They're all on drugs.

[ursus arctos]

They really are

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Games

https://twitter.com/10newsfirst/status/1755821026641117663?s=12&t=xvOireV8JOIS_CpbTtDBow

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I'd always assumed loads of body building steroids, but apparently Rugby League's big problem is painkillers.

[ursus arctos]

A useful review of the use of PEDs in football occasioned by Keane and Neville's recent insinuations.

https://open.substack.com/pub/sporti..._campaign=post

[Satchmo Distel]

My take (but I'm willing to be corrected)...

Modern sports are pushing bodies beyond their natural limits and I think there's a fuzzy (but still necessary) line between treatments that legitimately reduce the symptoms of that excessive workload and those that do so illegitimately. An example might be those painkillers in rugby league versus, say, the legitimate, medicallty scrutinized injections that enable a pace bowler to resume a spell the next day. Where the line blurs, one just hopes that everything is done for the benefit of the players and with their informed consent.

Regarding the enhanced games, it would be interesting to see if they could produce another Flo Jo or Ben Johnson and to what degree those persons could lower a world record but it would be a freakshow and I don't think it would be sport because participation is dependent on being willing to risk an early death or, at the very least, loss of various physical functions after retirement.

OTOH there is a tradition in the US of allowing people to do things that risk killing them* and I think powerlifting is in that tradition.

*although of course it's selective and affected by power and religion, e.g. minimum drinking age.

[Janik]

Define why some things are legitimate and others illegitimate. Its not just that they enhance performance, because some treatments or practices that enable performance might be placed in the illegitimate category when many treatments or practices that have clear performance benefits are perfectly OK.
When you think to the underlying reasons (which are, basically, that certain substances and methods have health risks as well as a performance benefits... and really nothing to do with 'fairness' or 'equal access') then the Enhanced Games are stupidly dangerous idea that should be absolutely shunned even if the participants do it willingly. There is a limit to the risk we are willing to see other people take for our entertainment. See ongoing discussions about whether Boxing should be banned, or American Football obliged to change it's rules.

[ursus arctos]

TAS/CAS have ruled in favour of Simona Halep's appeal and reduced her suspension from four years to nine months (which she has already served)

https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/us...decision__.pdf

[diggedy derek]

It hasn’t been reported by that many outlets, but the Mirror and Boxing News have run a story that Conor Benn’s succesful appeal against a doping ban has been quashed. It’s quite complex, but essentially a technicality about jurisdiction has now gone against him. He’s essentially banned now, certainly in UK jurisdictions, although might get a licence elsewhere. But he’s somewhat in the wilderness and in terms of his legal issues back to square one.

Maybe he might consider finally explaining why he has proscribed substances in his system before the Eubank fight.

https://boxingnewsonline.net/conor-b...ad-win-appeal/

[ursus arctos]

Twenty-three top Chinese swimmers tested positive for the same powerful banned substance seven months before the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 but were allowed to escape public scrutiny and continue to compete after top Chinese officials secretly cleared them of doping and the global authority charged with policing drugs in sports chose not to intervene.

Several of the athletes who tested positive — including nearly half of the swimming team that China sent to the Tokyo Games — went on to win medals, including three golds. Many still compete for China and several, including the two-time gold medalist Zhang Yufei, are expected to contend for medals again at this year’s Summer Games in Paris.

China acknowledged the positive tests in a report by its antidoping regulator, saying that the swimmers had ingested the banned substance unwittingly and in tiny amounts, and that no action against them was warranted.

But an examination by The New York Times found that the previously unreported episode sharply divided the antidoping world, where China’s record has long been a flashpoint. American officials and other experts said the swimmers should have been suspended or publicly identified pending further investigation, and they suggested that the failure to do so rested with Chinese sports officials; swimming’s international governing body, World Aquatics; and the World Anti-Doping Agency, the global authority that oversees national drug-testing programs.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/20/w...smid=url-share