I know of some races where a few days before the race the RD stated there would be no drug testing the the pro field has tripled. There is doping in our sport and it is still small. What about having someone like Natascha Badmann start a movement to get athletes to drug test in the offseason. USAT gets 40 bucks from 100,000 of us plus one day fees, there has to be a way to get some testing done. Five million bucks and they cant even tell RD’s to cover cattle guards after I email them and tell them about it.
I wouldn’t mind some ideas of who to email about this and all of us could get behind it grassroots style. Our sport needs the pros to grow (too many races sell out and cost too much so I am assuming growth is good).
I guess I just felt like saying something so I can stop feeling like all the sports I have grown up and still continue to need asterisks. So there is my * for this thread.
Na, there is NO doping in our sport, just like there is not in cycling, or golf, or …
When there is money, or egos, there will always be folks trying to take short cuts.
(why do some organization supporting cutting a marathon course so their folks “finish”?)
How about a voluntary testing system? Those athletes that want to show they race clean can volunteer to be tested. Sort of a peer pressure thing. Open it up to age groupers too!
Sue, problem is it seems I have heard good doctors know how to work the system.
Also, since the testing has numbers, you can take stuff so you are just at 49.99999
Bottom line is life has never been fair. Luckily for most of us, we do this for fun, and not
for a living or an ego.
We will all look at the maker at the end of our lives and have to explain our actions.
Final justice will always be done.
A voluntary system would be cool. It would still need to be random but at least if a couple people placed in the top ten at Ironman after testing positive THROUGHOUT the year, say 8 and 9, the people above them would have a shadow luring over them and I feel like there would be better pressure since the people behind them would be “well” tested and clean instead of just assumed clean or even assumed doped. In short there needs to be leaders in the sport showing self-preservation instead of self-destruction.
Sue, problem is it seems I have heard good doctors know how to work the system.
Also, since the testing has numbers, you can take stuff so you are just at 49.99999
What makes you think EPO is the only drug of choice for athletes?
There is no test for blood doping with your own blood.
True, but like HGH there are signs and markers. Barry Bonds/ SF Giants fans wake up.
I say if you want to race you (each racer) is responsible to go to a lab and be certified clean. Kinda like a pre-job drug screen. You could make it a physical and perhaps save the heart attack in the water that occurs every year at several races. Need a new certificate before any participating races - whichever governing body participates in this program - ITU, USAT, WTC whoever. Certs would be good for a short period of time - two weeks? MDs help me out here. Test positive…lifetime ban from participating races. No exceptions. Cheat and you’re done. (Nina)
So if you go to the Amgen Triathlon and they don’t require a drug screen…don’t complain about sub-4 hour 1/2 Ironman times from the chubby CPA or CEO. Everyone will suspect those times and races and they’ll have to come around.
(See Tour of California with no drug testing - hurts to say that because I love the event and we need more cycling events in the USA…but clean events like that one could be.) Imagine what Amgen could do if they rolled out the most ADVANCED testing for doping? The publicity would be staggering, world-wide.
On a Bonds rant…'roids and HGH don’t improve the ability to hit a baseball…but HGH improves vision…which is critical to hitting a baseball. RE: Barry, I’m still hoping for a federal indictment and a suspension from MLB which stops him. This is the * which will always be associated with him and Bud Selig…and Sammy, Mark, Rafi, Jason…etc.
My (public) high school had this system in place for student athletes – random, voluntary, in-season testing for drugs and alcohol. Back then they were only looking for drugs like marijuana and cocaine, but I suspect they now test for steroids as well.
I was one of the only athletes who did not volunteer to participate. I didn’t drink or do drugs, and I saw it as an invasion of my privacy, and therefore I saw no reason to be involved. I thought the whole thing was stupid – who does drugs in high school, right? Obviously, I was extraordinarily naive and innocent back in the day. Lesson learned.
I’d be all for a volunteer testing system in triathlon. However, I foresee athletes, age-groupers included, divided into three camps:
those who are clean and willingly submit to testing
those who are cheating and refuse to participate
those who are clean and refuse to participate (for any number of reasons)
I’m a 1, but I used to be a 3. Would 3’s be (unfairly) catagorized as 2’s and/or looked down upon? I think so.
A lot easier solution: go buy some “dopers suck” gear:
We make a moral decision not about the sport, but about who we want to be. Cheating is many bad things, but from a selfish perspective you have to live with yourself and that may be the worst copromise of all- the compromise that *you know you cheated. *
I like your thread because it addresses the issue: Us. Here is how we fix it:
Go in the bathroom. Look in the mirror. Tell the person in the mirror you will not cheat on them. Then, work hard to honor that commitment.
Na, there is NO doping in our sport, just like there is not in cycling, or golf, or …
When there is money, or egos, there will always be folks trying to take short cuts.
(why do some organization supporting cutting a marathon course so their folks “finish”?)
Dave
In reality money doesn’t matter. As long as their is some sort of scoring (i.e. finding a winner) there will be cheating. Doesn’t matter if it’s sport, work, school, etc.
**What can the slowtwitch community do to save triathlon from the same doping fate as cycling? **
Encourage triathlon to stay a recreational activity.
Abandon the distinction of “professional” triathlete.
Go watch kids playing a sport in the back yard for fun, see if any cheating goes on…then think about the two things you listed above.
I would like to thing that my fellow triathletes are not dopers but I have no interest in paying to find out for sure. Test the pros but it costs about $100 to do a just a basic test for steroids. Its alot more to test for the stuff endurance athletes would be using. If I want to pay for medical tests, I’ll go visit my doctor. Testing just doesn’t make sense for the age group folks.
I’d rather get my ass kicked by EPO man then have to pay extra for the privilege of having the guys that beat me pee in a cup after the race, or, heaven forbid, agree to subject myself getting plucked out of the post race party to standing for 15 minutes in front of a race official with my pants down and an empty cup in my hand cursing myself for taking a post race wiz before the random dope control drawing was held.
Anybody interested in doping is committed enough that they’re probably going to beat me anyway even if they are clean.
