SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT!!! - Shelby Houlihan is running in the Olympic Trials! (Yes, Really)

Is this like allowing Mike Rossi to run the Boston Marathon?

Riding Dirty wrote:

A variety of items have been thrown onto fields in protest, but perhaps this may be the first instance for "protest burritos?"

There is already a very long list of things that aren't allowed to be brought into the stadium for the Olympic Trials. I wonder if they will add burritos to the banned list? That would be hilarious.

You can't carry any food in.

jamb innn wrote:

YikesInMyNikes wrote:

What were the screaming assaults in the infield tents?

Not doubting it, just hadn’t heard of this before. Wouldn’t put it past Nike to be actively silencing this type of negative press.

Bonus: Quigley unfollowed Houlihan on Instagram

Double bonus: centro unfollowed shelbo on IG also

Quigly unfollowing her = old news

Centro unfollowing her = bombshell! What does he know?

isufan13 wrote:

So Colleen unfollowed Shelby? They used to be pretty good friends right? I also noticed Kate Grace didn’t put out any type of support message. Kind of telling when your former teammates don’t say anything.

Kate posted to her stories supporting Shelby. Colleen and Shelby unfollowed each other YEARS ago.

This is an obvious turf war. USATF wants USADA to handle all doping issues for US athletes and not have AIU involved. USATF is letting Houlihan run to put pressure on WADA to expedite the appeal and clear her before the OGs. Nike must be working behind the scenes too. NOP is a big stain for Nike and they do not want to have BTC also get tainted. Thus, it looks like they are all going to work together to try to get Houlihan to the OGs.

They are tainted even if another appeal (which will be purely legal-technical, now new facts wrt nandrolone above threshold and how it got here) should be successful. Like Salazar was technically not doping but the taint was almost as bad.

She might compete in the US Trials and that is as good as it gets. Why? The US courts has NO, ABSOLUTELY NO jurisdiction over the CAS, this is moot. Lance Armstrong tried the exact same thing using the US Court system when the sh hit the fan with him to no avail. If she makes the team she will not be allowed to compete at the Olympics because of the CAS decision which World Athletics is BOUND to follow. Unless the Swiss Court, which has JURISDICTION over the CAS overturns the decision, this matter is pretty much dead. Jeez you folks are amazingly dumb when it comes to these kind of things.

Barry Badrinath wrote:

JSSFPD wrote:

I was on the fence and waiting for the CAS full decision to make up my mind on her guilt/innocence but this whole running the trials anyways has me thinking that BTC has a 'rules don't apply to us' mentality. Makes me question the whole leadership of the club and everyone involved with it. If you're willing to show such disrespect to the sport by condoning and participating when banned, then I'm not sure doping is that big a leap.

We're on the verge of a situation where opposing athletes may refuse to compete against Shelby in the Trials. This is bad.

No we're not. Runners don't train to sit out races

Remind me, is this the U.S.A, or Russia? USATF, please respect the ethics, if not the rules, we demand of all nations who complete in athletics. The whole world is watching.

Alright, this is a bridge too far.

BTC can go to hell.

Barry Badrinath wrote:

JSSFPD wrote:

I was on the fence and waiting for the CAS full decision to make up my mind on her guilt/innocence but this whole running the trials anyways has me thinking that BTC has a 'rules don't apply to us' mentality. Makes me question the whole leadership of the club and everyone involved with it. If you're willing to show such disrespect to the sport by condoning and participating when banned, then I'm not sure doping is that big a leap.

We're on the verge of a situation where opposing athletes may refuse to compete against Shelby in the Trials. This is bad.

I doubt anyone will refuse to compete. There is too much on the line. 4th place will probably get bumped up to 3rd. Just let her run and wait and see how the appeals work out.

Heyzeus Coyote, just everybody take a couple deep breathes and lets just see what happens before Toyoko.

Iron Bars wrote:

Hey Jonathan Gault, you got something to say now?

Didn't you read my LRC Editorial. This is exactly what we wanted.

Precious Roy wrote:

This is an obvious turf war. USATF wants USADA to handle all doping issues for US athletes and not have AIU involved. USATF is letting Houlihan run to put pressure on WADA to expedite the appeal and clear her before the OGs. Nike must be working behind the scenes too. NOP is a big stain for Nike and they do not want to have BTC also get tainted. Thus, it looks like they are all going to work together to try to get Houlihan to the OGs.

This actually seems like a plausible answer — I also don’t get why WADA/AIU have different thresholds for certain drugs than USADA does.

Precious Roy wrote:

This is an obvious turf war. USATF wants USADA to handle all doping issues for US athletes and not have AIU involved. USATF is letting Houlihan run to put pressure on WADA to expedite the appeal and clear her before the OGs. Nike must be working behind the scenes too. NOP is a big stain for Nike and they do not want to have BTC also get tainted. Thus, it looks like they are all going to work together to try to get Houlihan to the OGs.

Are you talking about an appeal to the Swiss Supreme Court? They don't care about USATF's turf war. And I doubt if the judges are beholden to Nike. This case does not have international interest or implications that the Semenya case did.

I think USATF was just afraid to take a stand and they are hoping that Shelby pulls out on her own or somehow doesn't qualify so they are not left holding the bag.

So USATF is setting the stage for everyone competing in her heat (her event? the entire meet?), to be guilty of a WADA anti-doping violation. That’s some impressive work on their part. It’s almost like they don’t know the rules and regulations governing their own sport.

usedtowait wrote:

I ran on the circuit and the amount of supplements these athletes take is absolutely wild. I am talking about personally witnessing people have entire duffle bags of "vitamins."

That's what I've long suspected: the top pro distance runners all have a tacklebox of legal nutritional and pharmaceutical items that helps their energy and strength levels for training and racing. I'm talking about caeffeine, beet juice, Aspirin, B vitamins and other stuff found in energy drinks, weird plant root stuffs you can find in Whole Foods, Zinc before bed, etc. They downplay it to the public because it's better for their image to say they live off Chicken McNuggets or whatever distraction they use. Occassionally they take their supplementation a step to far and accidentally ingest something banned.

I remember one time I was injured and swimming to stay in shape, I took my brother's supplement he used for weight lifting called N.O.-EXPLODE and I was planning to swim 1 mile and swam 2 because I felt so amped up.

Jo72 wrote:

They are tainted even if another appeal (which will be purely legal-technical, now new facts wrt nandrolone above threshold and how it got here) should be successful. Like Salazar was technically not doping but the taint was almost as bad.

Please compare and contrast Jerry and Alberto's taints.

So long as she has an avenue to appeal, I can understand letting her run.

Also, AIU should in no way have jurisdiction over US track/field athletes. It should be USATF.