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Does this mean the Big Three sports in this country (baseball, basketball & football) are going to finally get serious about drug use?
Somehow, I doubt it.
White House deputy “drug czar” Scott Burns blasted U.S. sports leagues Tuesday for failing to adopt World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) standards and indicated their leaders were enablers for dope cheats.
Burns, the U.S. government representative to last week’s Madrid WADA meeting, picked apart the National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League and Major League Baseball excuses for ignoring WADA.
“They don’t want to sign on because it’s tough and it’s specific and there are consequences and it will be monitored and cheaters will be caught and exposed,” Burns told reporters in a teleconference call.
WADA adopted a new anti-doping code last week that football world governing body FIFA ratified, Burns noted, dismissing U.S. league notions that athletes need more protection and low overturn rates of WADA bans made them less valid.
“That’s a tribute to WADA,” Burns said. “That’s a way to avoid. It’s an excuse by the leagues not to participate. It’s good enough for FIFA. It is good enough for sports all over the world but not our professional leagues.”
Source: velonews.com
And then you have shit like this:
From: Thomas
Subject: more doping in sports
Mosley accused of doping
“Boxer says he used EPO unknowingly as a report details his alleged drug regimen before 2003 De La Hoya fight.”“unknowingly” my ass.
Yeah, I just suddenly got better. At least he isn’t saying he thought it was flax seed oil.
From the LA Times article linked above:
“I didn’t understand it to be blood doping, I was told it would keep my [red] blood cells high,” Mosley said. “I didn’t know the extent of this. To be honest, I didn’t care to have it, but [Hudson] kept saying this stuff was great, and described it as ‘icing on the cake,’ because when you work as hard as I do, you need something to help you recover. Like vitamins, I thought.”
The icing on the cake.
My cake needs icing.
Either that, or I had better start eating a lot less cake.
Who am I kidding? Back fat is so in these days.
To review: Boxers on the dope. And, now, tennis players as well.
From: Stephen
Subject: Now even tennis players are doping
Unbelievable, especially the quote”They say that cocaine increases self-confidence and creates a type of euphoria,” she said in a statement. ”I don’t know. I only know that if I were to try to hit the ball while in any state of euphoria, it simply wouldn’t work…”. Right. Hypothetically speaking, if (when) I imbibed, I could pretty much rock it like a mofo from dusk ’til dawn. Hypothetically speaking of course. Is lying part of the professional training program these days?
nytimes.com
Hope the riding (any kind) is good on these crisp mornings.
Stephen
I’m afraid the lying has been part of it for a long, long time.
by 
Jonny, et al–
Saying that tennis players are doping because Ms. Hingis tested positive for cocaine metabolites is stretching it. Look, she’s a famous and wealthy Swiss celebrity– if she takes a bump on Saturday night, that’s not the same as guys training on EPO or the various hormones. I find it exceedingly unlikely that Ms. Hingis fueled her incredible career and rise to the very pinnacle of competitive, professional tennis with cocaine.
This is one of the problems with the current rhetoric around “doping.” If some snowboard kid (or MTB racer) is ripping bongs with his homies on Saturday night, does that give him an unfair advantage in competition? I’d say no. If anything, he’s decreasing his aerobic capacity and quite likely his overall acuity.
So why test and prosecute for recreational drugs? That’s totally missing the point. What a morass.
Mikey
…mikey…while ms hingis got tapped for recreational coke, do you really suppose not one pro tennis player has ever used some kinda “banned” drug to help w/ that bad shoulder / sore knee / or coach who said “pally, you’d be the shit, if ya only hadda faster serve” ???…
…hell, the pro golfers are gonna be testing next season cuz word got around that a few guys were tryin’ ta increase their strength…golfers !!!…
…now, smokin’ the green, that’s kinda marginal, i gotta agree & the nba guys, in particular, have been doing that for years w/ word nada from their commissioner…
…bottom line, we’re talking PRO athletes & pros play to their sponsors, their endorsements & to their own pocketbooks, so ya, tennis ???…bank on it…
>>>>…mikey…while ms hingis got tapped for recreational coke, do you really suppose not one pro tennis player has ever used some kinda “banned” drug to help w/ that bad shoulder / sore knee / or coach who said “pally, you’d be the shit, if ya only hadda faster serve” ?
Oops, I buggered that comment submission… anyway:
Dear Mr. Wild–
You can bet your bottom dollar there’s a pro tennis player somewhere doing steroids. Especially in the men’s game, where 120 MPH serves are the rule any more.
A good point was made here not long ago about Mr. Bonds being crucified (as well he should, in my opinion) while lots of big men in MLB are juiced & skating. I see this as even more the case for “Swiss Miss” Hingis– getting run out of the sport from a top-20 ranking for cocaine metabolites? That’s missing the point.
Enjoy the ride,
Mikey
…please, my name is bikesgonewild & “mr” was my father…
…while i would tend to agree w/ yer assessment of ms hingis situation, it should be incumbent on any athlete, (who gives a rat’s ass) in any sport, to realize the particularly sensitive pall that has been cast & act accordingly…
…despite the “world of sport” slowly sinking into the toilet, few athletes seem to have the depth of perception to see beyond their next contract, never mind looking at the big picture……
…thank the great spirit for the ‘jonathon vaughters’ of the world, who may just help pull this out yet…
…i should add that i’m not so foolish as to believe PRO sports will ever stop, because they are definite panacea for the public, but there is a danger of all pro sports perceptively devolving into ‘sports entertainment’ like ‘wwe’ wrestling…
BGW–
I agree. For me, the “major” pro sports are already mere entertainment. Barry Bonds broke no record, but he sure smacked the shit out of some thrown baseballs. I tried like hell to stay “in the fold” with MLB, but I couldn’t. They’re paid too much and then they whine about it… at least NFL players are donating their bodies to the sport– that’s an f’ing brutal way to make a living.
I still have sports heroes, but they are mostly CAT2,3 and 4s. You know some of the “local” pros are super talented guys, riding their guts out for no money or glory– hats off, I wish I was one-tenth as hard.
Enjoy the ride,
Mikey
It’s a fucking shame.
Mikey