35 thoughts on “The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner”

  1. Custo

    Surprised is taken so long for the lid to blow off Athletics, especially after the ‘known unknowns’ plaguing professional cycling since the last 80s.

    There are no ‘physiological freaks’ in professional sport. Only drug cheats and EPO fiends.

    2. rotide

      You really don’t know what you are talking about.

      This furore is less about the ‘drug cheat’ aspect of doping and more about Russia’s state involvement in it. The russian federation and the government were involved in bribery and destruction of negative tests along with the outgoing IAAF president.

      1. donkey_kong

        “There are no ‘physiological freaks’ in professional sport. ”

        you’ll find that actually there are…good genetics brings them to the table .
        every competitor has good genetics for the sport they do at that level..

  2. Demon

    Lord Coe? Never heard of him. Oh, *Sebastian Coe*? That’s interesting!

    Waiting for a few drugs tests on rugger players, who look insanely as if blown up with bicycle pumps in recent years.

    1. rotide

      It never ceases to amaze me that people are so quick to point accusatory fingers at rugby and never once even mention football, the most commercial sport on the planet.

      If WADA style doping controls were introduced into both sports (and AFAIK, Rugby’s testing is better than footballs), I’m pretty sure i know which sport would come out worse.

        1. ReproBertie

          Wasn’t Juve not done? So they got away with it?

          Soccer is full of doping. Barcelona casually mention HGH treatment when discussing injured players. Bayern Munich are fond of a bit of actovegin (as is Usain Bolt as it happens). If two successful clubs like that are open about their usage then it’s safe to assume that less successful clubs are following suit.

          1. rotide

            The Rio Ferdinand incident(s) should be hugely instructive when it comes to footballs attidude to testing. Add to that various other public stories like paul merson and japp stam and you’ve got to assume there’s a massive amount going on behind closed doors.

          2. Anomanomanom

            It’s wasn’t preformence enhancers they were worried about. Paul Merson is now over his addictions and it was recreational use anyway.

    2. edalicious

      While they are pretty huge, not many of them would have a physique that isn’t attainable by anyone with full-time strength and conditioning coaches, very controlled diet, full team of medical support staff and plenty of time to dedicate to it.

  4. perricrisptayto

    I’d bet my house on it that the Russians are not on their own in this one.
    Is there such a thing as a “clean” sport.

    1. rotide

      Probably not on their own but they have form and they’ve been caught red handed. They need to be slapped.

    2. pissedasanewt

      Its always the nasty Russians, there are no drug cheats in the US or UK.

      Its time we took this seriously and got rid of the governing bodies of FIFA, IAAF, Cycling and got a real association to run the lot of them… step forward the GAA’s Central committee..

      1. rotide

        Well, it’s a cliche because it’s true. It usually IS the nasty russians.

        And while there certainly is drug cheats in the US and GB, There isn’t members of the country’s secret police paying visits to labs and 20,000 samples at a time being destroyed.

        1. ReproBertie

          It didn’t involve th esecret police but a Spanish court ordered the desctruction of more than 200 blood samples associated with Operacion Puerto, an investigation into the activities of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes. Fuentes was found guilty of providing blood transfusions to cyclists but there are reports of prominent La Liga player, as well as other sports people, being among his patients.

  7. Kevin

    It’s time to split out sports into the clean and not clean variants.
    Keep your standard Olympics as everyone imagines them to be; no drugs, all training.
    Have a second Olympics that combines the science of doping with training to see how far they can push the human body. Sure there will be casualties but we will be entertained.

  8. dav

    If only pravda journalists would give the blueshirts and their labour lackeys a similar grilling over their corrupt war on the poor.

    1. Spaghetti Hoop

      John Bowman comes pretty close imo as I’ve seen him grilling someone live.
      But yeah – it all went chat-showy and faux aggression with the current lot.

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