD, and that each is actually quite different, neurologically, and maybe we can begin to get better data on heredity using this as a means of stratification.
This. For every Armstrong getting a back dated TUE to keep the legacy on track or Wiggins a decade later doing the same shit to help open the British market, I’m sure there are countless avid amateurs and nameless workhorse pros who don’t deserve to have their privacy violated or given additional scrutiny.
Yeah I read the whole thing with the labs and the secret services. You know what: I think we do the same thing but whitewashed through systems like TUEs. I have no love Russia. When I think about it without bias though my opinion is that they were the only ones caught for the same reason Armstrong felt persecuted: they crossed a line and they were dicks about it.
This. For every Armstrong getting a back dated TUE to keep the legacy on track or Wiggins a decade later doing the same shit to help open the British market, I’m sure there are countless avid amateurs and nameless workhorse pros who don’t deserve to have their privacy violated or given additional scrutiny.[/quote]
I don’t agree with the way the hackers handled it either. I mean, they are most likely paid off or seeking a reward from the Russian government for their efforts. This is cyber-warfare. The amateurs are collateral damage. At the same time, the likelihood that you are fucking around with an advanced doping regimen using the bureaucracy of sports as a cover probably approaches zero very quickly as soon as you are clear of the crowd with their faces on boxes of Wheaties. Correct me if I’m wrong, but have any second tier athletes in (insert unpopular sport here) even been scrutinized in these leaks?
Yeah I read the whole thing with the labs and the secret services. You know what: I think we do the same thing but whitewashed through systems like TUEs. I have no love Russia. When I think about it without bias though my opinion is that they were the only ones caught for the same reason Armstrong felt persecuted: they crossed a line and they were dicks about it.
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TUEs and other shit is small potatoes compared to this. Maybe (probably) a lot of athletes don’t have the illnesses they claim and are aided by crooked doctors and perhaps officials who are willing to turn a blind eye but that has to be proven on a case by case basis. Setting up a large-scale state-sponsored program to evade testing is a completely different ball game. So yeah I agree that the Russians crossed a line. Everybody uses trickery of one sort or another but this was way too gross to ignore.
Whelp… we all knew something like this was on the horizon. Hopefully it’s cost prohibitive for a while or at least delayed for a few years while testing continues. If not… sounds like we will see this again:
Skin fibroblast culture and aav generation is pretty routine stuff–I can’t imagine this costing a lot. Depending on the size and location of the implant, it might be detectable by pcr?
every time i watch doping era videos like that i just assume their veins must almost hurt with all that shit in there. there’s also no amount of any synthetic or natural substance i could put into my body that would make me that fast for even 10% of the time.