Shelby Houlihan Sets Up a Gofundme and Website

rojo wrote:

go away, Shelby wrote:

This has gone completely bust, thank God. In the past 24 hours, it has only gotten two donations ($100 and $20) for a $11,939 total. I highly doubt it will ever make it to even $12,500 unless someone makes a large donation.

Why are you happy that it is failing? If you are so confident she is guilty, then why not let her have a full appeal and still be convicted?

Because there is no accountability that any of this money raised is even going to her appeal. Why wouldn't Nike be footing the bill (she's a Nike athlete). Why has her testing of her vitamins been at her own expense, etc?

This is a grift. It's someone just blatantly asking for money, and hoping people give it, without any controls.

Why should we trust someone to do the right thing when they've already been convicted of doing the wrong thing? We're supposed to just trust her that, wink wink Wada, the tests, the experts are wrong, the math is wrong, and that, with no guarantees, this money is going to go towards proving these facts? What happened to her Nike money? Her prize money? Etc.

+1 Plus: like Salazar, she already has lost her appeal. Unlike Salazar, she had no first instance decision (AIU's DT), because she chose to skip that step. Interestingly, according to her, neither Nike nor BTC helped her with the costs so far:

Below is a list of expenses Shelby has paid for to date:

Retain a lawyer experienced in handling these cases

Test all of her vitamins, supplements, and possible meat sources

Hire a private investigator

Numerous other tests and analyses to prove her innocence

Found subject matter experts to review the case and testify in giving their expert opinion

Court fees to even simply have a trial

Hire a second legal team to go through the appeal process in the Swiss Federal Tribunal

Also, no one from BTC or letsrun publicly has supported this doper with a donation so far. Go for it, Brojos!

rojo wrote:

go away, Shelby wrote:

This has gone completely bust, thank God. In the past 24 hours, it has only gotten two donations ($100 and $20) for a $11,939 total. I highly doubt it will ever make it to even $12,500 unless someone makes a large donation.

Why are you happy that it is failing? If you are so confident she is guilty, then why not let her have a full appeal and still be convicted?

Because this is the definition of narcissistic entitlement. SHE broke the rules and then made up a dumb story about a burrito to try and hide it. Now she expects other people to pay her so that she can continue to defend her own stupidity? She can get a job and pay for it herself if she wants to keep up her lame (and false) "I didn't cheat" charade. People are tired in general of other people, who are completely capable of working, trying to freeload off of others. Add in the ridiculousness of this entire situation and yes, people are happy the go fund me is failing.

I'm in agreement that no private citizen should be contributing to Shelby's gofund. Legally it's not about her being guilty or innocent. It's about facts. They discovered a banned substance in her sample. In her two appeals she offered no excusable evidence why it was present. Although she attempted to explain. She received the penalty for the positive result. If anything. Shelby should be asking for a reduced sentence. And stop acting like an abused victim. Stop acting as if her sample was targeted or mishandled out of some type of malice.

I think GoFundMe takes a portion of the donations, so if I were a friend or family member, I would just give her the money directly. Although I think that may be awkward from teammates.

Strategically, I think this would have raised more money right after the news broke and she should've set it for a much lower amount and let it go over that. When you are nowhere near your goal, it seems like a lost cause and there is not much motivation in chipping in $10.

Also wish she would say if she were still being paid by Nike.

rojo wrote:

go away, Shelby wrote:

This has gone completely bust, thank God. In the past 24 hours, it has only gotten two donations ($100 and $20) for a $11,939 total. I highly doubt it will ever make it to even $12,500 unless someone makes a large donation.

Why are you happy that it is failing? If you are so confident she is guilty, then why not let her have a full appeal and still be convicted?

If she is innocent, and she is not, let her or Nike pay for it. This reeks of Floyd Landis.

Speaking of Floyd Landis, I'm wondering if this move could have implications for Shelby down the road, should she decide to come clean and admit doping. Floyd famously cried his innocence everywhere and every way possible before ultimately admitting he doped. If Shelby accepts money from people saying it's to help her to prove her innocence, does this make it problematic for her to subsequently admit she doped? Wouldn't that open her up to potential legal problems having accepted money in bad faith?

rojo wrote:

go away, Shelby wrote:

This has gone completely bust, thank God. In the past 24 hours, it has only gotten two donations ($100 and $20) for a $11,939 total. I highly doubt it will ever make it to even $12,500 unless someone makes a large donation.

Why are you happy that it is failing? If you are so confident she is guilty, then why not let her have a full appeal and still be convicted?

Brojos can you explain your willingness to support Shelby on this? "Full appeal?" you mean a Swiss court? She DID appeal to CAS and lost.

A lot of what you have written so far honestly reeks of bias. you just get into semantics. Most people look at the CAS report and Shelby's "evidence" and conclude that her burrito story is BS, and look at the progression in her career and conclude that it was because she was cheating that she got so good over the last three years and seemed to keep getting better.

Not wearing the special shoes adds to this because she didn't want her cheating to be visible. Not wearing the shoes does nothing to convince me that she wasn't cheating.

