Kosuke Kitajima

In all fairness to Wayne, I think he would want to go back and change his " only US, Canada and Australia" are against drug cheats if he could. Britain has a pretty good record, and the US track & field fiasco is a black mark, there. I feel that US and Australian swimming is "clean". Reasons are performances have steadily improved, swimmers have taken years to reduce their times. A big red flag is when a swimmer comes from nowhere, say 64th in the world to winning a medal in less than a year. Another clue to drug use is a swimmer showing no signs of tiring at the end of a race, especially if they aare unknown or performing above expectations. There are a couple of suspicious swims this year. A chinese swimmer who won yesterdays Breaststroke, the french female swimmer who won the free 400 ? a few days ago are two that i noticed. Why is Claudia Poll allowed to swim ?? It is enraging to see your countries swimmer beaten by a drug cheat or by a clear stroke violation. Canada's Morgan Knabe was beaten at the worlds a few years ago by another who did the dolphin kick on the breakout. Katijama dolphin kicked at last years worlds and got away with it. 4 years ago, It was hard to see Jenny Thompson lose the freestyle Gold medal to Michelle Smith, remember her ? Smith, only months, later was suspended for spiking a drug test with alchohol, but they did not cancel her olympic results. Katijama is a beautiful breaststroker to watch, he could win without the dolphin kick. However if he can get away with it then why should not every swimmer use the dolphin kick whenever they swim breaststroke. I think Fina should clarify the rules and state excactly what can or cannot be done, or allow everyone to dolphin kick. I am enjoying the coverage and boy is Kaitlin Sandeno easy on the eyes. She wins my vote for hottest female swimmer.:D

I don't buy this, gotta be an urban legend. You mean to tell me at the Olympics in the 70s and 80s the East German women were hooked up to air compressors in the locker rooms? I would suspect that might have been noticed. Maybe this is why dives are so much deeper now than before - less gas. I, for one, have not noticed increased performance following an extra helping of beans at my favorite Mexican restaurant. You gotta wonder if maybe this might give vegetarians an advantage.

Originally posted by londoner62 I cannot believe you said that!! Is this the posturing that makes the American attitude such an admired thing in the rest of the world? That is not necessary.

Originally posted by Leonard Jansen Actually, the injection of air into the lower colon is NOT an urban legend. The East Germans tried it in the 70's but found that it caused extreme discomfort and cramping. Hard to believe that pumping air into your back side would cause discomfort and cramping but I'm sure glad the East Germans decided human testing was needed to verify this. Maybe they should have considered helium. Isn't methane already lighter than air?

Originally posted by Gareth Eckley In all fairness to Wayne, I think he would want to go back and change his " only US, Canada and Australia" are against drug cheats if he could. Britain has a pretty good record, and the US track & field fiasco is a black mark, there. I feel that US and Australian swimming is "clean". Reasons are performances have steadily improved, swimmers have taken years to reduce their times. A few points: 1) You cannot make statements about "countries" vis-a-vis drugs unless all sports are state controlled. It only makes sense to judge the respective sports federation and other bodies. For example, in the US the various swimming authorities, both formal and informal, have been actively vocal against drugs in their sport. US Track and Field is a disagrace and varioius authorities, including the USOC must be held partly responsible. Also how can the USOC have Donald Fehr involved in their organization for so many yearS? My point is that making blanket statements about countries is fraught with error. 2) Is US swimming clean? Not even sure what that means. If you mean that there is widespread opposition to drug use and willingness to embrace legitimate testing absolutely. We're also fortunate to have prominent swimming community members speaking out against drug use. It is likely that any drug use by US swimmers is due to "rogue" swimmers or coaches. Having said all of this I do believe that the vast majority of international swimmin federations are not only against drug use but more importantly are in favor of more stringent testing. Most of the disagreements appear to be howver the question of how fast to push the search for new drugs. At this point the best deterrent is a policy, yet to be adopted on a widespread basis, that samples will be kept for X years and will be tested retroactively for new drugs. Also like the idea of coming up with new drug tests that look further back and suprise testing or retro testing to catch those cheaters who attempt to "wash out" the drugs prior to big competition.

Lets start with all that is good Kaitlin Sandeno easy on the eyes between her, Natalie and Amanda there is a lot of USA eye candy. But I am with Gareth, Kaitlin is a doll. Compare her to the "spitting lady" of past olympics:D At the last SPMA Long course meters championships, one of my competitors (at least he thinks he can compete) spit in my lane. I nearly cracked up! I then proceeded to beat him by 3-4 seconds in the 50 meters ***! Actually I posted the comments about drug testing to stir the waters and was surprised that it did not get much flack immediately.I know a lot about the lack of effort by the USA drug people over the last 20 years. The people on top of the USA and the Olympic movements really do not want scandels, hence a Michelle Smith. You literally have to be foaming at the mouth like Ben Johnson to be caught. Many of us "in the know" are really MAD AS HELL about the drug cheats, hence the Masters have been in thre front of the campaign to get stricter testing. Phill Whitten is a hero, standing up for dozens of years while the US Swimming heads said nothing. About 10 years ago when the drugged up chinese women were destroying records, the US Masters swimmers performed on stage at the USAS convention. This includes US swimming, US Diving, US Synchronized swimming, US Water Polo, Masters Diving, Masters Water Polo. The skit involved bearded masters coming out in full body suits, as the Chinese womens swim team. These guys all had full beards and were as we say "large". Every one thought it very funny, except that it had international implications. As we would say, not very politically correct. But Masters has always been in the fore front against cheating. We are also leading the way on trying to remove the Gold medals and kicking the PROVEN East German drug cheats out of the Swimming Hall of Fame.

Talking about drug and dolphin cheats, what about the rectal air injection and air gulping to give better bouyancy. There are lots of ways to cheat. George

Originally posted by aquageek Where in the world did that come from, a technique back in the 40s? As a matter of fact it was when the East German women were swimming so fast the 70s and 80s. George

You mean that's not legal?

Wayne: Sever or eight years ago I posted my thoughts on USMS withdrawing from FINA when they were dragging their feet on cracking down on drug cheats and got hammered here for being a rabble rouser. Everyone now realizes FINA did drag their feet for years and then after enourmas pressure from many sports federations they began to tighten the clamp on drug cheating. I have always said that Shirley Babashaw (SP) should be awarded 6 Gold Medals in place of the Silver Medal she won back then. Her story is one of the most graphic and sad stories of a swimmer who dedicated her entire life to becoming a Gold Medal winner, only to be robbed by one of the largest state run drug cheating programs known to sports. I still maintain that one or two year suspensions are to lenient. I believe you should be thrown out for life when caught using drugs to enhance performance.