Jamaican sprinting.

Interesting, isn’t it? Froome/Horner et al do well, and the world’s media rounds on them as probable dopers. Given the past that cycling’s had, and the turbulent present it’s living through, that seems only fair.

However, given the past and current state of doping in athletics, and especially in Jamaican sprinting, how come there’s no similar media frenzy around certain sprint stars, eh?

Observational bias? Maybe there is just as much, we just don’t read the altheltics pages of the newspaper or the sprinting equivelent of “cycling weekly” so feel hard done by as we do read about cycling and doping?

I bet no one even knows who Horner is outside of ‘serious’ cyclists who follow racing, and even then I bet only a subset know of him before his win.

Prob because no one’s that interested in seeing the Olympic 100 m final being won in 10.0something seconds.
Hence certain tacit agreements are in place between the sports governing bodies, commercial sponsors, the athletes and us, the spectators.

I think a certain sprint star has been well and truly “Froome’d” in recent months.

It goes on, it always has, it probably always will. I struggle get too hysterical about it but then I spent 20 years around body builders and powerlifters.

Out of curiosity I’d like to see the FA, NFL and rugby be as thorough and open as cycling likes to think it is

So are we saying Bolt is a doper?

Observational bias?

Totes! Because the forums and cycling magazines are tumescent with doping chat, we think the world cares. When in fact, the majority couldn’t give a shite.

Every (for the sake of argument) competitive professional sport has doping to some extent. What extent and the means to eradicate are moot and will be ever thus. One sport pointing the finger at others doesn’t help at all.

NFL must be full of it. The size those guys are and the hits they have to make/take! How they do it without drugs is a miracle in itself. Rugby probably has more drugs in it than ten years ago. As does football I guess. WADA needs more teeth.

If this story comes as a surprise to anyone, then they have been naive in the extreme.

However, it is the long-term damage to sport that makes me most sad.

Be it doping or match fixing or whatever, it means that the ‘shock result’ is now always liable to be questioned. No fairy-tales allowed any more I’m afraid.

No minnow nation is ever going to beat Pakistan at cricket without it being called into question.

No cyclist is ever going to dance up a steep climb and smash the rest of the field without eyebrows being raised.

Life bans are the only way.

BTW I don’t think Bolt is a doper. If you look at his natural attributes (long levers, a glut of fast-twitch muscle fibres and the co-ordination to harness them) then I think we can still have some faith. But in the nasty world of cheats and sly innuendo, there will always be room for doubt.

Because the forums and cycling magazines are tumescent with doping chat,

Plastered across pretty much every mainstream media sports reporting as well, DD. So, I think there’s interest beyond just the specialist cycling world.

WADA needs more teeth.

Hear, hear! This is entirely correct.

NFL especially has been entirely resistant to WADA ‘interference’

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/sep/27/nfl-wada-drugs-testing

David Howman, the director-general of Wada, also voiced his frustration that blood-testing for human growth hormone in the NFL had been delayed by the players’ union, who had tried “every possible way to avoid testing”.

HGH? Oldskool!

No less than 18 Jamaican sprinters are either serving or have recently served doping suspensions. That’s a remarkable number for a nation of just 2.7m. Russia is being pilloried as an outrageous offender with 37 currently sanctioned athletes, but their population is more than 50 times that of Jamaica.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/other-sports/jamaicas-doping-record-demands-we-be-sceptical-ahead-of-glasgow-2014-x.21384521

Usain Bolt is in the same position as a certain American was.

Well, we know you have a special interest in doping in Jamaican sports flashy. 🙂 You seem to mention it lots.

Pigface – Member
So are we saying Bolt is a doper?

sugar coat it why don’t you…..