I am not sure we realize how bad this will be for swimming and US swimming.
This will change how everybody looks at the US team from now on. The circumstances do not matter to the casual sports fan - they will only remember "US swimmer caught".
The medal winners will lose a lot of money on endorsements - USA swimming was the "clean" sport, the poster child of how to do it right. Not any more - any advertiser will now look at swimmers differently.
What about US trials - this will change how quickly the testing has to come back and how some 3rd place finisher may train after trials.
US Swimming - they have already screwed this up on 10 different levels. No press conference, 3 weeks after the fact, some web forum starts leaking the story, coaches and swimmers at the Olympic training camp know and they expect to keep this quiet ? Amateurs
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Former Member
I am not sure we realize how bad this will be for swimming and US swimming.
This will change how everybody looks at the US team from now on....
The reaction overseas will more likely be "the US is finally stepping up to drug testing of their Olympians by reporting violators before the Games".
The impression outside the US (rightly or wrongly - I don't know the truth) is that drug cheating in the US in the past has been swept under the carpet by US sports administrators who knowingly allowed cheaters to participate in the Games.
Being transparent and bringing cases into the open like this one (however it turns out) will not be perceived as negative but as being honest.
Swimming as a sport has already been tainted so it shouldn't suffer relative to any other sport (are there any 'clean' sports?). Catching the cheaters is a positive - you need to avoid the 'Tour de France syndrome'.
Ian.
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Former Member
I am not sure we realize how bad this will be for swimming and US swimming.
This will change how everybody looks at the US team from now on....
The reaction overseas will more likely be "the US is finally stepping up to drug testing of their Olympians by reporting violators before the Games".
The impression outside the US (rightly or wrongly - I don't know the truth) is that drug cheating in the US in the past has been swept under the carpet by US sports administrators who knowingly allowed cheaters to participate in the Games.
Being transparent and bringing cases into the open like this one (however it turns out) will not be perceived as negative but as being honest.
Swimming as a sport has already been tainted so it shouldn't suffer relative to any other sport (are there any 'clean' sports?). Catching the cheaters is a positive - you need to avoid the 'Tour de France syndrome'.
Ian.
