Excellent show on right now on HBO with Frank Deford (Sports Illustrated) and the Tyler Hamilton case. I had pretty much decided that Hamilton was guilty, but this show threw a lot of doubt on that. There was a doctor from MIT who testified that half of all people are chimeras–much more common than previously thought. This was backed by a doctor from the Mayo clinic, who said that “50-70%” of all people are chimeric, and that we hadn’t known that previously because there had never been a test that could detect that condition. Also, the doctor who voted for Hamilton in his appeal stated that they only found about 1-2% of another blood in Hamilton…not enough to enhance performance at all. Pretty interesting.
I just finished watching it too, and it definitely made me think differently on the subject. As for the rest of the peloton not testing positive, I don’t think an explanation was given, but one of the doctors did state that the % will change in your blood depending on if its regenerating and by how much.
What I gathered from the info is that the test will show that you have an other person’s blood, but its not 100% of where and how the blood got there.
Would it not be possible to separate the blood into the two types and test the DNA to see if they are related. Is that possible?
Good question…they didn’t say. Since this is a test that has only been with us since the '04 Olympics, I would guess that less than 1/2 the pro-peloton has been tested with this specific test. Or not…I don’t know how often this test is used.
I remember reading there was a Pro rider who was unbanned last year after it was confirmed that his high haemocratic level was genetic and his whole family had the same condition. After losing almost two years in a sport that has a very short peak time frame, too bad for him.
If Hamilton is innocent, and I have to admit that there was never a competitor who I hoped was innocent as much as he, then he is being sacrificed as part of the witch hunt going on now in cycling and other sports. It is possible that the experts who came up with the test don’t know everything (this may seem obvious to us, but never tell a doctor he’s not god) but UCI, the Olympics need their positive cases to show the spectators they are doing something.
No positive cases makes people suspicious and they think all the competitors are on drugs. Bad for ratings, bad for business. So let’s at least appear to look like we are doing something.
I’m not saying all testing is faulty. But new “cutting edge” tests are pretty suspect until there has been a large enough body of evidence collected. If I remember right, the test that Hamilton failed was put in place right before the Olympics. Hmmm… do they really know yet what they don’t really know?
I just finished watching it too, and it definitely made me think differently on the subject. As for the rest of the peloton not testing positive, I don’t think an explanation was given, but one of the doctors did state that the % will change in your blood depending on if its regenerating and by how much.
What I gathered from the info is that the test will show that you have an other person’s blood, but its not 100% of where and how the blood got there.
Would it not be possible to separate the blood into the two types and test the DNA to see if they are related. Is that possible?
Red blood cells have no nucleii, thus no DNA. One could examine the blood types to see if they could have the same parentage.
If Hamilton is innocent, and I have to admit that there was never a competitor who I hoped was innocent as much as he, then he is being sacrificed as part of the witch hunt going on now in cycling and other sports. It is possible that the experts who came up with the test don’t know everything (this may seem obvious to us, but never tell a doctor he’s not god) but UCI, the Olympics need their positive cases to show the spectators they are doing something.
No positive cases makes people suspicious and they think all the competitors are on drugs. Bad for ratings, bad for business. So let’s at least appear to look like we are doing something.
I’m not saying all testing is faulty. But new “cutting edge” tests are pretty suspect until there has been a large enough body of evidence collected. If I remember right, the test that Hamilton failed was put in place right before the Olympics. Hmmm… do they really know yet what they don’t really know?
Chad
If you read all the info on this one of the things Hamiltons people questioned was the lack of testing for false positives. Most tests go through a lot of testing to prove they will not show false positives, this one wasn’t because, to paraphrase, “we know it’s a good test so why should we.” I couldn’t help but shake my head when I read that. I don’t know if Tyler is innocent or not but I know that there are enough oddities and holes in this thing that there is a lot of doubt.
Only in passing…Frank Deford asked Tyler if he could understand why everybody was very skeptical of his claims when a team mate of his was also tested positive for the same offense.
Tyler admitted that it did look pretty fishy, but then said that it would only look bad if you weren’t aware of the current medical thinking on the whole chimera thing. That was then they went into the bit about chimeras being much more prevalent than previously thought.
Perez is also appealing his suspension. I have also heard that Perez was not even at his “trial” because it had been moved up a few months at the last second. Rumor is they did this so that when Hamilton came up they could say there was another “conviction” and his was not the first.
The only guy defending the testing was Dick Pound, who came off (IMHO) as a bit of an ass. Instead of having some good technical arguments, all he could say was, they got caught, sucks to be them.
“he is being sacrificed as part of the witch hunt going on now in cycling and other sports.”
It’s not a “witch hunt.” A witch hunt, by definition, is either a hunt for a supposed witch or a campaign against someone holding unpopular or unorthodox views. Dopers are not witches. And they are being hunted becasue they cheat not because of what they believe in. Unless, of course, they really do believe in cheating. Then, yes, it would be a witch hunt.