dirty rotten scoundrels
I plan to return to the idyllic world of shinny and the purity of sport, but let me pause to post an e-mail exchange I had with a fellow Pacer parent:
On Jul 27, 2006, at 12:37 PM, Jimmy Barbee wrote:
Hi Joan,
Hope things are going well for you guys this summer. We are heading out to the Midwest next week on our family vacation. I think that one of our stops will be the RCA dome in Indianapolis, headquarters for USA track and field. We are all getting excited about our trip. I wanted to write, just to commiserate with someone I guess. I’m sitting here at work, all depressed. I just read the news about Floyd Landis testing positive for abnormal testosterone/epiT. This just crushed me. Brad, Beth, and I became closet bike race fans a couple of years ago when we were at the beach during the Tour de France and watched Lance win #6. Every morning, we would watch bike racing instead of hitting the beach. We watched again last year for #7 and to top it off, my kids’ favorite singer, Sheryl Crow, was dating Lance at the time. This year, we would tape the morning coverage and watch after I got home from work. We began pulling for Floyd as he stayed close to the top and then died when he melted on the mountain that day. Then jubilation as he came back the very next day for an amazing victory!! This guy would be an incredible hero for my kids (and me) as Lance moves out of the competition spotlight, right! WRONG! I feel like throwing his sorry a$$ off a mountain about now. Growing up, I was a big Pete Rose fan. I am very sensitive to having your hero fall from grace. Maybe we’ll pick out some shrimpy guy or gal in some sport like curling to root for from now on. I guess I can hope that sample “B” turns out negative, but for now, let’s hope that I don’t find Floyd riding in front of me on the back roads of Hillsborough.
Jimmy
my reply:
Oh, Jimmy, I am sorry your rose-colored glasses were not only snatched from your face but smashed to smithereens on the ground in front of you. I feel so grateful to have been blissfully ignorant of drug abuse while I was competing; otherwise I would have quit the sport altogether before making the Olympics. It was rage-producing (like you describe above) when it was confirmed that Regina Jacobs and Mary Slaney were dirty their whole careers. I think Lance was probalby dirty the whole time - he was just too smart to get caught. Why else would he have frozen his sperm? It’s common knowledge that HGH and testosterone kills off sperm. I can assure you Landis IS playing on an even playing field. ALL the top athletes in the world use performance enhancing drugs. Those who don’t use in the track world are seen as lightweights or amateurs - not serious athletes. My guess is the cycling world was tired of the Americans getting away with it, so Landis was sacrificed. In the world of track & field the powers that be finally “let” Mary Slaney get caught at the end of her career - Regina too. Up until then, their star quality was too important for the sport so they turned a blind eye. Just like baseball did for years and years and football still does. I think maybe golf might be a clean sport, yes?
Sport today is all about money and fame; who gives a crap if doing drugs is illegal or immoral or unhealthy?! As long as you’re making money and getting endorsements, anything goes. I don’t even think death is a deterrent. Look at Flo Jo, dead - leaving a daughter with no mommy - but it didn’t stop most of the American sprinting women from shooting up with testosterone, HGH, EPO, insulin, and “The Clear.” Marion looks bigger than Justin Gatlin right now. And don’t get me started on all the dirty American distance runners. When we finally start catching up with the Africans it will be for one reason only - drugs.
It all makes me sick.
from Jimmy again:
It is an incredible shame. In a cruel bit of foreshadowing, I heard Bob Roll (former American cyclist, who raced clean his entire career and was average because of that fact probably) comment about mid-way during the Tour that he was disillusioned with sport today because he didn’t know when he was watching greatness. He was talking about all the cyclists exposed before the Tour and Barry Bonds in particular. I feel the exact same way. When I was a kid and “blissfully ignorant”, every great sports moment was just that, a great moment, never to be tarnished. My kids have to wait a few weeks to see if the test comes back clean to determine whether or not it was a great moment or just a cheater showing off. When you always have to wonder if that incredible performance that you just witnessed was clean or not, is it really worth putting the emotion into it?
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Hi Joan, I just wanted to point out that Lance froze his sperm because he was about to undergo chemotherapy for testicular cancer, and infertility is one of the significant side effects. I agree with you that he was probably dirty the whole time anyway, but at least he has a good excuse for the sperm thing.
Comment by Lindsey — 7/27/2006 @ 6:04 pm
As much as I need to believe that many top athletes are using performance enhancing substances, the optimist in me refuses to give up. I too was shocked about Slaney, though less so about Jacobs. With todays runners, I believe/hope that Paula Radcliffe and Deena Kastor are clean. What amazes me, is that there is so much focus on drugs and testing at the Tour, why would someone even chance it?
Comment by George (Canada) — 7/27/2006 @ 8:12 pm
Thanks, Lindsey, I’ll delete that part about Lance.
