TennesseeJed wrote:
I would like to see all KQ athletes tested. You pay $X for the test, in addition to your Kona Registration. If you pass, you get a portion of $X back. If you fail, you loose all of $X and your Kona Reg. In a sense you are putting a deposit down for your test, part of which is returned upon passing. Those who fail do not get their deposit back. Their full deposit + their Kona Reg funds part of the clean athletes' tests.
Ironman would assume some risk in the process above because to accurately price the tests, they would need a decent prediction of the failure rate. That said, if the tests are prohibitively expensive, it really all goes out the window. The result of the scenario I outlined however may simply result in people that know they are dirty not taking kona spots to avoid the test. Does that clean up the field? No, but at least it helps make the qualification fair when it comes to PEDs.
Depending on how expensive the tests were, if you put the onus of paying for them on people who KQ the scenario that you outline would also result in people that don't have very much money declining Kona spots. How then would you differentiate those who were broke from those who were cheating?
Basically, it would force people to pay a lot of extra money, even clean athletes to prove they're clean or risk being ostracized and accused of being dirty even if they weren't dirty.
Think about how slow twitch blows up every time there is the slightest sniff of a potential cheater. If somebody declines, people here would automatically accuse them of being a cheater, even if they declined because they couldn't afford it.
We are not all dentists, and some of us race on extremely tight budgets but still do dream of going to Kona