Lance Armstrong to be stripped of Tour de France titles and banned for life

[Eckybloke]

Certainly some of the pharma companies are now starting to help provide information and testing methods for some of their products that could provide an advantage.

[paul_e]

Those quotes from Gay read like he was told there was nothing he'd get banned for in whatever he was given.  The cynic will suggest he should have known that means they don't test for it well, the naive will think he took it to mean it was legal.

Knowing which is correct requires you to know who gave him it and what they told him.  Will be interesting to hear how this pans out.

Not sure what to think of Powell, I don't think he was taking drugs earlier in his career, maybe falling so far behind Bolt has got to him.

[lovejoy]

Why not make it illegal for pharmaceutical companies to supply products which are likely to be used by sportsmen, without a test being available? In cycling CERA was used by cyclists who didnt think a test was available and then Ricci got caught.

[Dave Cooper please]

Why not make it illegal for pharmaceutical companies to supply products which are likely to be used by sportsmen, without a test being available? In cycling CERA was used by cyclists who didnt think a test was available and then Ricci got caught.

Because most of these substances are used quite legally for medicinal purposes by people who aren't professional sportsmen.

[Ad@m]

Why not make it illegal for pharmaceutical companies to supply products which are likely to be used by sportsmen, without a test being available? In cycling CERA was used by cyclists who didnt think a test was available and then Ricci got caught.

Because most of these substances are used quite legally for medicinal purposes by people who aren't professional sportsmen.

Indeed. I don't remember any pharmaceutical companies advertising a new product as making you run really really fast with none of the pesky side effects of positive drug tests!!

[Whiney MacWhineface]

Ex-Lax?

[peter w]

I've said many times before that i did not believe that jamaica could produce this many of top class world leading sprinters. The odd one or two maybe but for a small island in teh caribbean it is not possible to produce what they are producing. i thought it was clear as anything that drugs were involved. I doubt that all the cheats have been found eiher.

[lovejoy]

Can anyone think of a top performing Jamaican who has yet to be caught?

[peter w]

just the best one.

[PaulWinch again]

It is a worry, but innocent until anything is found. The only thing with Bolt is than he's a completely different body shape to other sprinters.

[LeeS]

just the best one.

Bolt was running faster than most top sprinters at age 15. It would be sad to think anyone would get caught up in doping as a child. So I believe he is clean. He also has a different physique to the others, which offers a more palatable explanation of his speed.

[paul_e]

Bolt also seems a bit too down to earth to be doing anything dirty.  He just comes across as a guy who realised when he was young that sprinting for a living was easy, fun and could make him money.  The first bit is the key, I don't think he'd be a sprinter if it wasn't easy.  Just watch him in interviews, he's so different to most top sportsmen (more so when he was younger to be fair), he always came across as someone who'd be just as happy selling drinks in a beach bar, so long as it was fun and easy, he just doesn't fit the profile of the average doper (who tend to be the guys who've trained the hardest and pushed as far as they can but have come up just short).

[Monty]

Bolt may well turn out to be a cheat, who knows, but it does seem like these other top guys - Powell, Gay - resorted to cheating because they knew there was no other way to compete with Bolt. It must be a nightmare to be a world class sprinter who isn't Bolt.

[LeeS]

Bolt may well turn out to be a cheat, who knows, but it does seem like these other top guys - Powell, Gay - resorted to cheating because they knew there was no other way to compete with Bolt. It must be a nightmare to be a world class sprinter who isn't Bolt.

Or you could accept the fact that someone else is faster than you and be proud of what you do achieve. These guys may or may not be judged as cheats, but if they are, then their reputations are ruined and they still didnt beat Bolt. Surely a clean silver medal would have meant more to an athlete than a dirty one.

[lovejoy]

I don't know. its difficult for Jo Public to put themselves in the shoes of a professional sportsman. If you've spent your whole life practicing one spot and how you perform dictates how much money you get/your quality of life and you line up with the best natural ability, you look down the line and see 7 competitors on drugs who you know you could beat on a level playing field - who amongst us would accept clean 8th?