Doping, Your Thoughts Experiences Opinions

Racing
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“If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough” — made famous by former Chicago Cubs first basemen, Mark Grace —

If an athlete said those words today that person would be persecuted by almost everyone, and his or her career in sports would be done. People have had enough when it comes to the deception being experienced in sports today. Deep down, it’s only natural now to wonder if an incredible performance, regardless of who achieves it, is legit. Due to the high level of skepticism present in sports today, nearly every great athletic feat is now tainted by a question mark, as well as a potential asterisk waiting in the wings.

If a person commits to a life of sports for long enough, that drive will only grow to become insatiable.

But what if the results never come? What is a person then supposed to do? And how are they supposed to feel about all of the sacrifices they’ve made if their highest aspirations have yet to be realized? Should they quit? Or should they “try just a little harder?” What’s one more sacrifice, right?

According to a survey in sports Goldman Dilemma, 50 percent of the athletes surveyed said they would be willing to sacrifice their life, at the expense of cheating, in order to win a gold medal. In stark contrast, 250 non-athletes were asked the same question in a similar survey and only two people said they would take a drug that guaranteed them a gold medal and only five years to live. It’s plain to see that the heart of most every athlete beats with the desire to become the best.

Michael Jordan said it best: “I can accept failure, but I cannot accept not trying.” As a competitive athlete, there’s a greater reward in knowing what you can do without performance-enhancing drugs than what you might get if you do take them. Every athlete is curious about how good they really are, and whether or not their best performance is truly the best. There are no shortcuts when it comes to finding out the answer to this question. How good you really are can only be determined by an honest effort. It’s not a guarantee that one will live longer because they didn’t take drugs, but at least they’ll have two things: an answer and their integrity. At the end of the day, that’s plenty’s enough. http://www.twitter.com/jonrankin

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I believe it’s current on the “more investigation needed” list. There have been rumours about guys using it to lose weight while being able to train, but because it’s not on the banned list, there’s no proof. IIRC British Cycling and USA Cycling were pushing for it to be banned, but others blocked it, hence it’s current status.
I’ve been paying attention to this for years as I had Graves disease, resulting in massive hyperthroidism. At the time of my diagnosis I was losing weight despite eating all the time, super jittery, roasting hot, and my resting heart rate was 122!!! I now have no thyroid and rely entirely on synthetic thyroxine. It runs in my family in a big way, and my daughter is on thyroxine too - I’m not sure what the deal is with getting TUEs when you are 9yo!

105

This is why riders can apply for a TUE.

106

Except that it’s not enough for those athletes who want Olympic gold.
They want to be the best but they also want to create a legacy, to secure their name in history.
Integrity and ego will almost always be at odds.

I think it was Jalabert who said, “There are riders who want to win, and there are riders who have to win.”

107

There’s a difference between using PEDs and cheating “out in the open” by pushing the boundaries of what referees see and penalize in a game. In sports like rugby and American football this happens every play - players are pushing the boundaries to see what they can get away with, and sometimes they do get away with it, other times they are caught and penalized.

I’d suspect the same kind of thing happens in no-draft triathlons.

I think Mark Grace’s quote may have been about cheating like this - not PEDs and the like - but I could be wrong, as I’m not really a baseball fan (although it was fun to watch the cubs win the World Series a few years back).

108

I don’t think you should be allowed a spot in the final rankings, whether your 50 of 100 or 100 of 100, if you have taken a banned substance. But with that being said, I don’t think you should be barred from racing. If you need to take some type of drug or recreational want to take some type of drug, than that’s fine, you just need to identify yourself. If you have low testosterone and you need to take it for medical reasons, then you shouldn’t be banned from taking it but if you want to race then just identify yourself and then your time won’t be counted in the standings. Or they’ll have a different category.

Understanding that there isn’t an avenue for this currently, but if you’re an armature and these races don’t really count for much then you should be allowed to race if you have to medically take a banned substance. Your results just shouldn’t count.

When I think of doping it is more someone taking a PED to win and then reaping the rewards while lying about how they got there. cough Lance

109

Then there are cases such as young Canadian phenom Genevieve Jeanson who was doped, starting at age 16, by her coach. She was used by her coach as an instrument for his overambitious ego (who the F dopes a KID?!).

By the time she was mature enough/exposed to the world outside of the coach’s influence to know better, she was too messed up to take any corrective measures.

Occasionally, it’s not the athlete who chooses the path of doping.

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Interesting, I hadn’t heard this story. Sports are a strange and messed up thing. Some do it for pure love and joy and others for glory.

111

Agreed.

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@Captain_Doughnutman

No doubt young athletes are under pressure to or willing dope, see for example the spate of young Italian riders who drop dead. I ride with a guy from a former Eastern Bloc country. He had talent for Olympic Lifting, which as you all know is paradigm of clean competition, and was funneled into a development program, but at 16 they started saying he needed to take extra vitamins. He was smart enough to quit and he still has nice O-lifts technique in his 50’s instead of being dead.

