I applaud Gary Hall Jr. for having the brass and the knowledge to raise questions that we tend to shy away from. I also remember the bashing Shirley Babbashaw (SP) got when she openly spoke out against the East German cheaters. Surly Shirley is the title they hung around her neck and she was dead on target. She was also robbed of her rightful place in history by a bunch of cheating no good lousy thieves.
The proper spelling is Babashoff.
The fact that they cheated and stripped her of her chance at all the glory that she rightfully deserved in addition to the sore-loser tag ... destroyed her and seriously affected her entire family.
And for the record, the "cheats" were not the athletes but the coaches and officials that forced this on their athletes.
Carlos:
Thank you for the correct spelling.
"And for the record, the "cheats" were not the athletes but the coaches and officials that forced this on their athletes."
Over the years I have seen two or three interviews with two of the East German swimmers. Two openly admitted they had full knowledge of the illegal drugs given to them. Both said they were active participants in cheating. I have also read many times where they were victims of drug coaches and State Run drug programs. Both are true, but they knew what they were given and they were active participants, and that came out of their mouths.
Pfffft
Your right George;
- No one cheats in sports or in life in general
- If we would only love our enemies there would be no more war
- People don't steal, commit crimes or do bad things the devil made them do it
- Our political leaders only have our bes interests in mind
- There are no bad dogs
- Not a single thing has changed in the sport of swimming since you swam, thought of it first or invented it
My question to Swimmer Bill and the other folks in the swimming media....when do we see some real in depth investigative journalism digging into this sport?
For this story? I wouldn't accept the assignment.
If I was freelancing, I'd approach the story a lot like Windmill Revolution.
The start has also changed... Did you see how Sullivan did dolphin kick right to the surface, he didn't start the flutter as usual before breaking through... I wonder how much that counts? Not to mention it was quick dolphin up to the top, not very many SDK's at all..
Now I'll make a consession here, maybe if there was PED involved we wouldn't also see the breakthrough's in technique... just more power... although, that's not what I'm seeing... There really is a difference in the overall technical components of the race.
I just wonder when the USA trials take place if all the winners here are going to be suspect, that they are users???
It is a well known fact that Australian worship their swimmers. We have a relatively small population and our swimmers acquire star status. They cannot go anywhere in public without a mob af fans. I do not believe this happens anywhere else on earth, especially in the USA. Our swimmers can remain up there to be hero worshipped so long as they do nothing wrong. Even so we have a tall poppy syndrome and sadly take them back down again. Eamon's name would be mud, and he would be treated very badly by everyone here in Australia if it was found he was taking drugs. So much so that living here would be almost untenable. You have to understand us, our small population and the way we revere our swimmers, in order to understand that taking drugs to be number one in the sport is just not an option. My god, and Australian just HATE to be disgraced.
What I see Eamon doing is not windmill swimming it appears to be low elbow recovery. Before I make my decision that he is a windmill swimmer I want to get a better above water video of his stroke.
It is a well known fact that Australian worship their swimmers. We have a relatively small population and our swimmers acquire star status. They cannot go anywhere in public without a mob af fans. I do not believe this happens anywhere else on earth, especially in the USA. Our swimmers can remain up there to be hero worshipped so long as they do nothing wrong. Even so we have a tall poppy syndrome and sadly take them back down again. Eamon's name would be mud, and he would be treated very badly by everyone here in Australia if it was found he was taking drugs. So much so that living here would be almost untenable. You have to understand us, our small population and the way we revere our swimmers, in order to understand that taking drugs to be number one in the sport is just not an option. My god, and Australian just HATE to be disgraced.
Have there been any Australian steroids scandals? I honestly don't know. I do know that Tornado has a point in how Australians look at chemical enhancements in sports. I used to work with Australians, both ex-pats in the US and the bosses who would come through town 4x a year. They honestly couldn't imagine an Aussie on steroids, as the takedown in the press would be beyond brutal.
Fair play is much more important there than in the US, where it's part of the game to work the refs and get away with as much as you can. (viz, the NBA)
By contrast, when I was in Sydney a couple of years ago, an athlete (footy or one of the rugby games, can't remember which) got in trouble because he admitted taking caffeine pills before a game. Caffeine is specifically not banned, at least on the list I dug up (2006 Torino games - pdf is here: www.olympic.org/.../index_uk.asp ).
That of course doesn't mean that every Aussie is always clean forever. However, the challenge for all of us outsiders is to assemble circumstantial evidence, then reach a conclusion. And the national culture is part of the circumstantial evidence.
Your right George;
- No one cheats in sports or in life in general
- If we would only love our enemies there would be no more war
- People don't steal, commit crimes or do bad things the devil made them do it
- Our political leaders only have our bes interests in mind
- There are no bad dogs
- Not a single thing has changed in the sport of swimming since you swam, thought of it first or invented it
Thought eventually you would see things as they are.
:rofl::rofl::rofl:
