BigDummy – Member
I can’t really be bothered worrying about a sport that is over in less time than it takes to read this sentence.

You are THAT fast?

If you assume all are clean, well I think your naive

hora, you’ve changed. Lance really broke your heart didn’t he?

Lance really broke your heart didn’t he?

Won’t return his calls either…

It excites me to consider a sporting world where the possibility of testing EVERYONE on the planet and hand picking the obvious freaks for future sporting training programmes (China?..) – i’d imagine that in reality a tiny minority of the potential greats actually ever see a track, for example

This is actually one of the tactics used to generate the recent British Olympic sucess. Getting people who are good at sport to try things for which they may be physically well adapted. Two obvious examples are Amy Williams and Helen Glover.

Williams was a good 400m runner but not good enough to make the British team. So she was encouraged to try Skeleton on a push start track. Her althetic prowess gave her the edge in the start and the rest she learned later.

Glover was selected to try rowing purely based on her height by the sporting giants program. She went from never having rowed to winning gold in a new olympic record (and I was on the bank of the lake to see it!). So rather than waiting for kids to get into rowing and then seeing who was good at it Team GB went and found people who looked like they would be good at rowing and turned them into world class rowers.

Obvious when you think about it!

Cynically, I would argue that its been fairly standard practice for lots of other countries to single out potential freaks since way back when.
Also much easier to find an outstanding prospect in a (very) minor participant sport.

Agreed. They didn’t re-invent the wheel (that was Chris Boardmans secret squirel project!), I think the difference was that they targeted very niche sports and thew a lot of money at the problem.

We aren’t going to find the next Usain Bolt by going round schools looking for tall kids!

analysis of bolts 9.58

Analysis of Bolt’s 9.58 WR

i’d imagine that in reality a tiny minority of the potential greats actually ever see a track, for example.

Not necessarily. A good portion of the world’s kids go to schools with structured sporting programmes, so there’s a fair old chance of being noticed or discovering your own aptitude.

There’s more chance however of someone with the ideal physical attributes not having the appropriate commitment and desire to achieve. The mental attributes might even be rarer than the physical ones. Lynford Christie said in an interview that he was not the fastest kid in his school, but he was the fastest one with the required dedication. And of course the problem with sprinting is that it’s a pretty single-minded sport. Something like football or rugby is actually pretty enjoyable, so it’s likely to appeal to more kids I reckon. Running fast is very much a purist activity.

There are of course likely to be superb sprinters running around the jungles or plains of somewhere remote, but even then people are still found. Once it was discovered that people from a certain part of East Africa were great at distance running, talent scouts went there and distance running became popular. Their distance runners are big stars so you have a lot of kids wanting to be them.

My nephew (ex road cyclist) wrote this

http://tenpercentorless.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/want-to-run-958-speak-to-bolts-chemist.html

no idea if its true or otherwise but Usain Bolts laywers contacted him and told him to take it down, which he did for a while…

I like the last comment on the link, ‘if you had to bet your life savings on Bolt being clean or dirty, which way would you go?’

Sometimes it really bothers me to think that there are some clean sprinters out there pushed into 2nd, 3rd , 6th place etc by the dopers. Then I realise that there are almost certainly no clean sprinters.

Linford Christie above not being a particularly good example of positive dedication.

Linford Christie above not being a particularly good example of positive dedication.

Not quite what I meant.

My nephew (ex road cyclist) wrote this

http://tenpercentorless.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/want-to-run-958-speak-to-bolts-chemist.html

no idea if its true or otherwise but Usain Bolts laywers contacted him and told him to take it down, which he did for a while…

That article is properly mental. It reminds me of the worst Armstrong apologists but in reverse.

It’s basically a load of widely known public information followed by a completely unsubstantiated claim that Bolt is linked to this. Properly mad.

But at the same time molgrips…..!

I was chatting to a rather good (ex) hurdler who’s only comment on Lindord Christie was “what took them so **** long” he also told me quite a lot about watching fellow competitors change from one event to the next with no apparent explanation, other than drugs. I found it quite enlightening… Another guy who’s a sports scientist doing research into steroid use is fascinating, I could listen all night to him. I now find it very hard to think of ANY clean professional sportspeople.
I think Bolt will be caught one day, but it’ll be no different to Armstrong, first amongst equals.

Ok well Christie aside, you have to have both the physical and mental attributes to become a top athlete, drugs or no, and one is no good without the other. Therefore there must be plenty of physically ideal specimens without the desire to put it to use.

First among equals?

The whole Pelaton wasnt doping.

Not far off…

I’m 50/50, I follow boxing and this fellow,

Angel Heredia / Hernandez

Has admitted coming up with several undetectable PED’s

Allegedly he has “worked” with Bolt.

Basically any boxer that hires him is viewed with suspicion but none have tested positive.

He has also changed his name a few times.

molgrips – Member

Ok well Christie aside, you have to have both the physical and mental attributes to become a top athlete, drugs or no, and one is no good without the other. Therefore there must be plenty of physically ideal specimens without the desire to put it to use.

I agree totally with what you’re saying.

First among equals?

The whole Pelaton wasnt doping.

Isn’t it something like the top 21 (I can’t recall / be arsed to look it up) riders in the tours that Armstrong has won have subsequently been caught? That’s quite damning!