Top IAAF officials alleged to have extorted money from athletes to cover up doping positives

[Sirena]

If we are talking about blood values as measured for the biological passport here, the parameters are not set at levels which would indicate a very strong probability of doping but instead are set at levels so extreme that they crossing various thresholds indicates a near absolute certainty of doping. This is so for the understandable reason that the anti-doping authorities don't want some doper convincing a sympathetic court that the system is unfair and getting a ruling that effectively finishes the passport. But it also means that very often data which would not trigger an official passport violation would still indicate to an informed observer that doping is the likely explanation.

ie there's a big gap between what is considered proven under the passport system and what a reasonable observer might take as enough evidence to be for practical purposes sure that someone was or is on the hot sauce.

I had a random look on the interwebz and there seems to be fairly unanimous technical agreement that Radcliffe's scores were within reason for someone recently having done altitude training or having just finished a race. A lot of it is beyond me but I can't imagine Radcliffe having a propaganda damage-limitation machinery working on her behalf...

The Biological Passport & the Paula Radcliffe Controvery | Human Limits: Michael J. Joyner, M.D.
In defence of Paula Radcliffe and her biological passport | Slate Lab

 

[Nigel Irritable]

A lot of it is beyond me but I can't imagine Radcliffe having a propaganda damage-limitation machinery working on her behalf...

Radcliffe is one of the main faces of track and field in the anglophone world. Across sports and across countries, national media outlets and national sporting authorities go out of their way to protect such stars from doping allegations. Whether or not Radcliffe has ever doped she, like almost any other "star", will indeed effectively have a "propaganda damage-limitation machinery working on her behalf". She's a walking advertisement for a particular sport and for the sporting pride of a particular country. That carries with it a certain status and guarantees her overwhelmingly friendly treatment in that country.

I have not looked at her biological passport data (or more precisely the few leaked bits of it), am not qualified to interpret such data in the first place, and make no judgment whatsoever about her based on it. I will however note, in a general sense, that altitude training both genuinely does effect blood value scores and, for precisely that reason, can be used by dopers to confuse the picture.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Sebastian Coe must now launch assault on doping to retain credibility

A decent piece in the Guardian, marred by the bizarre insertion of an ideological fantasy about a business superman coming to the rescue towards the end of the article.

 

[baldrick]

Sebastian Coe must now launch assault on doping to retain credibility

A decent piece in the Guardian, marred by the bizarre insertion of an ideological fantasy about a business superman coming to the rescue towards the end of the article.

He needs to make it look as though he is launching an assault on doping, for sure. They need to catch enough and punish them sufficiently that they can pr the hell out of it. However if they catch too many then sponsors will start to lose interest and athletics will no longer be the cash cow it is at the minute. Audience will be reduced and the public will be less interested in a sport they see as less about physical endeavour than who has the best drugs.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

He needs to make it look as though he is launching an assault on doping, for sure. They need to catch enough and punish them sufficiently that they can pr the hell out of it. However if they catch too many then sponsors will start to lose interest and athletics will no longer be the cash cow it is at the minute. Audience will be reduced and the public will be less interested in a sport they see as less about physical endeavour than who has the best drugs.

Yes exactly, the balancing act at the centre of modern sports administration. The problem is that once a particular sport has been hit with major scandals, the path to balance on gets narrower each time. Once your sport has had a scandal like this, or a Festina, or whatever, survival requires tightening up on testing and internal corruption to reassure the public. The problem is that as you do that, as you, for instance, cede more control to outside bodies like WADA for PR reasons, then you catch more people. Which means more scandals, and more counter-measures forced on you, and before long there's no room left to balance at all.

This is why sports which have been lucky enough not to have a major scandal exposed by outside bodies (journalists, WADA, the cops, etc) are so determinedly lax in their drug testing regimes. The last thing they want is to catch a few stars themselves and put themselves on the first steps of that downward spiral. Tennis is perhaps the most tenacious sport in that regard - its authorities have a very clear understanding that catching any of their stars would be a disaster and act accordingly.

 

[Sirena]

There is a curious but refreshing aspect or basis to the report: the insistence on fair play and decency. This is, in part, due to the personal influence of Dick Pound, whose interventions over the years have seemed almost like those of a zealot: a man with a mission of decency.