113

WOW!!! Tests positive and they let him go
JON JONES

2016 positive test…
2017 positive test 15 month suspension
2018 positive test, Nevada refuses to issue license to fight, UFC moves fight to Cali gets boxing license

Quote
There has been a huge uproar over the latest chapter in the Jon Jones saga, as UFC 232 was moved from Las Vegas to Los Angeles because of an abnormal result in a recent drug test. Probably the most vehement reaction was from UFC dual-division champion Daniel Cormier, who will be stripped of his light heavyweight title come Saturday. Jones will fight Alexander Gustafsson in a rematch for the belt.

That was only able to happen after the UFC, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, and the California State Athletic Commission determined that the abnormal drug test result was a residual effect stemming from his July 28, 2017 anti-doping violation. Jones was found to have likely ingested a banned substance by means of a contaminated supplement for which he fulfilled a 15-month suspension.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission, citing a reduced holiday schedule, didn’t feel it had sufficient time to consider Jones’ case before Saturday’s fight, and thus, could not approve him to fight. The CSAC, however, is intimately familiar with Jones’ recent drug testing history, as that is where his 2017 case has been adjudicated, and that commission felt it could license Jones with some additional testing stipulations.

Now, with the UFC’s chief man in charge of athlete drug testing, Jeff Novitzky, set to appear on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast, banned American cycling legend Lance Armstrong has added his sharp retort to the mix.

After Rogan posted on Instagram to promote his show in which the Jon Jones situation would be explained by Novitzky, Armstrong took direct aim at the UFC’s vice president of athlete health and performance.

“Aka ‘The Star F—er,'” Armstrong wrote of Novitzky, whom he has history with.

Novitzky is a former agent for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In that role, he spearheaded investigations into performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports, famously exposing the BALCO scandal that exposed athletes such as Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Bill Romanowski, and others.

Novitzky was also leading the charge on investigating Armstrong’s time as the leading cyclist in the world. Following a lengthy investigation, Novitzky’s Federal case against the multi-time Tour de France champion was summarily closed by a U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, Andre Birotte Jr., without further explanation.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which now administers the UFC’s Anti-Doping Program, picked up where Novitzky left off, which led to Armstrong being banned from cycling for life after he was found to have been doping for years.

Armstrong eventually admitted to his actions, but not before the cycling world was turned on its head over the case.

Now, Armstrong is questioning why there is a seeming double-standard for Jones.

“Couple of questions,” Armstrong continued. “Why the double standard for Jones and others? And let’s get right to it, what does the science and scientists say? I think I know the answer, but let’s let the star f—er speak to it.”

Novitzky is expected to be a guest on Rogan’s Thursday, Dec. 27, podcast.

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Speaking of Joe Rogan, in the episode with Andrew Weil, at the 45 minute mark, Rogan mentions how CBD (or something similar) positively affected his sport fighting performance/training.

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If you take the time to watch the podcast, you’ll see there is a compelling reason why the UFC / USADA decided to clear Jon Jones. It’s an hour and fifty minutes long.

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LOL!! The only thing I got around the 45 minute mark was the need to cuss a lot more when I get hurt!

118

After listening to that it makes sense…when they are speaking about the product being stored in the fat around organs and other tissues then being released into the system at different times to produce a clean test then days later a positive test of a long term metabolite.

119

Right on with the CBD oil. There are a ton of benifits to helping fight inflammation and aid in recovery. It’s been around but it’s now being talked about more with the prescription painkiller epidemic going on. I wish more people would consider this alternative to help them heal from injuries.

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If they aren’t athletes then it isn’t cheating. If they’re being prescribed T by their doctor then it’s under medical supervision so I doubt many of them have worries about health impacts.

I find it a bit surprising how many amateur athletes are making this conflation of ‘using x substance = cheating’ because x substance is in the WADA code or otherwise prohibited in various sports.

Cheating is bad because you’re ruining the integrity of the sport and because you aren’t allowing your fellow competitors to compete on a level playing field. It’s not bad because god said drugs are bad or any other weird reason - it specifically has to do with impacting other athletes who are trying to play fair.

If you’re not in a competition then taking things like Testosterone may or may not be ‘bad’ for other reasons but I have a hard time seeing how it counts as ‘cheating’. I certainly would never use T or anything other than a double shot espresso to enhance race performance. But for people like myself who have hung up the cleats (in terms of racing anyway) or for the average Joe who doesn’t even own a road bike? I have a hard time seeing why that’s bad ‘just because’.

121

I would not take Joe Rogan’s advice on anything medical. Or anything at all for that matter. There is a lot of very charged up political context around Joe these days.

122

Just curious…did you listen to the same podcast I did? I found the evidence compelling and backed up by science from experts in the field.

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I’m not talking about any specific episode, and there very well may have been some good, science-backed information in there, but generally speaking it’s a good idea to steer clear of Joe these days. I’ll just leave it at that, if you’re truly curious a quick google search should reveal what I’m talking about.