Guardian Posted April 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 More news about drugs and American athletes: Four U.S. Track Athletes Warned For Stimulant Use Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSTOUT1221 Posted April 21, 2004 Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 I understand a lot of the frustration with American athletes because for years, the USOC did try to "police" the Games and accuse a lot of countries (mainly the Soviets and Eastern Europeans) of drug usage while we were "clean". And now we've learned that US athletes are not so clean. It just proves how the desire to win in the Olympics drives individuals and nations to do very un-Olympic things. Although I do not hear many people complaining about Chinese athletes who test positive or at least when they do it's always "the individual" made a mistake but when a US athlete does it, "darned Americans, that evil government, etc..." - if you want to bash the INDIVIDUALS who test positive, go right ahead, but don't link the THOUSANDS of athletes who are working their butts off here in America to make it to Athens and win with the few who cheat. And don't disgrace an entire nation because of this. How many Eastern European "women" refused to submit to gender testing? And how can we ensure China will be clean in 2008 in their own country? And these are/were two examples of government run sports programs - the US is VERY different. USOC is practically independent of this "evil" government that is spoken of on here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardian Posted April 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 With the USA supposed to be the top country for Athens 2004 in number of medals, some people do start wondering why it is doing so well. As for other nations that do well in Olympics past, I bet they were being targetted as well for whatever reasons, too. This sort of thing, unfortunately, won't go away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arwebb Posted April 21, 2004 Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 Was Kelli White banned after Paris last year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjmac Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 This forum seems to be getting alot of negative comments towards the Americans for some athletes getting caught for drug use. The Americans are not any different than any other country in the world. In fact, there are even more caught users in other countries. The big word here is "Caught". It really only becomes a big issue for the rest of the world because the US portrays itself as the "best nation in the world to live in", "the land of the free", etc. It only makes sense that when a country does that, and portrays itself as better than everyone else, it will become a target for the rest of the world to lash out at. I must also point out that the US is also guilty of doing the same thing in regards to drug use. When the Chinese women broke all of the middle distance track and field records during the early 90's, the US was the first to yell drugs!!! You can't have it both ways on this issue. You can't slam some other country for drug use unless your own house is clean. "let ye who is without sin cast the first stone" I don't think that anyone should be the one to throw a stone on this issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardian Posted May 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2004 Was Kelli White banned after Paris last year? Not really sure, arwebb. I think she did get banned, but that's just my prediction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardian Posted May 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2004 I didn't know that Marion Jones was being fingered for steriod use. Anyway, she kept her cool at Jamaica to compete there: Jones Wins Two Gold At Jamaica International Meet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardian Posted May 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2004 Will the USADA make Marion Jones stay away from Athens? Marion Jones Threatens Lawsuit If Kept Out Of Olympics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDPinstripes Posted May 17, 2004 Report Share Posted May 17, 2004 ho!...and for those Americans who think their athletes don't use that much drugs. Woah, woah, woah....who said that. Doping is a WORLDWIDE problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardian Posted May 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2004 Kelli White is going "bye-bye" for 2 years: White Banned For Two Years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Thorpe Posted May 20, 2004 Report Share Posted May 20, 2004 ho!...and for those Americans who think their athletes don't use that much drugs. Woah, woah, woah....who said that. Doping is a WORLDWIDE problem I have to agree with yo one this one, Doping is a worldwide problem and beofre anyone else attacks American athletes, better check into their nation's athletes to see who is doping up on steriods. I blame the old heads of the USOC for covering up and give credit to the new heads of the USOC for taking action on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scousepaul Posted May 20, 2004 Report Share Posted May 20, 2004 Yes drugs are a worldwide problem. But there is concern that the american authorities have been involved in a degree of cover-up (carl lewis affair etc.) allowing possibly cheating athletes to criticise others who are caught. Idiots who cheat happen everywhere, but people dont like thinking that there is one rule for one nationality and one for another. Whether this is true or not, im not sure, but there is a perception that there has been more tolerance shown to cheating american athletes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.x Posted May 20, 2004 Report Share Posted May 20, 2004 why did you bring this up again? it was from December 2003! anyway, i use to have sources that say that American athletes using steroids or any strength enhancing drugs is an epidemic in the country. i'm just talking about America, i'm not talking about some other country or the whole world. interesting fact - according to polls, 80% of the world's athletes say that they will risk their life using drugs - knowing that it could lead them to some kind of disease or shorten their life dramatically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
POV Posted May 21, 2004 Report Share Posted May 21, 2004 Interesting op piece, not entirely devoted to failed drug tests: Furthermore, U.S. athletes have also attracted more wrath because there have been charges that, especially in track and field, we have not applied the same rigorous standards to drug detection that other nations have. Fair or not, there is the sense that America is not only grander than everybody else, but sees itself above the rules. Of course, this conveniently matches a view generally held about how we operate diplomatically, so that negative general opinion is only buttressed in sport. Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Thorpe Posted May 21, 2004 Report Share Posted May 21, 2004 Kelli White is going "bye-bye" for 2 years:White Banned For Two Years I think Kelli White was pushed into admitting she cheated. I also think its very wrong for USOC to leave off any athlete from the Olympic just because he or she might have use steriods or THG. There is a thing called due process and without a positive test or an athlete admitting they cheated, there is no proff or case then. I think Marion Jones has very right to sue the USOC if this happens to her and I hope she does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Thorpe Posted May 21, 2004 Report Share Posted May 21, 2004 Read this. I think it says it all in my view. Try to run fast while watching your back By JIM LITKE .c The Associated Press It's hard to run fast while watching your back. Yet that's exactly what Marion Jones and a handful of top U.S. track and field athletes must do as the fallout from the BALCO investigation seeps into their sport. Evidence turned up by the federal probe and eventually given to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency persuaded sprinter Kelli White to accept a two-year ban for using performance-enhancers and agree to help USADA unmask other cheaters. Let's be clear: Absolutely nobody opposes sending a clean team to the Athens Games. On the other hand, everyone with even a passing interest in due process should be alarmed at how the U.S. Olympic Committee is going about its business. What started out as a principled stand could very easily degenerate into a witch hunt. White's guilty plea was roundly praised by just about every alphabet-soup organization in the Olympic movement, mostly because officials won't have to pay lawyers to make the ban stick. Even so, White was not beyond heaping a little praise on herself. ``If I can make a difference in cleaning up the sport,'' she said, ``I will have done more for the sport than anything I could have done on the track.'' All White has done for her sport at the moment, however, is encourage the blue blazers who run the USOC to take another step down a slippery slope. They started in the wrong direction a month ago, when they got Sen. John McCain and the Commerce Committee to turn over evidence gathered by the Justice Department in the BALCO investigation. Legal scholars called that move almost unprecedented, and for very good reasons. Evidence gathered by a grand jury is of varying quality, and the evidence in the BALCO investigation ranged from financial documents and actual drug tests to hearsay. It's troubling enough that USADA cut all kinds of corners to get the BALCO evidence. More troubling still is that none of the officials involved in the rush to judgment has laid out clearly what standards will be applied to the evidence, or how it will be used. The drug agency has reserved the right to sift through the evidence and prosecute an athlete for what it calls a ``non-analytical positive.'' The best way to think of the term might be this quote in The Washington Post from USOC chief of mission Herman Frazier: ``It's something that gives you teeth if you can't come up with the evidence to convict.'' Think about the implications of that for a moment. Just about every U.S. track and field athlete already has. For the first time in the history of sport, it's possible for an athlete to be banned for using drugs without the confirmation of a positive test result. You can argue that athletes who admitted using performance-enhancers in testimony before the BALCO grand jury are fair game. Fine. What about Jones and all the other athletes whose link to the scandal has so far turned out to be more imagined than real? How are they supposed to defend