BREAKING NEWS!!! WINNER OF MEN'S EVENT WAS ACTUALLY...A MAN!

[acroyear]

Tour de France winner Landis tests positive - Yahoo! News:

Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone, the U.S. rider's Phonak team said on Thursday

Yes the article says they haven't finished the main tests of determinine if it was natural or "doped", but still, they DON'T expect a man (or even a woman) in intensive training, to have occasional bursts of that hormone? While they're at it, they're not aware that men can go through cycles of hormone ups and downs as women do (same genes, people), merely not as drastic or noticeable because of the lack of visible physical effects that go with them?

I'm against "doping" as much as any, but the standards for what is and isn't are far too extreme for my tastes, as is the reaction of having such events become "world headline news" ruining the reputation of the athlete even when they are themselves innocent of any wrongdoing either due to nature (the likely cause in this instance) or a lazy doctor who doesn't pay attention to what they're doing (the gymnist in the olympics those years ago who had to give up her medal over f'in' pseudofed when she was fighting a cold).

Hell, for all we know, he may have just gotten laid the night before...it IS France, after all...

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

In my opinion, the girl was too young (or too sick) to know, but at the same time, she should have learned to be more skeptical at that level, and more importantly the american coach and american olympic committee rep should have been informed and involved in the decision process.

but yeah, i'm aware pseudofed is just artificial ephedra and is quite the stimulant. clariton is even stronger as a stimulant. i've had to tell my mom the reason she loses sleep is 'cause she forgets that "non-drowsy" cold and allergy pills tend to be stimulants rather than depressants and she needs to take 'em in the morning. of course, i actually remember my high school psychology classes ;-)

[kowari.livejournal.com]

Too young/too sick is not really an excuse. She should be having all her drugs vetted by her coach/parent who does know the rules and she shouldn't be having anything at all until it is approved. I tend to take a very hard line on this issue, because I have to. In the end, it comes down to what you put in your body.

Also, in Australia all doctors have a book called MIMS which has all the drugs listed and their classification. You simply tell your doc you are in a drug testing pool, and they can look up their MIMS to see if the drug they are prescribing/recommending is on the banned list.

The only time I have sympathy for athletes who test positive is when they are genuinely unaware that they are taking drugs, a la the Eastern Block programs of the 80s. There, the athletes lived in communities and were fed their drugs through their food (which they had no control over). BUT, the coaches were aware. In the end, someone knows that they drugs are being ingested, because they put them there. Which makes everything very black and white.

It is very common knowledge amongst athletes that 90% of cold and flu tablets are on banned lists. Because they are so easy to get and accidentally take. To the point that this year one of our top swimmers had to pull out of the commonwealth games because he had a virus and couldn't take anything at all for it so he could train through it.