I’m doing IM Germany next weekend. Noticed on the race website the following news:
For the race on July 1st 2007 the organizer of the Frankfurter Sparkasse IRONMAN European Championship (IRONMAN Germany) will test even more extensively for doping than in the past.
Aside from the already considerable tests for the pro athletes, numerous additional tests will be done in the age groups.
Kai Walter (Race Director IRONMAN) and Kurt Denk (President IRONMAN) emphasize that through this they are taking a further step down the road against doping, which, after the statutory declaration for the pros, leads to expect more measures in the future.
Pretty good news, I think, because I have my suspicions over here in Germany – the competition (especially amongst the triathlon clubs) is pretty keen and the times for some of the age groupers is just mindblowing. Just wondering if I’m out of the loop – is IMNA or any other U.S. race series doing amateur drug testing (or WTC for that matter)?
Another thing I like about the IM Germany race – they offer, for 11 euro, race “cancellation insurance” as an option when you register for the 2008 race. Don’t have to eat a big loss if you get hurt and can’t make it to the starting line…
I was thinking about this last night on my run. I woudl not be suprised if you saw the testing of top AGers in the US after races. of course this creates a whole big problem outlining what is a supplement and what is a PED for the AGers.
There would be no problem defining doping because the program is already in place. Competing in sanctioned races under your NGB means you are subject to the same Anti-Doping controls (www.wada-ama.org) as the pros. Amount of testing done is likely highly correlated with the amount of testing dollars available, meaning the testing of AG’s is very infrequent if never.
numerous additional tests will be done in the age groups
Although the verbiage infers it “will be done”, my guess is its simply a scare tactic. Drug testing is very expensive (not to mention the margin of error increases) for “numerous” tests. They would have to raise entries fees considerably to offset the price tag.
I don’t know why they would test AGers. If an AGer dopes, then who cares? It does not affect anybody else, and it is pretty much a cop out. People are “amazed” with how fast some AGers go; however, they are not amazed by the “pro” who does the same amount of training as a given AGer but simply chooses to race in a different category. The terms pro and AGer are really quite arbitrary, and it is quite apparent that drugs are not needed to be a top AGer, as there are many other pros and AGers who have already gone faster while being clean. If some dude wants to use drugs to break 9:00 or 9:30, then they are just lazy. What would concern me much more would be someone using drugs to break 8:00 (at a race other than Roth).
When someone artificially raises the bar beyond what any natural human being has done it is a problem. When someone uses drugs to place 39th or 390th overall, it is only a problem for that person. Someone will claim it is “not fair” for the others in the category they race in; but what do categories really mean any way? Breaking out so many different race categories is just a way to make lots of people feel good about themselves. I think we should all strive to feel good about ourselves without defining the success of our performance based on the performance of other people that day. The one exception being for those who truly are the very best in the world at their trade; for those people it can sometimes make sense to define a performance based on someone else. Its those folks who need to be tested. The guy who is trying to wins the category of “men between the age of 30 and 34 who are fast but not fast enough to try to race pro” shouldn’t get tested. He is already playing second fiddle to someone who just chose a different category.
One way to lessen doping would be to get rid of categories other than Male/Female. The AGers who are now claimed to be dopers would probably second guess themselves. Who cares if you go 8:45 vs 9:15 when you are still miles and miles behind the winner?
There can be more at stake in an ag race than you think. At the smaller races there is a sense of pride and accomplishment to place high amongst your peers, along with potential prize wins which may seem small to some but based on financial situations can be big to others. Even a free pair of shoes for example can be a great reward for some long hard training days. In the bigger picture the trip to Kona can inspire people to get out and train hard day in and day out trying to reach that level of competition in the ag, and placing at an IM could be the pay off for so many days of missed skiing, or skipping a mountain bike ride to get in that brick work out. Doppers suck at any level, get them in age groups before it gets worse.
Some AG’ers care if others dope because it is their goal to get the coveted spot to Kona. Some AG’ers work their a$$es off and spend a lot of time and money to do their best and to loose their goal\dream\spot to kona to a doper is just not fair to the clean AG’er.
some of the most competitive people i’ve seen are those that jockey for the top AG slots (they take it very seriously, and are so committed and enthusiastic). i don’t know any dopers personally, but i’d hate to see one of my buddies, or anyone, get jilted because someone doped. while it may not effect me directly (as in getting robbed of a Kona slot), doping still negatively effects the sport overall…it’s a bad thing.
doping sucks.
i just hope if it comes to this, it can be done without increasing entry fees. is that realistic though? there is a price for more testing…
I don’t know about the other European contries, but in Sweden the Swedish Triathlon Association are connect to the Swedish Sportsassociation (shortage RF). That means we are all up for testing (I’m an Ag:er) in and out of competition. Which makes it pretty hard to take any banned substance, which’s of course good, since you know that your compitetors are clean! So fare I have been tested three times. Once when I was playing American Football(out of competition!). Two times in Triathlon in competition.
