… As well as when fan boys and a “name” are involved.
It was less than a decade ago that Rebekah Keat, along with Amber Neben and Mike Vine sued Hammer Nutrition for their Endurolyte supplements which were show to contain norandrostenedione.
In short, what should have been legitimate supplements were knowingly or unknowingly contaminated with a steroid precursor. I have my own opinions, but I would not put it passed these supplement companies to knowingly contaminate their “clean” supplements to produce results to sell products.
Bek Keat served a two year suspension for her positive test. During this period of time she fought hard to prove her innocence, and took quite a bit of time to finally isolate, document and bring forward what caused her failed test. In short, even though she was found clear, she pretty much served the same sentence because it took her that long to track, trace, investigate and discover the contaminated supplements. In many ways she got lucky that some others wound up in the same boat as her and they were able to find the commonality and isolate not only the Endurolyte, but show that it was contaminated.
But to the point, bans, suspensions, and the like are a part of sports. I see many who are saying that the recent events are unfair, it is innocent until proven guilty, and in fact, that is not necessarily always the case. One only has to look at many states and drunk driving laws, and if you are pulled over and cited, in most states if the cops think they have enough your license is suspended. You may have your day in court a month later, but your license is still suspended until that day.
We have heard the protestations of a man, his legal team, and the fan boys. On the other side there are also teammates, others and questions on what tests may or may not say, and at minimum, I think for the first time because of this filing, much information will finally be shown in a larger light to be understood, argued, debated, and examined.
The other thing that seems to be glossed over in this “witch hunt” as some term it, is the scope. This is not just a question of whether he did or didn’t, it is a much larger scope and when you look at the 15 page letter, the fact that it was a “group” letter, this is more about a larger conspiracy, whether in theory or reality, and this is no longer just about usage, but {edit} ALSO {edit}
about trafficking. Add into this some suspicious activities from the past like “donating” testing machines, inappropriate visits to testing facilities, and this is a much more serious case.
I was not hear when the Hammer Nutrition scandal first broke, but lives were greatly hurt, and wrongly so. Some may rightfully argue that even so, it is the athletes responsibility to know what they take, so part of this is also a friendly reminder… How much do you “trust” the supplements you take. We consumer electrolytes, gels, mixes, tablets, that help us “recover”, go stronger, go longer, but do you really know? A few athletes paid a very heavy price, not because of a desire to cheat, but because they were trying to maximize their edge within the bounds, and unfortunately had a partner who is not as reliable.
While I think a lot of what has come down in the last 24 hours raises questions about “the edge” that an athlete may or may not have gotten outside the rules, the bigger part that I see, is the pervasiveness of a group of team organizers, doctors and individuals to manipulate the system en mass, which is a much larger issue. This becomes more than Tyler Hamilton stating that they did transfussions, or they talked about it, or he saw this or that, and becomes more about a great deal of their testimony pointing to an athlete more at the forefront with the doctors and team leaders to organize and push the usage and keep it masked.
My read through the 15 page letter was more than “did he use” in the past, but rather how involved was he in the propagation.
Everyone deserves their day. Many had to fight hard after the fact, and have an extremely hard uphill battle to show that their tests were wrong, or at least their culpability in the matter was unintentional.
This is much larger.
It is important to note, that this is just a letter. This is the USADA requesting a response and their likely will be a day in court, but actual use is only 1 of the 6 main categories of charges. Possession, Trafficking, Administration, Assisting & Covering Up, are really the more serious in my eyes. I also think they are the ones that become more about testimony, especially by teammates like Hincapie and Hamilton.