So, perhaps figure out amongst yourselves why this girl means so much to you? And provide concrete reasons why her case is so different than everyone elses. Or just admit you are upset that your favorite Great White Hope was caught. Remember the "Great White Hope" days of letsrun? Good times by the way.

Brojos can you explain your willingness to support Shelby on this?

I would like to know this too - Brojo's (and Gault) have been pretty hard line (rightfully) against dopers and suspected dopers, and then take a sudden 180 when Shelby gets popped.

Why is this? White... Sorry, I mean what is the difference here?

hopping on this train wrote:

Brojos can you explain your willingness to support Shelby on this?

I would like to know this too - Brojo's (and Gault) have been pretty hard line (rightfully) against dopers and suspected dopers, and then take a sudden 180 when Shelby gets popped.

Why is this? White... Sorry, I mean what is the difference here?

Yeah, because Randy Barnes, Lance Armstrong, Mary Slaney, Paula Radcliffe, Eddy Hellebuyck, Chris Lukezic, John McEwen, Al Oerter, Kevin Toth, Floyd Landis, nearly every Russian and East German athlete during the 70s and 80s, Jarmila Kratochvilova, receive total support from the LetsRun community because of their color.

Quit trying to inject race where it does not exist.

Yes - this seems to be more about AW = NOP = bad, and BTC = good, despite the facts that they are all Nike pro teams, and significant overlap exists between NOP and BTC. For example, Schumacher worked for both, and both used the same cheating doctor for a while.

That's particularly hilarious after Centro moved from NOP to BTC, and then his girlfriend got caught doping.

go away, Shelby wrote:

hopping on this train wrote:

I would like to know this too - Brojo's (and Gault) have been pretty hard line (rightfully) against dopers and suspected dopers, and then take a sudden 180 when Shelby gets popped.

Why is this? White... Sorry, I mean what is the difference here?

Yeah, because Randy Barnes, Lance Armstrong, Mary Slaney, Paula Radcliffe, Eddy Hellebuyck, Chris Lukezic, John McEwen, Al Oerter, Kevin Toth, Floyd Landis, nearly every Russian and East German athlete during the 70s and 80s, Jarmila Kratochvilova, receive total support from the LetsRun community because of their color.

Quit trying to inject race where it does not exist.

Honestly, this is why I’m confounded. Whiteness has to do with why Shelby is getting a pass from brojos and the rest of the running media but it doesn’t tell the whole story by a mile.

There are also these factors:

She’s american

She’s Midwestern which makes her more “homegrown” in appeal.

She’s friendly and accessible to press. Shelby isn’t like rupp in that way. She was someone we could root for.

She had magic genes—her sister and mom being pros gave this idea that we could really have a homegrown Dibaba which added to her appeal. Brojos were always referencing her mom to justify her astronomical talent.

There may not have been any cloud of suspicion before she got caught like with nop or anyone coached by Salazar.

go away, Shelby wrote:

hopping on this train wrote:

I would like to know this too - Brojo's (and Gault) have been pretty hard line (rightfully) against dopers and suspected dopers, and then take a sudden 180 when Shelby gets popped.

Why is this? White... Sorry, I mean what is the difference here?

Yeah, because Randy Barnes, Lance Armstrong, Mary Slaney, Paula Radcliffe, Eddy Hellebuyck, Chris Lukezic, John McEwen, Al Oerter, Kevin Toth, Floyd Landis, nearly every Russian and East German athlete during the 70s and 80s, Jarmila Kratochvilova, receive total support from the LetsRun community because of their color.

Quit trying to inject race where it does not exist.

I was being a bit facetious with that - I do think it's more to do with the great American hope type thing in distance.

I'd also like to point out I was referring to the Brojo's, and if you were around way back when, they did strongly support Armstrong for a very long time.

I highly doubt Nike is still paying her. I would bet big money that all Nike contracts have a clause that voids the contract if the athlete is convicted of a doping offense.

Nike are ruthless about not resigning and dropping athletes, even legends of the sport.

You can bet they aren’t paying her after a positive drug test.

Serious question for those saying she should just get a job. If you were hiring someone for your office, would you hire a freshly convicted doper?

I think right now even getting a “normal” job isn’t an option for her. She’s been tainted, regardless of the allegations are true or not.

im sure she won't have an issue with doing this tbh. it's not hard to get a job.

I would have found her guilty but would have said that the rules are not fit for purpose.

Strict liability with the requirements to account for tiny amounts of a metabolite a month prior to a test and effects of the sanctions do not meet with the use of strict liability in the real world.

blu devils wrote:

The difference is that Sifan Hassan on rocketfuel is much faster than Shelby on the same rocketfuel because Hassan has more natural talent.

Or maybe Hassan is a better responder to the rocket fuel. There is no way to tell unfortunately....

liar soorer wrote:

I would have found her guilty but would have said that the rules are not fit for purpose.

Strict liability with the requirements to account for tiny amounts of a metabolite a month prior to a test and effects of the sanctions do not meet with the use of strict liability in the real world.

She tested positive for a banned drug. Her excuse was not accepted. End of story.