GarryJones
Aktiv medlem
Worth remembering! - Ten bad guys!
I think questions have to be asked about why Lance is treated the way his is with his reputation in tatters. Of course, he is today's pick of the bunch because of the methods used. It is important to remember that Lance is American. Some of the highest earners in sport are within American Golf, Ishockey, Baseball and American Football. It is strongly rumoured (unconfirmed) that Tiger Woods built up his body on steroids. How can we ever know? Golf have never ever had a doping control. Quote: "We don't have a problem with doping". No, and neither would cyclng if we didn't do any testing and refused to join WADA.
As for the other American sports, controls are limited and bans and fines very low. However the revelations about Team USA track & field in the spring leading up to the 1984 LA Olympics leaves everything else in its wake. It is alledged that USA anti-doping were at best complacent and at worst culpable as just about every American athlete tested positive during an amnesty as the USA anti-doping boards tests were analysed to see just how much their athletes could take without the test result showing up.
The entire set-up was to dope and not get caught. So much so it became the epitome of the American sportsman. Recently the tests 1984 American olympic athletes have been reanalysed. Having got to a point where just about every test came back with traces of doping that were undectable in 1984 they ceased realising there really was no point 30 years on.
As this was the era of American sport Lance grew up in his scruples and attitude were formed by those around him. His aspirations the same; to win at all costs. He came into a sport where our greatest heros of the 50's, 60's and 70's all tested positive from time to time and even defended doping. I am not saying that Lance should be exonerated but surely he must feel hard-done by.
Look at this list of ten of the all-time cycling greats. Remember that most of these have maintained their domestic star-status and awards in cycling.
1) Fausto Coppi of Italy admitted in a television interview in 1952 that he used 'la Bomba' as there was no alternative if you wanted to remain competitive. This referred to amphetamines, which had been developed for military use during World War II to keep aircrew, merchant seamen and submariners awake, alert and energetic. After the war they found a ready market among endurance sportsmen. Coppi also said, "One day I will take the wrong pill and pedal backward." He also joked on camera that he only took drugs when absolutely necessary, which is nearly always.
2) Jacques Anquetil of France never hid that he took drugs - a common practice at the time - and in a debate with a government minister on French television said that only a fool would imagine it was possible to ride Bordeaux–Paris on just water. He and other cyclists had to ride through "the cold, through heatwaves, in the rain and in the mountains", and they had the right to treat themselves as they wished, he said in a television interview, before adding: "Leave me in peace; everybody takes dope." There was implied acceptance of doping right to the top of the state: the president, Charles de Gaulle, said of Anquetil: "Doping? What doping? Did he or did he not make them play "La Marseillaise" abroad?" The veteran reporter Pierre Chany said: "Jacques had the strength - for which he was always criticised - to say out loud what others would only whisper. So, when I asked him 'What have you taken?' he didn't drop his eyes before replying. He had the strength of conviction.
3) Eddy Merckx of Belgium tested positive for the stimulant Reactivan at Savona during the 1969 Giro d'Italia, after leading the race through 16 stages. Merckx was found positive at doping control and expelled from the Giro. In 1973 Merckx tested positive for a banned substance in the Giro di Lombardia classic. He was disqualified from first place. in 1977 a Belgian doctor, Professor Michel Debackere, perfected a test for the detection of Pemoline, an amphetamine-like drug, and caught three of the biggest names in Belgium: Eddy Merckx, Freddy Maertens and Michel Pollentier.
4) Felice Gimondi tested positive in the 1968 Giro and 1975 Tour.
5) Laurent Fignon tested positive in 1989 after a team time trial and tested positive for amphetamines at the Grand Prix de la Liberation in Eindhoven on 17 September 1989
6) Miguel Indurain tested positive for salbutamol in 1994, however both the IOC and UCI allowed Indurain, and asthma sufferers to use Salbutomol at the time. (N.B. At the time).
7) Joop Zoetemelk tested positive in the 1977 (pemoline), 1979 (steroids) and 1983 Tour de France (nandrolon, although that was retracted later). Admitted a blood transfusion on TV interviews right after winning the 10th (and 9th) stage of the 1976 Tour de France, as in that era it was seen as just medical aid.
8) Marco Pantani tested positive and banned for six months. Failed a blood test in 1999 Giro d'Italia. Insulin found in his hotel room in the 2001 Giro d'Italia, but later declared clean "for not having committed any infraction." Nonetheless, the UCI confirmed the suspension. Retested his 1998 blood tests successfully proved the use of EPO
9) Jan Ullrich tested positive and banned from the 2006 Tour. Retroactively stripped of titles 2005-2007. Confessed doping use. Tested positive for amphetamines. DNA subsequently linked to blood bag discovered during Puerto investigation. Admitted to doping in a 2013 interview
10) Bjarne Riis Confessed having used EPO in 1996.
