Hello everyone,
I haven’t been here very long. But I keep reading things about doping, and not everything is always true. I work for a national anti-doping agency and am a triathlete myself. Feel free to write and ask anything you want about doping here. I’ll try to answer all your questions.
How clean do you think triathlon is at the pro level?
Not getting many doping cases can either mean ‘the sport is relatively clean’ or it can mean ‘anti doping agencies aren’t effective’ (or both I guess)
I know it’s a big question, but if you have a personal opinion, it would be great to hear from some on the inside
Have you read through the various doping threads here on Slowtwitch?
Are there particular areas where “things” have been asserted were not “true” and if so please share, say why they’re false, and say what you believe the truth to be.
Probaly a more telling question is how much actual financial investment is done in anti-doping within triathlon. IM spends $1mi a year, PTO spends an undisclosed amount, and then individual federations spend whatever they are allocated to spend. Needless to say it’s not a ton of financial resources being provided so your question imo is more N/A response than anything.
Whatever happened with the age group testing at Challenge Roth? How many people were tested, and how many people had a positive test?
And what proportion of the spend should be on education versus testing regimes for optimum effect. (Bonus Q: What is the metric for that?)
Was LA hard done by?
Triathlon is not yet highly regarded in all countries, so testing is not carried out to the same extent everywhere. This is also evident from the fact that almost all of the recent positive cases were uncovered by the ITA.
My opinion on how clean triathlon is. I strongly believe that the vast majority of athletes are clean. Look, it’s the same as in other sports. There are athletes (the vast majority) who almost never have abnormal values in doping controls and who have no problems with their whereabouts, etc. And then there are athletes who repeatedly have abnormalities or missed tests because they are not at the specified location. And most of the time, it is these athletes who end up being banned at some point.
But of course, triathlon is a sport that is predestined for doping. On the other hand, triathletes are often lone fighters and do not have a medical network in their team, as is the case in other sports.
As I said, I haven’t been here very long, but I have read a few things.
I think there are certainly some misconceptions about the whole process, from the positive test, to the notification, provisional suspension, the status of the B sample, and the final suspension.
And also about testing in the age group area. The basic mandate of the NADOs is clearly aimed at elite sport, and that is what they are funded for. Therefore, it is up to the events to finance these tests.
Around 60 tests were carried out. Most NADOs only inform athletes if their test results are positive. Challenge Roth, as the client, will receive the results of all tests. I think they will then publish them. This will probably happen in the next few weeks.
LA?
Yes, that is correct. The ITA does a good job, including in the area of investigations. The NADOs then decide for themselves how often they want to test athletes on their own initiative.
Lance Armstrong.
In the Simmonds case, ‘ongoing’, are there ‘things’ in the thread which are not “true”? What key misconceptions would you most like to correct?
Perhaps you’d like to comment on the results management and, with your expert insight, suggest why this has not yet been resolved. What machinations are likely to be the source of delay?
what is the best way to get to an athlete tested (IM event) even though you have no evidence? I feel the anonymous tip lines ignore this
Maybe the lack of evidence is the problem?
I have sent in a few “tips” to that line over the years for athletes who have straight up admitted to doping and nothing ever happened.
Have to imagine that the tips on Mirror Man filled up the answering machine. And something happened…This is a tricky one too, my guess is that “most” of the tips are from disgruntled partners, or people with a grudge(not doping related) against someone. It is a type of swatting that I’m sure is going on at a high level.
So they have to sift through all of this and try and find the real tips. My guess once again is probably the amount of tips on a particular person. Then they have to sift through and research what kind of athlete are we talking about. Is it an AG winner, podium, or BOP’er. With severely limited tests to hand out, certainly a consideration.
But like you I know of and have had a lot of people tell me about their doping(although many dont consider themselves dopers) The whole Doc prescribed me this excuse, but that works well in their heads to alleviate any responsibility for that action…
Curious how you know nothing was done? Like you know they didn’t even investigate it, or they didn’t end up testing the athlete? I would assume the investigation is going to be thorough or else everyone would just call the tip line that “Bryandcd is doping”.
I would think it’s a complicated process because “admitting” they doped to a friend/other person and then actually getting sanctioned are likely a ton of protocols to go through.
Boy is that the truth.
I don’t know although they kept racing and in at least one case, they probably would have told me.