The report is placed in the context of the World Anti-Doping Code (agreed by all athletics bodies and by UNESCO):

"Anti-doping programs seek to preserve what is intrinsically valuable about sport. This intrinsic value is often referred to as “the spirit of sport.” It is the essence of Olympism, the pursuit of human excellence through the dedicated perfection of each person’s natural talents. It is how we play true. The spirit of sport is the celebration of the human spirit, body and mind, and is reflected in values we find in and through sport, including:
Ethics, fair play and honesty
Health
Excellence in performance
Character and education
Fun and joy
Teamwork
Dedication and commitment
Respect for rules and laws
Respect for self and other Participants
Courage
Community and solidarity

Doping is fundamentally contrary to the spirit of sport."

A lot of people brought up in a world of cynical pragmatism and realpolitik might mock those principles but I found them important.

 

[baldrick]

Yes exactly, the balancing act at the centre of modern sports administration. The problem is that once a particular sport has been hit with major scandals, the path to balance on gets narrower each time. Once your sport has had a scandal like this, or a Festina, or whatever, survival requires tightening up on testing and internal corruption to reassure the public. The problem is that as you do that, as you, for instance, cede more control to outside bodies like WADA for PR reasons, then you catch more people. Which means more scandals, and more counter-measures forced on you, and before long there's no room left to balance at all.

Yup. Which is why Coe's response to these revelations - that it's an attack on the sport - has to be understood in this context.

This is why sports which have been lucky enough not to have a major scandal exposed by outside bodies (journalists, WADA, the cops, etc) are so determinedly lax in their drug testing regimes. The last thing they want is to catch a few stars themselves and put themselves on the first steps of that downward spiral. Tennis is perhaps the most tenacious sport in that regard - its authorities have a very clear understanding that catching any of their stars would be a disaster and act accordingly.

I have wondered about tennis since Puerto.

 

[killer b]

I've had this stuck in my head all afternoon.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Jon Snow gives Coe a bit more of a hard time than I'd have expected. (video at link in tweet above). Coe's basic problem as far as credibility is concerned is that he was number 2 in the IAAF throughout the period covered by these allegations.

 

[xenon]

Well this is shocking stuff. Personally you need to be on drugs just to watch athletics anyway.

 

[bluescreen]

Can someone explain why they were focusing on Russia? Low-hanging fruit?

 

[Sirena]

Can someone explain why they were focusing on Russia? Low-hanging fruit?

There was a big report on German TV last year - based on information from whistleblowers - specifically about the situation in Russian athletics.

 

[Sirena]

Jon Snow gives Coe a bit more of a hard time than I'd have expected. (video at link in tweet above). Coe's basic problem as far as credibility is concerned is that he was number 2 in the IAAF throughout the period covered by these allegations.

It's not as if Lamine Diack had a clean sheet. He had been accused decades before of taking money at the IOC.

 

[bluescreen]

It's not as if Lamine Diack had a clean sheet. He had been accused decades before of taking money at the IOC.

Yeah, but being accused of isn't the same as guilty of.

 

[Silva]

My guess is that our beloved association football is also stuffed full of drugs cheats and there'd be plenty of collusion in covering it up. It's unbelievable to me that the sport is so apparently drug-free.

There was some noise regarding top Spanish sides on the past 15 years connected to doping doctors. But it's not in the interest of anyone to call it out - If the Madrid or Barcelona press call them out, a generation of players is tainted, 5 Champions League and 7 UEFA/Europa winners are asterisked, not to mention two European Championships and a World Cup. The aftershock of that would be felt even outside Spain, considering the foreign talent that would be involved. The same could be said of any top league. FIFA knows it, UEFA knows it.

 

[hash tag]

So Russia have been suspended. Well that's a start. Football was one of many sports linked to doping many years ago. Spain have been famously soft on doping. It certainly had a soft reputation in cycling.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Operacion Puerto provides all the evidence you need to assume that Spanish football and tennis are riddled with doping. The cyclists with blood bags in the care of Dr Fuentes were named, the footballers, tennis players etc were not. And the Spanish Courts have ordered the evidence destroyed. As Silva notes, there is too much national pride bound up in Spanish sporting success over the last couple of decades for anyone to take the risk of looking for the truth.

 

[hash tag]

Theres good timimng for you! A Spanish athlete cleared by Spanish authorities and banned by WADA/IAAF/CAS.

Marta Dominguez: Spanish athlete stripped of 2009 world title