I fail to see the difference between Eddy Mercks (Saint status) and Lance Armstrong (Shamed for ever) can be right given they both fooled their peers and cheated. By today's rules Mercks would have been banned for live in 1973. Worth remembering!
As for the other American sports, controls are limited and bans and fines very low. However the revelations about Team USA track & field in the spring leading up to the 1984 LA Olympics leaves everything else in its wake. It is alledged that USA anti-doping were at best complacent and at worst culpable as just about every American athlete tested positive during an amnesty as the USA anti-doping boards tests were analysed to see just how much their athletes could take without the test result showing up.
The entire set-up was to dope and not get caught. So much so it became the epitome of the American sportsman. Recently the tests 1984 American olympic athletes have been reanalysed. Having got to a point where just about every test came back with traces of doping that were undectable in 1984 they ceased realising there really was no point 30 years on.
As this was the era of American sport Lance grew up in his scruples and attitude were formed by those around him. His aspirations the same; to win at all costs. He came into a sport where our greatest heros of the 50's, 60's and 70's all tested positive from time to time and even defended doping. I am not saying that Lance should be exonerated but surely he must feel hard-done by.
Look at this list of ten of the all-time cycling greats. Remember that most of these have maintained their domestic star-status and awards in cycling.
1) Fausto Coppi of Italy admitted in a television interview in 1952 that he used 'la Bomba' as there was no alternative if you wanted to remain competitive. This referred to amphetamines, which had been developed for military use during World War II to keep aircrew, merchant seamen and submariners awake, alert and energetic. After the war they found a ready market among endurance sportsmen. Coppi also said, "One day I will take the wrong pill and pedal backward." He also joked on camera that he only took drugs when absolutely necessary, which is nearly always.
2) Jacques Anquetil of France never hid that he took drugs - a common practice at the time - and in a debate with a government minister on French television said that only a fool would imagine it was possible to ride Bordeaux–Paris on just water. He and other cyclists had to ride through "the cold, through heatwaves, in the rain and in the mountains", and they had the right to treat themselves as they wished, he said in a television interview, before adding: "Leave me in peace; everybody takes dope." There was implied acceptance of doping right to the top of the state: the president, Charles de Gaulle, said of Anquetil: "Doping? What doping? Did he or did he not make them play "La Marseillaise" abroad?" The veteran reporter Pierre Chany said: "Jacques had the strength - for which he was always criticised - to say out loud what others would only whisper. So, when I asked him 'What have you taken?' he didn't drop his eyes before replying. He had the strength of conviction.
3) Eddy Merckx of Belgium tested positive for the stimulant Reactivan at Savona during the 1969 Giro d'Italia, after leading the race through 16 stages. Merckx was found positive at doping control and expelled from the Giro. In 1973 Merckx tested positive for a banned substance in the Giro di Lombardia classic. He was disqualified from first place. in 1977 a Belgian doctor, Professor Michel Debackere, perfected a test for the detection of Pemoline, an amphetamine-like drug, and caught three of the biggest names in Belgium: Eddy Merckx, Freddy Maertens and Michel Pollentier.
4) Felice Gimondi tested positive in the 1968 Giro and 1975 Tour.
5) Laurent Fignon tested positive in 1989 after a team time trial and tested positive for amphetamines at the Grand Prix de la Liberation in Eindhoven on 17 September 1989
6) Miguel Indurain tested positive for salbutamol in 1994, however both the IOC and UCI allowed Indurain, and asthma sufferers to use Salbutomol at the time. (N.B. At the time).
7) Joop Zoetemelk tested positive in the 1977 (pemoline), 1979 (steroids) and 1983 Tour de France (nandrolon, although that was retracted later). Admitted a blood transfusion on TV interviews right after winning the 10th (and 9th) stage of the 1976 Tour de France, as in that era it was seen as just medical aid.
8) Marco Pantani tested positive and banned for six months. Failed a blood test in 1999 Giro d'Italia. Insulin found in his hotel room in the 2001 Giro d'Italia, but later declared clean "for not having committed any infraction." Nonetheless, the UCI confirmed the suspension. Retested his 1998 blood tests successfully proved the use of EPO
9) Jan Ullrich tested positive and banned from the 2006 Tour. Retroactively stripped of titles 2005-2007. Confessed doping use. Tested positive for amphetamines. DNA subsequently linked to blood bag discovered during Puerto investigation. Admitted to doping in a 2013 interview
10) Bjarne Riis Confessed having used EPO in 1996.
I fail to see the difference between Eddy Mercks (Saint status) and Lance Armstrong (Shamed for ever) can be right given they both fooled their peers and cheated. By today's rules Mercks would have been banned for live in 1973. Worth remembering!
