Summer Olympics

[Muleski]

Salazar has a pretty sketchy reputation regarding what we now call PED's, going back to his days as a runner. My kids have a number of friends in OR, some are pro runners, some work for that "Just Do It" organization. Galen Rupp has been Salazar's personal project since he was in high school. He's not some novice runner, or Johnny Come Lately. There's a lot of development work that's gone on with him for many years. I'm surprised that I haven't read more about this since his medal.

I would assume that he has tested just fine, as has Farah. Always been a case of staying ahead of the testers. Call me a cynic.

And yeah, there will be plenty of snickers about the Oregon Project for some time. The allegations from other runners who left Salazar are all over the net, and pretty strong. History re: PED's has pretty much told us that where there's smoke there's fire......Unless you believe that Peyton Manning's wife was just mainlining EPO!

In my opinion there are so few clean sports, that the rules are a still a joke. I can't believe, based on what I hear that cycling is truly clean. There are a ton of allegations regarding this sport. I think the nordic side has cleaned up a lot, particularly for the women. I do believe that the USST is clean. Lots of question marks on the alpine side, worldwide. Red Bull is a tremendous organization, which just pours a TON of money into the sport. Some of the backgrounds of the docs in their performance program are not exactly lily white and pure. A lot of East German hands on experience.

No sense in burying the head in the sand on this, IMO.

 

[scott43]

I would assume that he has tested just fine, as has Farah. Always been a case of staying ahead of the testers. Call me a cynic.

There was some hub-bub about Lizzie Armitstead missing 3 where are you doping test requirements which normally calls for a suspension. She fought one of them based on a "clerical error" and won so she avoided the suspension. And the funny thing is nobody knew until someone did some digging. And when it came out, she was all "I'm clean..I've never tested positive..." and I couldn't help but see this montage of clips of all the athletes who have said they're clean and never tested positive and subsequently came out as dirty. I mean..it's at the point, as you say, where you have to basically assume all are dirty and who is good enough to beat the testing. Sad state of affairs.

 

[Muleski]

I've had occasion to meet a number of guys {and for some reason no women?} who were later proven to have been very, very dirty during their careers. A couple have been very open about it, and basically said that the sport was their dream, their job, their very being and that nothing was going to deter their focus at the time. If it was impossible to be competitive without doing it, you did it. I get it. The open guys were cyclists, and a nordic skier. I've also met the big Kahuna himself, in two private settings with friends. He won't begin to go there. I played in a celeb golf deal with a big name MLB player {I guess a certain HOF player}, guilty as can be, and dumb. I had to sign a bunch of non disclosure agreements form his agent before we played. Really?? No he's never done this, but we need to go through this bullshit? And BTW, my company paid a lot of money for this ordeal. But don't ask a thing.

I like Bode's theory......no rules. Who cares? Use whatever you want for equipment. Have FIS drop the equipment regulations. And on the PED's.....who cares? If you and I can take EPO, and a lot of other banned substances to recover, why can't they? If somebody wants to bulk up, and understands the potential long term risks, go for it. We don't need to get into names.....a number of people in our sport over the years didn't transform their bodies cleanly in the weight room. Bode, I think, actually did. In fact I am pretty certain that he did.

I think that trying to legislate this out of sport is just impossible. It's still an arms race. Dopers versus testers. I spent the 4th of July with a former TdF rider, and we were talking about this over drinks. He readily admits that everybody who was a contender was dirty in his day. He was grunt, a domestique, and he wasn't that dirty. He got a lot of recovery help when he needed it. Some guys in his role were clean. Guys who had no big aspirations and rode in a certain role. He finished three TdF's, and was about 3 hours behind in the GC. But his crowd had nothing like what was going on with his team leaders, which they knew was going on but was not that out in the open. His take is that the sport is much cleaner, but not clean. His main point was that it's not so over the top now that people are dying as they once did........But his watching Froome, and the rest of Team Sky, makes him skeptical. Perhaps unfairly. He doesn't see how they can recover the way they do.

Obviously the IOC didn't want to ruin their party with this chatter. And I get that. Rio was just awesome viewing. Really fun. Sorry if I'm being a downer. I just rose to the bait!

 

[Monique]

I'd like to see more martial arts coverage on the main Olympic feed as well including judo and wrestling. My son got to see a US Judo Team kid train at his dojo when he was really little, barely remembers but would have been neat to get to see that same guy compete. No clue how he did. My son didn't stick with judo long but did start wrestling in middle school and may continue now that he is in high school. I took some tae kwan do when I was his age so I'd definitely not flip the channel if that came on.

They're adding karate and wushu for 2020 ...

Don't know what all the TKD schools presenting themselves as karate are going to do with that ...

 

[SBrown]

Just heard another scenario on this, on ESPN.
I guess Lochte called his mom to tell her about the robbery and she is the one who spread the story like wildfire. The question becomes, (again) Why?
Did his mommy give him some "emergency only" money that he spent, and he needed to cover his loss of the money so she wouldn't send him to his room?
He's a freaking 32 year old dude acting like a jr high twit.

So, I've jumped on him enough as well, but as things come to light, I will apologize because it looks not as bad as it did. Yeah, he exaggerated some things, but it looks like the authorities did, too. So shame on everyone, a little bit.

 

[neonorchid]

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

Guess who's going to be on Dancing with the Stars?

Spoiler: Spoiler

Ryan Lochte

 

[Mike Thomas]

Maybe Hope Solo can be his partner!

 

[Philpug]

Maybe Hope Solo can be his partner!

The irony in that statement.

 

[crgildart]

Came here to post the previous three comments. Figured someone else might have been on the same wavelength.

 

[Philpug]

We forgot, "He can only Hope". Any more?

 

[Warp Daddy]

This Lochte dude is an idiot who never matured. Screw him and the other self indulgent ,self absorbed "Bro " frat boy jerks that fail to be humble and appreciative for their station in life and behave as if they are entitled.

I no longer suffer fools well , you cannot protect a fool from their destiny. Karma happens and in this case is justified. Solo has issues too.

 

[Mike Thomas]

Solo has issues too.

Understatement of the year!

 

[SBrown]

Understatement of the year!

Solo has far more issues than Lochte. He's just dumb.

 

[crgildart]

Solo has far more issues than Lochte. He's just dumb.

Yes, but Solo's problems are some that can be addressed via rehab or whatever. You can't fix stupid.

 

[James]

Yes, but Solo's problems are some that can be addressed via rehab or whatever. You can't fix stupid.

You can keep it in the pool though.

 

[crgildart]

You can keep it in the pool though.

If they had been able to do that we wouldn't be having this discussion.

 

[Tricia]

He's a freaking 32 year old dude acting like a jr high twit.

Solo has far more issues than Lochte. He's just dumb.

Yup. I stand by my previous statement. Everything he did implies that he's extremely stoopid for his age. Solo has hit the news a ton for bigger issues and scary stuff. I wish them both well going forward.

I keep hearing comparisons about Lochte's incident and Phelps' drunk driving issues from a few years ago. While the DD issues are not to be taken lightly, Phelps did it outside of his "olympic" experience and atoned for his issues. By all accounts, he's moved on, has a family and has matured a ton.
Lochte still has some maturing to do.

*I say, "by all accounts" because none of us really know. Ya know?

 

[Monique]

I wonder why it's okay to mock people for being stupid ...

 

[crgildart]

I wonder why it's okay to mock people for being stupid ...

Because they embarrassed us as a nation.