The official Athletics in Beijing thread (track and field)

[dlish]

im really upset wariner didnt get gold in the 400m. shame that you can kick ass for 4 years and then lose at the olympics

i guess hisham el guerrouj can relate to that!

dont get me wrong i think the world of usain bolt. but im reaaallllly realllly hoping that he's not on drugs.

bad for the sport bad for him bad for everyone.

[highthief]

Originally Posted by dlish

dont get me wrong i think the world of usain bolt. but im reaaallllly realllly hoping that he's not on drugs.

I hate that that becomes the first thing people think of.

The swimmers break umpteen records - by several seconds in some cases - and no whispers about Phelps or Bernard being on roids. And some of those women were pretty brutish looking!

But a kid runs fast, and people say "Great, but what about drugs?"

Yeah, track has had its share of drug scandal - Ben Johnson, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, Linford Christie, Carl Lewis, etc - but so has swimming.

But track makes all the headlines ...

[The_Jazz]

I HATE saying this but...

Given the dominance of the Jamacian sprinters in these Games, I find it hard to believe that they're not ALL doping. I think that Bolt might be the exception given that his body type is so different than the prototypicals for his events, but I feel fairly certain that the vast majority of rest are doing something that's probably undetectable at this point.

Any time a country dominates to that extent, something is going on unless there's a cultural reason for it - the West Africans, for instance (running 10 miles a day from age 5 onwards will do that). But I expect that sooner or later we'll see several go down for doping, probably within the next 3 years. And it will tarnish their image.

[highthief]

Originally Posted by The_Jazz

I HATE saying this but...

Given the dominance of the Jamacian sprinters in these Games, I find it hard to believe that they're not ALL doping. I think that Bolt might be the exception given that his body type is so different than the prototypicals for his events, but I feel fairly certain that the vast majority of rest are doing something that's probably undetectable at this point.

Any time a country dominates to that extent, something is going on unless there's a cultural reason for it - the West Africans, for instance (running 10 miles a day from age 5 onwards will do that). But I expect that sooner or later we'll see several go down for doping, probably within the next 3 years. And it will tarnish their image.

Ergo, the US is the biggest doping nation of all because they win the most medals every Games?

I can't subscribe to that theory. Genetically, West Africans (I think you meant East Africans above) hold 494 of the top 500 100 metre times throughout history. And Jamaica seems to be the ultimate in terms of receiving this genetic gift.

Jamaica has proved, over the years, to be a gold mine for sprinters - not all of whom represented Jamaica (Bailey, Johnson, Christie, Quarrie, etc). I'm not too surprised that they have had a magical year, odds are it was going to happen sooner or later.

Might one or two be on drugs? Sure, just as Michael Phelps and Co. might well be. But given the amount of testing Bolt and Powell have been through, they seem to be clean. And if there was another drug breakthrough like "clear", that was undetectable, it wouldn't be Jamaican athletes finding it first - that sort of tech is only found in North America, Europe and China.