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I see this as a good thing. The labs, their work and results, must be above all scrutiny. There can be no question as their professionalism and ethics.
There is far too much at stake for it to be otherwise.
From: The Pis
Subject: USADA overturned?
Hey big jonny- Just passing along an article from our local paper. I never saw this case mentioned, but it was probably squeezed in between some poems somewhere and I missed it. Kevin, the law student in the article, is a nice guy. He’s engaged to one of my sister’s friends. He attended the best public university in the nation for his undergraduate work, so I know he’s a smart guy. Anyway, these law students were able to accomplish what Floyd’s ridiculously expensive legal team couldn’t. They helped overturn doping sanctions against LaTasha Jinkins, a US Olympic sprinter. The article raises a number of good points:1) Perhaps Floyd Landis is not the cheating asshole I think he is. Yeah, so I still think he cheated, but at the very least if you’re sloppy and get caught the labs can’t be sloppy either to make it stick.
2) The USADA is not infallible, who knew?
3) Accountability needs to extend beyond athletes and crappy labs.
Don’t get me wrong, I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m advocating for cheaters. It’s just that we all need to maintain the high ground if we want to eliminate cheating from our sport. Read the article and let me know what you think-
I should have pulled a few poems out of my ass to sandwich this post between…
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…i repeat exactly what i said on the landis post below…
…now take two aspirin & call your lawyer in the morning…
In my wildest dreams all of the players on the international sports scene from National water polo federations to the NFL get together and agree on standards for drug testing & make the financial commitment to see them enforced uniformly.
Way to go kid
I bet she’s laughing all the way to the pharmacy as we speak.
I don’t understand why the highest standards for testing are not adhered to.
Sure, some athletes will escape the net.
But you have to believe that when they are nailed, the tests were absolutely true.
If they’re done with bad protocol, bad equipment, bad analysis; toss em.
As much as I hate the dopers, that’s no excuse for Dick Cheney style justice.
…you may be right, marco, but at least if we had some faith in the damn labs, we might, & i emphasize ‘might’ have a better idea of what’s really going on…
“I don’t understand why the highest standards for testing are not adhered to.”
Guys-
C’mon, this isn’t that hard. Rigorous chemical testing of biologicals is readily available… for a hideous sum of money. Look at the way your local DA, County Prosecutor or State AG handles this type of analysis: blue-ribbon chain of custody all down the line, certified professional chemists in multi-million dollar labs, performing tests at $500 a pop.
USADA can’t afford it.
So we get the dog and pony show instead.
All very dramatic.
Mikey
PS– Is the doping athlete a criminal? Maybe, after he lies to a grand jury and gets caught.
Since the labs seem broken and can’t even follow their own (and established) practices to calibrate their instruments what faith can ever be placed in the results they generate. Most lab work is truly a pain in the ass but if the bottom line is the machine is not able to generate results that match known quantities then what the hell are they being used to ruin reputations and careers.
Cheating seems so persuasive but proof must be built to bust someone. I’m pretty sure that Landis is not clean but what he got caught on is simply not substantiated by the tests and the protocols established.
I think Mikey has it right considering how we are questioning every aspect of evidence as it relates to death row prisoners – what chance does sport have in this environment? The hardest thing for me to fathom is that the chain of custody for every aspect of a sample is not clearly maintained and met by appropriately proven lab work all the way through the analysis and yet athletes are being busted. Mind boggling at the least.
So, some law students shoot holes in the USADA labs’ practices and they get an athlete off?
That’s a good thing.
Yet, Floyd’s team did exactly the same thing and he was found guilty.
Double standard, anyone?
It just goes to show that when going after a big fish, the game is clearly fixed.
…and I still find it both humorous and tragic that so many consider Floyd guilty when they haven’t bothered to look at the evidence. ‘Cause it tells a much different story. They probably can’t be bothered to back up their opinion with facts when they’re so busy slamming him online…
Mark is right. All you Floyd hatin’ fools haven’t read the evidence. The testimony on Trustbut Verifys’ Blog was completely clear: not only did the lab fail to show he had an out of whack T-E ratio, but they didn’t use their own machine well enough to conclude that he had exogenous testosterone in his system. Read it.
It is a horrifying story if you are relying on the quality of their work; like all pros do.
awe shit here we go again. Floyd is guilty, he is not guilty. Whatever the fuck, you got to know he dopes as does most of the pro-peleton. He was persecuted yes and his trial was fucked but he broke the cardinal rule somewhere along the line, and bit the hand that fed him. If that were not the case he would still be rocking yellow and a few dollars richer. I know it is bullshit but it is politics.
…i think floyds righteous indignation stems from two things…(1) he knows for a fact that the lab is 100% wrong because he didn’t touch any testosterone, synthetic or otherwise, & (2) he got away w/ blood doping w/ his own blood & they couldn’t detect that…
…kinda like, yer hangin’ me for stealin’ a horse, when what i really did was rob the bank, but i did it with my own goddamn horse…
…just sayin’, cowpoke…
Free Floyd.
I went to his Floyd Fairness Fund Dinner in S-dale. Looked at the slides, read every article. Like him, met him through a buddy he used to race juniors with. If anyone wants him to be innocent, it is me. I am all about ethics in testing…one question …How do you explain exogenous testosterone in your system? sure you could argue it innocent like the law students did. throw the tests out yada …yada. But it is a technicality. the fact is it was there.
How do you explain that away?
Wonder who gets paid more–the lab techs working for the ADA labs or the ones doing the behind the scenes testing for the big time pros and/or teams?
That assumes that they are different people…