Of course there can still be ppl taking something that doesn’t show up in tests, but I’m feeling quite comfortable that no swedish triathlete can afford such stuff and have that mindset!
Awesome news…I won’t pass too much judgement aside from statistics. In 1993 when I did Ironman Roth 55 guys went sub 9 hours. Keep in mind that this course is ~20 min fast. Even then, we don’t get 55 guys sub 9:20 here in North America. I know the Euros are studs, but our pros are no slower than “their pros”, so I can’t see how “our age groupers” are so much slower than “their age groupers”. Maybe they just train harder, but there are a ton of guys here who train hard too.
Either way, the news is good. Frankly, I don’t care what my competition does…if they want to cheat themselves to the podium, they have to live with it and I don’t know how someone who dopes in the age group ranks can sleep at nite peacefully with a clear mind!
**When someone artificially raises the bar beyond what any natural human being has done it is a problem. When someone uses drugs to place 39th or 390th overall, it is only a problem for that person. Someone will claim it is “not fair” for the others in the category they race in; but what do categories really mean any way? Breaking out so many different race categories is just a way to make lots of people feel good about themselves. **
You’re getting too deep into philosophy here. First and foremost, it is a race, a competition. To be a true race, it has to be fair. Doping is cheating, it is clearly not fair.
If you think otherwise, that it is not critical for AGers, then my response would be don’t just eliminate the AG brackets, but also the overall non-pro placings. Also, eliminate the Kona slots. Just use a lottery to award all the slots every year.
When I read your post it struck me that if in the US I was offered a “good cycle” of steroids at a YMCA in Indiana (when I used to spend a lot of time pumping iron…) that it’s plausible that I could find a “good cycle” of endurance PED’s in Europe. I don’t know, maybe I could find them here, too, but certainly no one has offered to sell me any.
When we just had posts about competitors cutting courses to move up in their age group of course people will dope to move up. I haven’t seen any long term effects of some of the peds unlike some of the older steroids, so I’m sure the results of age group testing will not surprise me if the percentages reach 20+%.
I think the reason why Euros are better than NA’s are the following:
1: In Euro you are in triathlon to compete, not to just finish the race. I think you can weight in a lot into this. That’s also why triathlon is a really small sport in Europe since the “elitism” scares a ppl to start with the sport… Atleast that’s the case in Sweden.
2: Work climate, in Europe it’s quite common that you have 30 days paid vacation that you are expected to take out during the year. Also if you have a 40h/week day it’s also quite common that you only work 40h/week.
3: We actually do train, instead of surfing on Slowtwitch, me being the exception then…
4: Long distance culture, bicycling is the third biggest sport! I espacially think many of the good germany AG:ers is former hardcore roadies…
Guess I might start a debate, but I refuse to think of good euros as dopers just because of the results, basing everything on my experience from my race in IM Wisconsin 2005. Where I saw atleast 50% of the field looking like they had a really really long way to go before they actually need banned substances to improve their fitness.
You probably just don’t hang out with the right crowd. I think you can see the ‘nutritional supplement’ culture evolving particularly among younger people. When I was in high school the only ‘nutritional supplement’ (that I was aware of) was carrot juice. Now, I see young guys spending loads of time mixing ‘supplement’ drinks in the locker room (curious they don’t do it at the snack bar), this has escalated over the past 5 yrs. I’m sure most of it’s legit but there’s a mentality there that ‘supplements’ are essential to raising your fitness level.
It’s naive to believe this attitude isn’t infiltrating the tri-community at the AG level. Will drug testing help? unlikely but maybe. I’d second kittycat’s concern over price. Here’s a suggestion: make it difficult to win w/PEDs as possible, but no more than that. There are greater evils than getting away with drug use (see Slowman’s recent oped piece).
If you test AGers, you should create a “recreational” class for people to enter who might be using drugs, have no interest in cheating, but want to do an ironman.