In a new twist today, Laura Muir's new UK indoor mile record is under investigation not because anyone suggests she was on drugs, but because the spikes on her new super duper shoes may have given her a 4% advantage (a bit more than the margin by which she broke the old record).
The Austrian and German police made a co-ordinated raid on the Nordic Skiing World Championships In Seefeld, Austria. At least five competitors have been arrested for doping-related offences.
The biathlon raid is causing a significant fallout in Austrian cycling, as one of the medical professionals arrested had gotten his start with Gerolsteiner and Millram. Over the weekend, Stefan Denifil (who won a stage in the Vuelta for AquaBlue and then left CCC for "personal reasons" over the winter) admitted to blood doping in an interview (though he had never tested positive or delivered an anomalous biological passport result) and Georg Preidler has left Groupama-FDJ after admitting to having stored blood for later transfusion (though he claims never to have used such transfusions before a race).
Doping is a crime in Austria (under the title of "sporting fraud"), and subjects penitents to possible sentences of up to three years in prison.
Cycling was probably due another big case and it's no surprise that some riders have been caught in this Operation Aderlass. Petacchi, Koren, Durasek and Bozik are all suspended.
Yes, they are being very circumspect with their reporting there. I had heard about the smashing of the vial before but it had slipped my mind it was Sun who had done it, even as I wondered as to quite why there had been such a bad reaction to him at this Worlds.
To be fair, the near complete absence of regulation of supplements over here means that pretty much every time anyone does a serious test, it turns up all kinds of stuff that isn't on the label, including many things that aren't performance enhancing in the slightest (like sawdust).
And always with banned substances, coincidentally.
Confirmation bias - the only time you will hear about contaminated supplements are when the contaminants are banned substances. When they are contaminated with other things, no-one cares.
To be fair, the near complete absence of regulation of supplements over here means that pretty much every time anyone does a serious test, it turns up all kinds of stuff that isn't on the label, including many things that aren't performance enhancing in the slightest (like sawdust).
Alberto Salazar banned from athletics for four years. Which is pretty significant for any number of organisations and people. Nike, US track & Field, Galen Rupp, Mo Farah...
Also for Kara Goucher, who must be feeling very vindicated this evening.
Supposedly Lance Armstrong/Tyson Fury-esque extreme legal wrangling from Salazar's Nike-funded lawyers. As with the other two it hasn't worked in the end and the drugs cheat has publicly been labelled as such.
Not sure whether to drop this here or in the cycling thread, but the medical tribunal of Richard Freeman - and the subsequent argument with Shane Sutton - makes for interesting reading. Either one - or the other - or possibly both - is/are lying through theor teeth.
Comment