AIBU to wonder about who and how many in Rio Olympics are doping?

[Pangurban1]

The Olympics is great viewing. If you can discount the judging that seemed a bit dodgy and wonder who is getting a backhander.

I suppose Jamaica has the most notoriety (medal wise) because it is such a tiny place and has so many top athletes. The Russians were outed (by a whistle blower) for tampering with samples for drug testing, but still had some athletes competing.

It does raise some issues wrt national testing. Prior to the London Olympics, Jamaica had only one out of competition national testing in six months. None at all in the 3 months prior to the Olympics.

They wouldn't have been caught for tampering. They simply didn't test. Now they have had a fair few athletes testing positive.

chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/08/12/bernstein-usain-bolt-is-probably-doping-and-you-know-it/

This is interesting because even it says it was not just national testing. International testing was difficult to do in Jamaica, too.

Testing clean is no guarantee of innocence either. Take American Marion Jones. IAAF president Lamine Diack , said, “Marion Jones will be remembered as one of the biggest frauds in sporting history.”
She always tested clean but was outed and ended up admitting she had lied under oath about her cheating. EPO and steroids.

It raises questions wrt the fact there doesn't seem to be a universal standard all countries have to adhere to for national testing. Some test more diligently than others. It is not really a level pitch for athletes who are training if some can dope during training without fear of being caught. It may not be still be detectable at competition time.

Tyson Gay, Justin Gatlin (who Usain Bolt sails past, despite Gatlin being a doper). Carl Lewis raised eyebrows at Bolt's 100M final at 10.03 one year coming down to 9.69 the next year.

After Lance Armstrong's so earnest claims he never cheated, it illustrates that cheaters won't usually come clean voluntarily. Also whatever method Armstrong was using wasn't being detected. If the guy he made an enemy of hadn't squealed, he might never have been properly brought to book.

So, does anyone just hope clean athletes aren't being robbed? Is it a case that most of the top athletes are using artificial performance enhancers in some shape or form and it is only a case of who is still best out of that bunch of dopers?

I know Mo Farah has distanced himself from his coach when the coach was arrested on doping charges. And the fact he missed some testing was explained to the satisfaction of uk anti doping as negligence rather than evasion. If he had missed a third he would have been on a ban 'cos of the 3 strikes system.

Even drug testing doesn't stop all doping. Michelle Smith set Irish womens records that might be impossible to beat for clean swimmers. Got through the net. However, without the testing, people doping can waltz right on.

I know it is a ramble, would it really be an absolute shock if it was revealed further on if some great names, although testing clean (when being tested at all), were revealed to be doping, like Marion Jones. Sad certainly, but a shock? And of course, one does hope some very inspirational sports people are the real McCoy.

I think Lance Armstrong did a lot of damage.

I read an article about Caster Semenya and the fact that she produces more testosterone naturally, makes her an unfair competitor to other women who don't produce that amount of testosterone. In fact other women have had their gonads and part of their clitoris removed to make it more fair to other competitors. I find this more shocking than athletes doping, as surely this is a legalise form of FGM?

I haven't watched any of the Rio Olympics and I think I only watched the opening ceremony from London, which I found cringeworthy.
The Olympic Games have moved so far away from talented amateurs that it is very hard to find any of the achievements credible any more - so many competitors able to train at a professional level etc.
Add in the "doping" and it is no longer a level playing field, just who has calibrated their intake of enhancers well enough so that they retain the benefits but don't show up in any testing.
Couple that with the economics around hosting an event like this and the whole event is laughable.
In addition, if you are in Europe and work full-time, how on earth do you watch anything live?
And I had better stay off the subject of so-called "sports" now included.

Pedant that's a really odd post.
Why does professional training make the achievements less credible or impressive? I'm impressed by a lot of professional skills (like, for exa,ple, brain surgery) why should sport/physical skill be any different?
As for 'how can anyone in Europe watch' - I'm flabbergasted! It's a worldwide event, we can't have it at UK friendly times all the time! I expect some people in The USA were a bit pissed off with London times, but that's how it goes.
I also like the wide variety of sports on show - it's interesting and might give some people ideas for exercise.

I think a lot of people believe that all countries have the same out of competition dope testing regime as the uk: they do not! There are grave suspicions about Jamaica, Kenya, China, Brazil and a few others. It appears to have gone unnoticed in this country but generally Chinese swimming performance has fallen off a cliff (except for a double dope cheat) and where is USA swimming star Missy Franklin now? Well down the field.

Until all countries have bullet proof out of competition testing, there will be question marks. Mo F has not left his coach! He still trains at Nike Town.

We cannot turn the clock back and tell everyone to be an amateur. The Russians, East Germans, Cubans etc always paid for their athletes to be full time although occasionally they were in the Army! We could not compete, so the lottery and funding was introduced. Yesterday I heard Sally Gunnell say she worked two days a week when she was training for the 400 m hurdles! No wonder people like her were a rarity - or they were rich!

Well, it seems there has been a resurgence in using blood transfusions as there are now more efficient methods for EPO detection.

People use their own blood (autologous) or someone else's blood of the same type (homologous).

www.wada-ama.org/en/questions-answers/blood-doping

"The following are side-effects which can occur in any form of blood doping:

Increased blood viscosity (thickness)
Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
Pulmonary embolism (a blockage, which can be fat, air or a blood clot, of the pulmonary artery)
Cerebral embolism (a blockage, formed elsewhere in the body, which becomes lodged in an artery within or leading to the brain)
Cerebrovascular accident (stroke)
Infections"

I wonder if there is a way to extract your own testosterone and concentrate it and put it back, like the blood. Not synthetic testosterone. Would they be able to detect if you were using someone else's testosterone, like the homologous blood infusions?

Mind you if they can't prove that testosterone does enhance your performance like in Caster Semenya's case, maybe they will lift the ban on synthetic testosterone and people can merrily dope away.

After all, "as the the arbitration panel noted, science has not conclusively shown that elevated testosterone provides women with more of a significant competitive edge than factors like nutrition, access to coaching and training facilities, and other genetic and biological variations."

I think there is speculation that the gold, silver and bronze medals in the womens 800M went to people who did not possess a mere females body?