With doping scandals in cycling and positive drug tests in triathlon, I think it’s time to have a discussion about PED.
Do you know how WTC works in terms of PED prevention? As far as I understand, WTC is not part of the IOC, whereas ITU is. Thus, I assume that WTC can make their own rules. From their annual budget, how much money do they spend in trying to keep our sport clean? We all know they make huge bucks! They should post those numbers and show that they make an effort in keeping (who know’s if it ever was) endurance tri clean.
If an athlete tests positive during an WTC event, is he banned from IOC sports? How about drug testing during the season. I know from experience that IOC and NCAA athletes get tested during training. What is the drug testing protocol of WTC? I think they should test during the season as well. Do you know if they do? If not then the entire sport is a joke and we might as well make it PED legal.
Do they test the top 10 on Hawaii? How often do they test those top 10 Hawaii finishers during the following year without prior notice? How many pros that qualify for Hawaii during a Half IM or IM are tested randomly without prior notice?
I just have a difficult time believing that endurance tri are clean, especially since (endurance) road racing is plagued by doping scandals.
How about we collect signatures and ask WTC if they can publically show how many Triathletes are tested per year? If they don’t test often, then they got to change it. If they test sufficiently, then they would have nothing to hide. I think test results should be made public.
When did the WTC start testing athletes for PED abuse?
Doping is cheating. EPO and other PED’s are just as bad as using fins during the swim, skipping 10km of the bike course, or catching a bus ride during the run.
What is the latest news on Beke, what about Kraft? ironmanlive.com is a fuckn joke. Didn’t read anything about any positive doping tests on their site? Isn’t ironmanlive.com the WTC website? I thought it was. If it really is then the lack of PED coverage looks like a bold statement to me: They don’t care about a clean sport, all they care about is their money.
The WTC is a company, nothing more, nothing less. The IM Events are their product and making money is their purpose.
Yes, they are a company selling their product. In the past 20 years, the company’s product became really popular. They make so much money, yet they do not offer very much prize purse for the professional athletes at IM Hawaii (the world championships…). And at the same time they either do not care about a clean sport or do not much about it.
That would be another reason not to do M-dot races.
good luck with the write-in campaign, let me know how it goes. wtc will never disclose that information, and there is nothing to say they actually know it, absent being legally compelled to do so. even if you believe that it would benefit the sport to have an open policy, there is no evidence that it would benefit wtc – and therefore no need to disclose it. further, you have overarching laws regarding peoples privacy to contend with. you just don’t sweep those under the rug so a few people can feel better about their beloved sport.
look for those stats from a mandatory drug testing sport like football and i think you will have no idea how many running backs are smoking mary-jane, unless of course they all quit and tell the public how other athletes are cheating the test, but that is another story entirely.
endurance sport is not clean and will never be. i’d worry about something that matters like keeping drunk drivers from picking off cyclists.
Same things have been floating through my mind for awhile now.
the reason you, I and many others do the M-dot races is b/c that is where the competition is to be found and that that is the only way to book your ticket to the holy ground of Kona (which sadly the evil forces at WTC own).
as for caring about their money… i flew back to the states with Ben Fertic and was occasionally over hearing some of his conversations with a couple other WTC staff (??? I am assuming they were staff)… seems like every other sentence he was getting animated at how either they needed to find a way to outsource fault to someone else (e.g. - penalties are a USAT prob) or to throw the blame for an incident onto some other entity
ridiculous… to me he sounded no different then Ken Lay and to think I have a finance degree… is this what i am on the cusp of getting into with corporate america??? $$$ at any cost???
It would be great if Dan, or someone else who knows would chime in here about what relationship the WTC has with the ITU, the various national fedeations( USAT and the like) and WADA as it pertains to drug testing. I am not sure exactly, but Ironman races and the athletes that focus on them, exclusivly, fall into a bit a grey area. I suspect that they are not tested as rigourously in competition and out, as athletes who compete on the ITU circuit or in other endurance sports, but I am not sure on this. I could be wrong. Just want to get a bit of background information.
I know that the relationship between the WTC and the ITU has been rocky in the past. Where is it at now?
then why not make it PED legal? How do you motivate somebody that wants to make it pro some day, knowing that some pros (I’m sure only selected few, I hope) cheat AND not much is being done about it???
Yes, they are more serious issues in life, keeping drunk drivers off the street is one of them. But at the same time we do a sport knowing that there are certain rules. And most people follow those rules to keep the game fair. If not much is being done about athletes cheating, how can upcoming athletes and those trying to make a living justify (besides the moral and ethical issues) not taking PED?
do you think more people would drive drunk if the law against it wouldn’t be enforced?