argmac wrote:
They are more the norm than the exceptions. Even in disciplines like archery they take anti Parkinson and blood pressure reducers to have better a steadier hand.
Think about it for a second. You have devoted your life to this. You have burnt most bridges that lead to other career paths. There is the economic incentive. The juice is readily available (it can even be ordered over the internet). It is undetectable if you do it well. And above all, you know that others are doing it and getting a significant advantage over you if you don't. What are your choices? Not making the games or having a chance at winning.
Of course you can still believe in fairy tales. The honest, hard working American or Brit that can beat the dishonest, but hard working Russian or Chinese that has all the state resources behind him to juice him to the max. Dream on.
Well, if doping is going on in American swimming, it must be very, very well hidden. If Phelps were on steroids or EPO or whatever, then I would imagine the accusations would've been flying back in 2008 after he won his 8 gold, i.e. "yeah he won 8 gold but only b/c he's juicing". And the accusers would've been especially livid at Jason Lezak pulling out the fastest 100 lcm relay split out of thin air, essentially swimming about a full second better than his best 100 free, to win the 4x100 free relay.
Taking it down to just a slightly lower level, the ST poster "tallswimmer" finished 4th in the 200 IM in the 2008 U.S. Oly Trials, and the three guys who beat him were Phelps, Lochte, and Eric Shanteau, who's the American record (AR) holder in the 200 breast. So in essence he was beaten by three guys who were all AR and/or WR holders, but did he come on here and complain that those guys were doping and he was clean??? NO, you can bet you fricking ass he did not; he just said he had a great career and came up just a little short of Oly qualifying.
Similarly, there is another ST posters known as "govols" who swam with Melvin Stewart back in the early 90s when Melvin was the WR holder in the 200 fly from 1989 to 1995. In the 1992 Games, Stewart won gold in the 200 fly, gold in the 400 medley relay, bronze in the 800 FR relay, and took 5th in the 100 fly. So, govols and Melvin swam side by side for two full years (1991-93 IIRC) through around 1600 practices and roughly 100,000 repeats, yet govols said he was never ever able to beat Melvin on even one single repeat. Their 200 yd fly times were only about 2-3 sec apart but yet Stewart's drive would not let him lose a single repeat in a single practice. Did govols say "oh sure but that b/c he was doping and I was clean"??? NO, he simply said that Stewart trained harder than any swimmer he'd ever seen.
In yet another example, I know two guys at the pool i swim at, one who swam at the U. of TN and one who swam at Indiana U. Both swam with guys who made the Oly team in either '08 or '12. Do they say that the reason those guys made the team was b/c they doped??? No, they just say those guys were faster than they were.
TAKE YOUR UNFOUNDED DOPING ACCUSATIONS AND SHOVE THEM UP YOUR ASS.
"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."