Here’s an interesting perspective I found on Letsrun.com from Alberto Salazar:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=1469267&thread=1469164
Comment by Joan — 7/27/2006 @ 10:09 pm
As usual, your posts are very insightful. We’ve had a pretty interesting discussion going on in the Legend’s Lounge at DyeStat (still haven’t seen you there). This round of allegations (I still look at it that way) has shown me how prevalent drugs are, and why we must look to the athlete to make the choice…too many coaches will often say, “Take this” and another naieve athlete is a druggie.
Comment by Scooter — 7/28/2006 @ 11:04 am
Hmmm…hope you guys don’t mind me saying this (I seem to be butting heads with people today) but I spent a few years in an M-1 Abrams main battle tank defending the Constitution of the United States against “all enemies, foreign and domestic” - part of that document has to do with innocence until guilt is proven.
Comment by Fat Charlie the Archangel — 7/28/2006 @ 2:11 pm
The problem with “proving guilt” is that EPO clears your system in 72 hours, so anyone can be taking it for months and months before a big competition while gaining every possible advantage from having lots of extra red, oxygen carrying blood cells. When racing and testing day comes, poof!, all evidence has vanished.
“I’ve never tested positive” is an entirely different statement than, “I’ve never used performance-enhancing drugs.” Even cheaters can say the first statement without lying!
Comment by Joan — 7/28/2006 @ 2:39 pm
I’m sorry I came to this post late, but I truly enjoyed reading it. I don’t think I feel crushed by people testing positive anymore, because the concept of hero-worship for elite athletes has left me. I don’t really ask who is clean or dirty anymore — it has become the wrong question, because elite athletics just doesn’t hold meaning in that way. It used to. From, say Jim Thorpe and Hannes Kohlemainnen (sp?) through, say, Joan Benoit and Bill Rodgers it meant something. And I can still look back at Peter Snell or Jim Ryun or Abebe Bikila as examples of human accomplishment and beauty. But ever since — I dunno, Ben Johnson, FloJo, maybe Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds — it is gone.
I’m glad people were suspicious of Regina Jacobs, because I’d hate thinking everyone was horribly naive. Please allow me to believe that Mary Decker was clean when she was 14.
Comment by Eric — 7/31/2006 @ 7:29 pm
We just returned from our trip and I just now saw the post and comments. I agree with Lindsey’s comments as being absolutely correct and the resulting strike through. Just like George, I too am an optimist and hoped the “B” would be different. And as Fat Charlie (thank you for your service) recommended, I tried to give him a second chance to be innocent after my initial reaction of guilty as charged. Now a week later and a second failed test with signs of synthetic T showing up, and Floyd still making statements about what his “organism” produces, what do I tell my kids. “Hey guys, let’s wait about a year and see if ole Floyd can prove that he’s not a big fat liar or if the Man was just trying to keep him down.” You know what Eric, I think I’ll just have to keep being crushed. I can’t watch sports any other way and I can’t steal that feeling of watching true human accomplishment, grace, and beauty from my kids. We’ll keep being amazed.
By the way, we found the HQ of USATF in Indianapolis. I was hoping for a little museum or something. Instead there is a very nice receptionist in a waiting room of sorts with track and field magazines and a bucket full of premium chocolate candy for the kids. A Dilbert style cubeland waits beyond the next door. They had just gotten a copy of the 1996 Atlanta Yearbook to display. We looked up our favorite 1996 Olympian who was smiling as always, looking proud to represent her country.
Comment by Jimmy B — 8/7/2006 @ 9:34 pm
Check this out, Jimmy B!
http://velonews.com/news/fea/10643.0.html
Comment by Joan — 8/8/2006 @ 8:16 am
Give me a break: I can’t accept the innocent until proven guilty defense for Landis. He failed a drug test with two positive samples. By the rules governing cycling, that’s it. The only appropriate legal analogy, in my opinion, is this one: the prosecution has proved its case against Landis (and overcome the innocent until proven guilty hurdle), but he has a chance to escape if he can carry the burden of proof on an affirmative defense, similar to someone who escapes prison time for murder with an insanity defense.
Comment by Steve — 8/9/2006 @ 11:01 am
I’ll add about a dollar to that $100,000 for Floyd to take a polygraph. I’m sure you can find Performance Enhancing Drugs for polygraph tests too however.
Comment by Jimmy B. — 8/9/2006 @ 11:30 am
Forget the polygraph. I want Floyd’s other seven ‘B’ samples from the 2006 Tour tested for synthetic testosterone. Polygraphs can be beaten, the carbon isotope test is as rock-solid as tests get these days.
That will prove that either he was doping throughout the Tour, which is the only way to gain any benefit at all from testosterone, or he was set up, like he says he was.
I don’t hear Floyd asking for these additional tests, though, so my feeling is that he is a cheater.
Comment by esondag — 8/13/2006 @ 1:17 pm