Pretty safe bet that more Age Groupers dope than Pro's............by a huge margin.

"Clomiphene is used to induce ovulation (egg production) in women who do not produce ova (eggs) but wish to become pregnant (infertility)."

“clomiphene can be used to prevent or mitigate side effects of anabolic steroid abuse such as gynaecomastia or to increase endogenous free testosterone”

https://ita.sport/...-on-ironman-athlete/

Guy didn't even fight it and it still took well over a year for it to be released. He's able to start racing again later this year.

---

blog

This.

Pro tri is cleaner than some other endurance sports not because of any moral high ground but because there's so little money in professional triathlon. It takes funds and connections to dope without getting caught.

Many age groupers are loaded and (apparently) don't mind spending on their hobby.

Yeah, my understanding is that it's used to boost endogenous testosterone production in males.

I don't get it at all. It's not ok for professionals either, but at least I can understand when championships and significant money are on the line. But when it's age group bragging rights, and you'd know that it really wasn't you - why bother?!?

The link also says it was an out-of-competition test. So Ironman must have had sufficient evidence that they wanted to send a Doping Control Officer to his hotel 3 days before the IMWC.

LMAO he doped to win an AG where the best in his AG are actually pros? So he wanted to brag about being like the 76th? 100th? best 30-34M in the world? That's remarkably pathetic.

October 4, 2022. So was he tested in Kona? I'm assume they were tipped off since I don't think they'd do out-of-competition testing on an AGer without some strong evidence.

They can't do an out-of-competition test unless you've signed that you consent to their anti-doping program, as part of the Kona/Nice or 70.3 qualification. They can't just roll up to a random AG's house and demand a sample. Even for WC qualified athletes, they wouldn't test you unless there was a tip.

Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering what the worst would happen if they wanted to test an AG athlete either in or out of competition and they said no. I suspect the worst is that they'd bar you from participating in their events, no? Would they bother even referring you to WADA, and even if they did, what are they going to do? If dude knew he was glowing, I figure that the easy way out is just to say no.

This is our annual reminder that just because they caught someone doesn't mean that the sport is dirty or clean - it just means that they caught someone. A very good anti-doping regime which catches a few people in a relatively clean sport looks the same from the outside as a poor anti-doping regime which catches a few people in a dirty sport.

Said another way - when anti-doping is doing what it's supposed to be doing, will only produce negative headlines.

IIRC, there's a check box on active that you have read the drug testing/doping policy when you sign up for any Ironman branded race. I haven't read through it but I wonder if that policy is the same as the world championship policy you typically get handed at slot allocation.

You could turn them away regardless if you were in the pool or not, it would basically be a positive test and likely a 4 year ban.

---

blog

For pros there is big $ on the line and more incentive to get on the hot sauce. It's ridiculously easy to pass these tests. Fans continue to be naive and that's fine, but you're delusional if you think less than 15% of the PTO top 100 wouldn't piss purple.

Maybe this needs to be it own thread but this kinda brings up a question I've had for a while.

How many of you out there in AG categories have ever been tested? I came from primary racing bikes (crits & road racing) and over 4 years I was tested twice. I never won a race they were both random draws at an event. I've been doing triathlon for a lot longer. I race 6-8 times a year. A couple Ironman events and other USAT sanctioned events and I have never been tested or even seen someone get tested. I've podiumed races and finish near the front in short course stuff. So I'm just curious as to how often are AG athletes even tested?

---

Peak NA Cocktails for Recovery
WAE Clothing
Youtube

I would agree if you had results showing that 1000 athletes were tested and only 1 failed a doping test. Or something to that effect.

---

http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

Its mainly used for post cycle therapy after exogenous testosterone usage.

So not just taking it, taking so much he needed to manage the side effects. Insane.

---

Dimond Bikes Superfan

Ironman has tested AGers at Worlds check-ins before (and got 3 positives back in 2018), which I believe this date lines up with

My understanding is that in the process of taking these drugs the body stops producing testosterone and this is required to get off of the drug cycle and restart natural production. He was caught for this, but likely it was testosterone he was abusing.

This is a strange result that always concerned me.
Ironman Melbourne 2014 Asia Pacific Championship.
In Australia in those days that was a flat and fast course with a big number of Kona slots.
It sold out in hours.
Before the race I was told random Age Groupers were going to be tested as they registered.
Whether this happened or not I didn't know, but that was the rumour.
1870 finishers.
69 DNF and DQs
259 DNS!!!!

So many did not register.

https://www.sportsplits.com/races/4019

In my years of racing I was only tested once. That was AG Nationals where I was in the first AG to go off and placed second. I had a handful of AG wins but never tested there. So I'd say in the 6+ years in racing at the front of the field I was tested once and it wasn't a IM race.

---

Twitter - Instagram

I think it's generally not because they want to be better at triathlon, they just enjoy the performance enhancing aspects, the vanity, and their hobby happens to be tri.

I don't race anymore. I'm not on TRT or anything. But I'm 40 now, and with most of my hobbies being athletics related, I can totally see the appeal of taking something that would help me train, recover, and look like I'm 25 again. If I were to do so, and want to race again, I would wish there would be a way I could do so and disclose as such and just have an astrix next to my name on results or something instead of being unable to race or have to lie about it.

Not saying this guy would come clean and I'm sure a lot of people lie about it and pretend to be natural, but I can understand why AG athletes dope.

---

Long Chile was a silly place.

Something that never made sense about these out-of-competition tests for people outside of a registered testing pool. Yes, you consent to OOC testing, but if you're not in a pool there's no whereabouts reporting and no real identification structure. If you're an AG who's doping why would you even answer the door for someone in a WADA shirt? Just say you're not home. Or answer the door and say no, this isn't John Doe, it's his brother.

It all seems like a lot of trouble just to win an AG race that no one knows about.