Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Tom,

Marion Jones came to mind when I read the case of the "failed drug test" 
at the FEI ride. Ben Johnson also comes to mind. It was Johnson's 
positive in the Olympics that caused people to open their eyes to the 
problem. While Johnson was the only runner caught at that time and since 
he was caught admitted to using Stanozolol in the 1988 Olympics. Johnson 
was only the tip of the iceburg. Of the first five runners to finish the 
100 in the that Olympics 4 of the 5 had used drugs in competition at 
some point in their career, the only clean athletic was Carl Lewis.

When I was running in college, no one would think about using any sort 
of drugs. When I finally retired from club track in 1973 - there was 
some rumors of maybe some of the field guys, hammer throwers, shot 
putters, etc., but no runners. By 1980 it was becoming an issue and by 
all accounts by the 1984 Olympics drug use among runners was common. By 
'88 it was a significant problem. In the '90's it went down to even the 
high school levels. IMO the problem was simple - a simple slap on the 
hand was not sufficient.

I think the lesson here is not only is did punishment not fit the 
infraction in the FEI case, but with such lax punishment we will see 
this level of endurance undergo the same corruption as human track.

Truman

Tom Sites wrote:
> I feel it was a 'failed drug test' because the winner failed the drug 
> test.
>
> Lets see a show of hands here on RC...
>
> Who here was at the 1st WEC in Pratoni del Varvo in Italy in 1986. I was.
>
> Who here was at the European Championships in Marloffstein, Germany in 
> 1987? I was.
>
> Who here was at the 2nd WEC in Ft. Royal in 1988? I was.
>
> So since i was at these 3 events i have seen the De-Evolution of FEI 
> Endurance.
>
> People want to see Endurance in the Olympics, yet I think it was 
> Marion Jones who just caught on steroids (doping the human) and what 
> did they do to her? Took away a substantial amount of money, took away 
> her medals, and probably, i don't know, banned her for a few years and 
> she will serve jail time. Its a slap on the hand to the most serious 
> infraction one can make in a sport to just take away a win and not 
> sanction in some way the offender when the innocent horse is give a 
> doping agent. . ts


--

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a 
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also 
into you.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil


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