Please. The testing is not nearly sensitive enough and the doping products not nearly detectable enough for anyone to be confident that top pro runners are not doping.
I looked through the whole list for 2023. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised by how infrequently some of these guys are tested. I always thought USADA random testing was one of the best ways to deter doping, but if you only get tested 5 times a year, you can take a drug with a 24 hour half life with almost complete certainty you won't get busted.
+1
Moreover, that includes in-competition (by USADA, not by AIU), plus as mentioned above, 5 tests might mean only 3 testing dates (2x blood + urine on the same time for example), and all of them in competition.
it would take an age to find it but I'm pretty sure Woody said that he was only tested once in all of 2022
I looked through the whole list for 2023. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised by how infrequently some of these guys are tested. I always thought USADA random testing was one of the best ways to deter doping, but if you only get tested 5 times a year, you can take a drug with a 24 hour half life with almost complete certainty you won't get busted.
Don’t just look at the list someone posts. Instead read the guidelines. I’ll help you.
”The number of samples USDA has collected is typically not the number of test sessions an individual athlete has been selected for during a given period, as multiple samples (e.g. blood, urine, dried blood spot) are often collected during a test session. Thus, the number of samples collected typically does not equate to the number of times an athlete has been selected for an in-competition or out-of-competition test session with a USADA Doping Control Officer”
Remember this is just USADA. Many off these athletes are being tested outside of the USA in/out of competition.
The USA does a very good job at testing. I can’t say the same for other countries known well on these boards for not having legitimate protocols.
The USA does a very good job at testing. I can’t say the same for other countries known well on these boards for not having legitimate protocols.
You think? And yet USADA was caught given courtesy calls prior/during "announced" out-of-competition tests (like ADAK for that matter), and rightfully reprimanded for it (see f.ex. Coleman's CAS decision).
They were also unable to catch Houlihan, despite ramping up her testing to 15 - 20x per year. See above as to one reason.
Nuguse dreams of becoming a dentist. Would a reputable dental school accept Nuguse if he tested positive and served a ban? A doping positive might disqualify him from dental school. Considering that becoming a dentist is his life ambition and that his lifetime earnings as a dentist will likely be 10 or 20 times what he will earn in his lifetime as a runner, why would he risk it?
Contrast this with another, similarly talented athlete with significantly less earning potential in something other than sport… say someone from a nation where per capita income is <$10k/year… that person might reasonably determine it’s worth the risk.
Of course money isn’t everything but, IMHO, we often assume doping is a moral choice when, for many, it’s purely an economic one.
BTC's Fisher less than half as many tests as Jager??
It seems they're somewhat slow to put an athlete on the testing list and super slow at removing them once they stop competing at a high level. That's how Hassan Mead failed a test, he wasn't even competing anymore and was taking some supplements trying to get jacked with weight lifting.
I realize he is tested by other organizations as well, but given the: event/outlier performances/records/US history in the event……clean or not this is willfully ignorant.