themselves? Jones, for one, threatened to sue. ``I'm not just going to sit down and let someone or a group of people or an organization take away my livelihood because of a hunch, because of a thought, because somebody's trying to show their power.'' It's worth noting that Jones' former husband, shot putter C.J. Hunter, was caught using steroids and thrown out of the Sydney Games. Also, a check from her account, made out to BALCO, turned up as part of the federal investigation. But more relevant is that Jones has been tested 160 times during her career without a single positive result. How much that matters still remains to be seen. Track and field's world governing body, the IAAF, is already on record saying it might reduce suspensions for any athletes who cooperate, and no doubt the temptation to do so in some cases will be strong. Pressure from above will make it stronger still. Which is why it's hard to imagine a more poisoned atmosphere than the one that hangs over track and field, even as the athletes continue preparations for national trials in early July. Sprinter Jon Drummond, long an outspoken critic of the use of performance-enhancers, applauded the USOC campaign for a clean team last month. ``You think, 'Finally, something is being done, all that hard work is not in vain,''' he said. But at the same time Drummond feared that some of the tactics involved would make it difficult for the athletes to keep their mind on their work. ``Somebody has got to pass you the baton or take it from your hands,'' he said. ``And if we've got to start worrying about who you can trust and who you can't, it's going to make for a long summer.'' No doubt. And it's just beginning. Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardian Posted May 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2004 Do you guys remember Ben Johnson and his former coach? Well, it seems that the coach has returned with a vengence and a very bad one at best: BALCO Built World's Fastest Man: Report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardian Posted May 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2004 The saga continues: Doping Scandal Casts Pall Over U.S. Olympic Team Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardian Posted June 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2004 According to Rogge, Montgomery and Jones are innocent until proven otherwise: Jones, Montgomery Should Be Presumed Innocent: Rogge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardian Posted June 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 BBC article: America Wakes Up To Doping Nightmare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardian Posted June 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 Talk about a "180", Rogge-style: Jones "Stupid" For Having Links To Drug Scandals: Rogge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hachiko Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 Guess these seven American athletes thought they could get away from this, but failed badly. Come see the whole CBC sports article for yourselves by clicking on the link below. For advanced knowhow, the people in question are as follows:Spinter Kelli White Hammer thrower John McEwen Cyclist Adham Sbeih Sprinter Chryste Gains Athlete Sandra Glover Hurdler Eric Thomas Hurdler Chris Philips Kelli White, Six Others Flunk Drug Tests: USOC The Seven Sinners of Sport, we must call them. Each of them represents one of the Seven Deadly Sins...seven which we must all avoid, but will not, because we are all gonna die tryin'. (That was a shameless plug) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSTOUT1221 Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 I think it's STUPID for the president of the IOC to comment about Marion Jones publicly as he did. Mr. Rogge should remember that this is an ongoing investigation and that it is handled indireclty by the IOC and this is just wrong. Getting athletes to rat on each other and allowing the testimony of one athlete against another as sufficient grounds for disqualification is horrible. I want clean athletes representing my country and all those at the Games but this is just asking for more trouble - IMO at least! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Thorpe Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 I think it's STUPID for the president of the IOC to comment about Marion Jones publicly as he did. Mr. Rogge should remember that this is an ongoing investigation and that it is handled indireclty by the IOC and this is just wrong. Getting athletes to rat on each other and allowing the testimony of one athlete against another as sufficient grounds for disqualification is horrible. I want clean athletes representing my country and all those at the Games but this is just asking for more trouble - IMO at least! I agree with what you have said!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardian Posted June 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 According to this BBC sports article, Charlie Francis (the one responsible for Ben Johnson and Canada's biggest embarrassment in the world sporting and Olympic scene) is in the center of the drug scandal involving Tim Montgomery and Chryste Gaines. This could apply with Marion Jones, too: US Duo Faces Doping Probe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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