Last night, my son and I were comparing notes on the Giro d'Italia, one of the Big 3 European cycling races, and speculating whether Chris Froome would be able to win the stage.
Waiting for race updates from the Guardian blog, I was bemused to see a spectator taunting Froome with a massive mock-up of an inhaler - Froome is fighting a legal battle for his rights to his last two racing titles over the salbutamol levels in his blood.
The next race update showed that Froome had raced down the last descent at an average of 53 Km, an hour, with a peak speed of 80 km, and was now clear in the lead for his fourth grand tour in a row, a record unbeaten since Eddie Merckx, who retired in 1978.
Thinking about drugs in sports, I turned to 'Icarus' on Netflix, a riveting 'accidental' documentary. By a bizarre set of circumstances, a playwright and stand-up comic, Bryan Fogel, found himself in contact with Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, Director of the Russian anti-doping center. It's tough to believe that Grigory is not a masterpiece of film-writing and casting, as he an engrossing, complex character, who happily helps Bryan Fogel devise a personal doping program that will beat the anti-doping system.
Meanwhile, WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, is crawling over the Russian lab, suspecting that the Russian sports system is not as clean as it claims. Grigory bails out, flies to the US, and with Bryan's help, turns whistle-blower. The New York Times carries a massive story, the WADA gets in on the act, and given the amount of data Dr. Rodchenkov is able to offer up, concludes, "I can confirm, for years, that spectators have been deceived. The desire to win medals superseded their collective moral and ethical compass, and Olympic values."
The 2016 Rio Olympics were weeks away, and WADA recommended to its parent organisation, the International Olympic Committee, that Russia be banned from the Rio games. The IOC passed the responsibility for the decision on to individual sports federations; eventually, 111 Russian athletes were banned, and 278 took part.
Given the time frame, and the paucity of data from Russia, I would assume false exclusions in both sets of Russian athletes. Having seen the film, I suspect the number of athletes on doping programs who came to Rio was significantly more than those not on drugs who stayed away.
This is probably true of most professional sports - the doping docs stay one step ahead of the anti-doping docs, and in some cases, the two are the same. Under the circumstances, it's probably a huge burden on a professional athlete to stay away from doping. Everyone's looking for a silver bullet, as long as (s)he doesn't get caught.
Would a laissez faire approach work better - find the training regimen, needles and pills included, that sails your boat...
Waiting for race updates from the Guardian blog, I was bemused to see a spectator taunting Froome with a massive mock-up of an inhaler - Froome is fighting a legal battle for his rights to his last two racing titles over the salbutamol levels in his blood.
The next race update showed that Froome had raced down the last descent at an average of 53 Km, an hour, with a peak speed of 80 km, and was now clear in the lead for his fourth grand tour in a row, a record unbeaten since Eddie Merckx, who retired in 1978.
Thinking about drugs in sports, I turned to 'Icarus' on Netflix, a riveting 'accidental' documentary. By a bizarre set of circumstances, a playwright and stand-up comic, Bryan Fogel, found himself in contact with Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, Director of the Russian anti-doping center. It's tough to believe that Grigory is not a masterpiece of film-writing and casting, as he an engrossing, complex character, who happily helps Bryan Fogel devise a personal doping program that will beat the anti-doping system.
Meanwhile, WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, is crawling over the Russian lab, suspecting that the Russian sports system is not as clean as it claims. Grigory bails out, flies to the US, and with Bryan's help, turns whistle-blower. The New York Times carries a massive story, the WADA gets in on the act, and given the amount of data Dr. Rodchenkov is able to offer up, concludes, "I can confirm, for years, that spectators have been deceived. The desire to win medals superseded their collective moral and ethical compass, and Olympic values."
The 2016 Rio Olympics were weeks away, and WADA recommended to its parent organisation, the International Olympic Committee, that Russia be banned from the Rio games. The IOC passed the responsibility for the decision on to individual sports federations; eventually, 111 Russian athletes were banned, and 278 took part.
Given the time frame, and the paucity of data from Russia, I would assume false exclusions in both sets of Russian athletes. Having seen the film, I suspect the number of athletes on doping programs who came to Rio was significantly more than those not on drugs who stayed away.
This is probably true of most professional sports - the doping docs stay one step ahead of the anti-doping docs, and in some cases, the two are the same. Under the circumstances, it's probably a huge burden on a professional athlete to stay away from doping. Everyone's looking for a silver bullet, as long as (s)he doesn't get caught.
Would a laissez faire approach work better - find the training regimen, needles and pills included, that sails your boat...
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