It seems a lot of people believe there is very little doping in triathlon. I don’t understand this. It’s an elite, professionnal endurance sport so of course there’s doping!
I don’t share your cynicism. And it isn’t really an elite professional sport, it remains a niche event (although growing) with only a few athletes make a living from it.
In the end, I don’t know for a fact that there is little doping. But as someone who has spent an unhealthy amount of time studying doping in cycling and some forms of athletics, I have to say I see none of the tell tale symptoms: we don’t see ridiculous changes in form nor do we see indifferent juniors suddenly emerging with a different skill set as adults. It seems it is possible to cheat the system with microdosing etc, but for that, you need medical expertise to get it right and I don’t see where that is happening, if it is.
I have some insider knowledge of what goes on in Leeds and it is a surprisingly healthy, almost amateurish set up and if they are world beaters, then I don’t think the people they are beating are doing anything too evil… Perhaps that makes me a naive idiot but there you have it!
I sincerely hope you’re right! Better to be naïve or a cynic?
I’ve always wanted to believe that the sport I’m watching is true competition, be it all those years of watching Lance and thinking the worst of doping in cycling ended in 1998 with the Festina bust, or wanting to believe those amazing Kenyan runners are the real deal… But I understand your perspective with respect to no outlier performances or rapid, unusual development.
But I would only be truly convinced with a rigorous bio passport scheme and OOC testing protocol. Maybe that’s happening and we, the fans, are just not being made aware of it. Or maybe it’s happening and the ITU doesn’t think it’s good to publicise it. Or maybe, like many sports, only lip-service is being paid to the issue to give the appearance of legislating a clean sport, but in reality they would rather not catch too many PED users because that would be bad publicity. Again, I honestly hope you’re right. Meanwhile, I’ll keep watching, wanting to believe it’s all honest competition.