Did anyone else read the story Outside magazine did on drug testing a month or two back? Pretty interesting. The main subject was a guy who runs the drug testing lab at UCLA. It's his opinion that the testing will never be effective because it's so easy to alter the drugs to make them undetectable. If WADA finds out about a new drug then new tests needs to be developed and that gives all the cheats plenty of time to move on to another drug. His idea was to eliminate the current system altogether and instead institute a volunteer system where the athletes more or less take a pledge to be clean. Doctors will then monitor some key attributes and if something falls outside the established parameters they consult the athlete. His take is that athletes will be compelled to join up or else face suspicion of being dirty.
EDIT: just found a link to the story if anyone is interested in reading it: outside.away.com/.../drugs-in-sports-1.html
Innocent until PROVEN guilty through the appropriate channels. Although in my gut, I do get this queasy feeling...
It does make you admire Paula Radcliffe all the more, however. (For you non-track & field people, she is the women's world record holder in the marathon.) She is paying to have her official urine samples stored so that if, in the future, there are allegations about her past use of a drug that would only become detectable at that time, the samples could be retested to assure that her performances were clean.
-LBJ
Here is something to ponder: While it may or may not be true that Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs, it is true that use of them is rampant in the sport. So in light of this, if you believe he is clean, Armstrong's accomplishments are even greater than first glance, because he was competeting on an uneven level.
Lance Armstrong competed in one race this year.
Bicycling is one of the dirtiest sports in the world. Many cicyclists have tested positive for all types of enhancers. What I don't understand is the sample was supposedly given annonymously. does any one know how annonymous samples are kept and how could anyone prove that it is Lance's? That's the part that seems really weird to me.
Originally posted by craiglll@yahoo.com
does any one know how annonymous samples are kept and how could anyone prove that it is Lance's? That's the part that seems really weird to me.
The sample is taken, sealed and given a unique identifying number that correlates to the person. Only the testing group has both the number and the person's name. It is sent to the lab for testing with only the number attached, so the lab has no idea who it is. When it is tested, the results are sent back, along with the ID #, to the testing group.
-LBJ
I just read the article. It sounds very right to use samples taken before their was a test to find EPO. Those samples would be more likely to come from people who thought they could get away with something. I still though wonder if many peole take a supplement and don't know exactly what is in it or what the ingredients will become once introduced to the body. I've looked at many steroid studies. Oddly there are few that actually test for effects of the drug. Many are to discover ways to detect the illiegal drugs.
CraigIII is "dead on". Cycling is a joke in terms of the number of drugs and cheaters.
Sounds like Lance has his hands full explaining this one.
John Smith
I just finished an article that said the lab was not able to say if the samples were Lance's or not. Taht to me sounds good because they can't say that they did anything special to the samples. From what I think, the annymous factor means that the lab had to have no idea from whom the samples were taken. the article said that the lad tested six samples that were later identified later to be from Lance. It found nine different competitors had illegal drugs or enhancers in their samples.
L'Equipe has had it out for Lance for many years. The article tried to make it sound that the French were being unAmerican but they all loved Greg Lemond.
Who's one of Lance's biggest sponsors? A drug company ... he's taking all sorts of currently legal substances ... that being said he's still an amazing athlete, and is known for training his *** off ... not to mention all this crap dates back to 99 which at this point seems irrelevant
