Dara Torres-Amazing

If her blood samples show a positive result five years from now she would be stripped of any Olympic medals and any records would be withdrawn. Just as with Marion Jones. Perhaps worse, medals won by teammates on relays would also be stripped. That's the real tragedy of this. Her potential relay members are surely considering this. But what can they do? Also, can anyone, with out googling it, tell me who received the 100m Gold medal after it was stripped from Marion Jones? That person never got to experience the moment of victory that was rightfully theirs.

I think some Brazilian swimmer was recently busted. That Irish girl (can't remember her name) was either busted or very suspect. Iwannafly - you state things very well and your optimism is admirable. I guess I've just been burned too many times in the past 20 years. I can only think of a few truly great sports moments that haven't had a cloud of suspicion over them (Cal Ripken, MJ, John Elway, Tiger Woods) and that has left me bitter and jaded. It is important to note that Torres raised this concern herself, probably because of recent history.

I'll be honest...haven't heard these names before.....Any of them at the top of the sport? Um, first off, what difference does it make how good they are? Second, yes they are/were all notable elite swimmers. Massi Rosolino has gold, silver and bronze medals. Smith was a triple gold medalist.

Paul what I used to do is feed all of my race horse with balanced nutrictoinal foods. I had seventeen horses in my stables at one time. I used to ad pure apple cider vinegar and a couple of drops of lugols solution of iodine to their feedings of mixed grains. The lugols solution of iodine kept blood free of fevers they could catch around the barn. The hay I feed was a good mix of timothy and a little alpha. I never feed my horses 3rd cutting of any hay. Before I fed the hay I always washed it. I allowed them free access to mineral salt and dried minerals. Never used drugs on my horses. George...my family was in the horse business for 3 generations...it's probably the only "sport" dirtier than cycling and bodybuilding. Can't even begin to tell you how horrible I saw people treat these beautiful creatures...my first thoroughbred (Toppers Son) came off the track as a 3 year old, we had him for 4 years before he died of cancer... "Horse Racing Officials Move Toward Steroid Ban" www.nytimes.com/.../28horses.html

Fair enough John. You're right, there are swimmers getting caught too. I, like Tracy, have never heard of any of those women except for Michelle Smith. I remember, now, when she was busted. You say the list goes on, but how big is it? Is it an epidemic, pervading the whole sport, or is a relatively few isolated cases? I am not condemning your right to question, or even to be a pessimist (sorry, a person with your head not in the sand), I am merely pointing out that Paul tells me that I shouldn't make blanket statements about people questioning Dara's accomplishments while he posts blanket statements about how naive most of us forumites are.

Give me a break, now we are gonna nuance two proven dopers. They are elite calibre with multiple medals. I'll take Janet Evans' opinion any day on this. There's always more than meets the eye, it's called the smokescreen.

The Lugols Solution of Iodine activates the thyroid. It was described to me years ago by Dr Jarvis as something to give to cattle to help stop Mastitus. He also told me that if I gave it to my race horses it would turn a front runner that could not finish a race into a horse that could finish a race. I would think it would be an excellent item to take in our diet if well regulated. Would it be legal for us to take??? The Pure Apple Cider Vinegar turns calcium into a useable product for the muscles again would it be legal? The role of the thyroid gland has been understood for some time now. Although conventional medicine places emphasis on its contribution to regulating the body's metabolism, an equally important role is its contribution to the immunological health of the body. This organ's thyroid cells are the only ones in the body capable of absorbing iodine, an important mineral nutrient and potent germ killer - (though 80% of the less than 25 mg. of iodine in the body is found elswhere, primarily in muscle and bone, extracellularly - the thyroid has a concentration of iodine that is over 1,000 times greater than that found in muscle tissue.) In terms of immunology, the thyroid gland acts as a gatekeeper: every 17 minutes all the blood in the body passes through the thyroid, where this gland's secretion of iodine kills germs that have come into the body (through absorption of food in the digestive tract, skin injury, respiratory intake, etc.) Pathogenic micro-organisms, the primary causative agent for disease in the body, are made weaker during their passage through the thyroid gland. With each "17 minute passage" they are made still weaker until most are killed, provided the thyroid has its normal supply of iodine. We know from clinical study that few people have anywhere near enough iodine in their body for the thyroid to function optimally. Three disturbing trends initiated in the 20th century made this collective deficiency inevitable: (1) the introduction of chlorine - another halogen, like iodine - used in drinking water, pools, and as a ubiquitous cleaning agent in industry, etc. - which displaces iodine, (2) the alteration of the Western diet to reduce natural food sources of iodine, and (3) farming practices designed to increase crop yield which have lead to reduced iodine content in many foods. Aggravating this diminishing source issue is the fact that the body does not conserve iodine the way it does iron. We must receive a regular dietary or supplemental intake in order to maintain optimal health.

bare mid drifts. This made me laugh. Sort of like "Old timer's" disease instead of "Alzheimer's."

I expected nothing less. And for the record I hope she never dos fail as it would be a huge black eye for our sport...and hopefully something comes out of it that can help all of us get better. On the other hand Balco's clear/cream were undetectable and Bonds & Marion stood up and shouted down everyone accusing them until an insider sent in samples that ultimately led to the discovery of these undetectable PED's....they were pretty confident as were all the others involved with that lab. Look at the Tour de France...as one journalist said after Beltran just tested positive for EPO "you got to be an idiot to be using anything with all the testing going on"....pretty confident guy along with the 20 others who the day before yesterday had samples with problems requiring "B" samples to tested....more positives to come I'm afraid. Beltran.....yeah he's naively confident, stupid, or maybe desperate. The EPO tests continue to advance so these riders are idiots. The positive tests usually result in a 2 year ban. One thing that is an issue with TDF drug testing - the testing is done after a stage is completed. TDF cyclists are usually highly dehydrated and their blood chemistry is out of whack, even after re-hydrating. Their chemical markers have to be abnormal throughout the race.

I have seen a few articles out there that seem to raise questions about Dara and her inhaler. Despite being a skeptic about Dara's success, I have to say that the insinuations about the inhaler seem a little silly. Several of my friends who started swimming at a young age and who have been around pools (with high chlorine levels and poor ventilation) much of their life, developed asthma in their late thirties. They became members of the same club I am in: the-inhaler-by-the-pool club. There is no doubt Dara has been around pools for much of her life, so no surprise that she has developed asthma.