You Can Run But You Can't Hide Malmo - More And More People Know The Truth About You

Hmm, ok. Well, you basically then would be cheating. EPO is banned, and even if you were anemic, these are the WADA criteria for getting a therapeutic use exemption: The last is problematic for anemia: time, and treatment of the underlying disorder is a reasonable therapeutic alternative. So no TUE for EPO, so taking it, even "to sort out a medical issue", is cheating.

The criteria are:

The athlete would experience significant health problems without taking the prohibited substance or method

The therapeutic use of the substance would not produce significant enhancement of performance, and

There is no reasonable therapeutic alternative to the use of the otherwise prohibited substance or method.

domestic pro wrote:

No grain of salt needed. Thanks for the candor.

Thanks for your explanation.

Should be noted that my sister, who has never run a step in her life had meniscus tears, as well, resulting in a knee replacement. Also of the 800 some thousand meniscus surgeries done each year the great majority are age related. Collagen deteriorates with age.

Final thought in this thread.

I'm a 43 year old guy. Three kids. Avid fan of the sport to the point I spend time and more importantly money following it. I would guess my kids, based on my influence, are likely to become participants and fans themselves someday.

As a fan, I like to look at the accomplished athletes(past and present) and have good feelings about them. I hope for the sake of the sport that other accomplished athletes like Malmo don't rationalize their cheating the way he has chosen to do so.

I'll continue to follow the sport and I'll use this forum for that purpose, but I must say that it has been a really disappointing morning for me to realize that not only did an individual I used look up to cheat but that he can't be honest with me (a fan, or used to be) about it.

Very, very disappointing. I'm sure I'll be told to go eff myself now and I'm not owed anything and I guess thats why this sport, which I have loved my entire adult life is slowly but surely going into the crapper, because of the attitudes that our heroes don't owe us fans anything.

dd wrote:

Finally-- I find it hard to believe Malmo was anemic to the point of taking a banned substance, and yet can't remember his level of hemoglobin, or hematocrit.

Believe it. I don't know the specifics of my dental exams either, except that I don't have any cavities and had six wisdom teeth.

dd wrote:

I was anemic as a freshman in college, ran slowly, and once the cause was discovered, backed off, took my iron pills, and recovered. No steroids, no EPO. This was 20 years ago, and I have no trouble recalling my nadir: hemoglobin level of 9.8 mg/dL. Anemic enough to take steroids, and yet no idea of the lab value? Wow.

Good for you.

I was anemic to the point I needed prescription meds when I was a collegiate runner, and I have no idea what my levels were, and that was less than 10 years ago. The fact that you think everyone would remember such a thing is laughable.

dd wrote:. Anemic enough to take steroids, and yet no idea of the lab value? Wow.

Just one more thought. It's not as though I went in and asked for "steroids". I went in and explained to the doctor that I was feeling run-down for months and was a professional distance runner and was told he could help. he then asked me specific questions about my running (road or track, testing or not) that I didn't really expect to hear. he took blood samples and told me to come back the next week. When I came back he gave me shots for FSH, TSH, LH, etc [not sure of the specifics, would like to find out for sure] plus a prescription for Winstrol. Didn't even know what Winstrol was until I looked it up.

If you want me to say that I cheated because I ran a 23:30 8k and wanted to improve to 23:28 then I'll say it for you. I'm a cheater. A dirty rotten cheater. All of my PR's were tainted. A complete fraud. Is that good enough for you? Feel better now?

Do you recall or be willing to talk about how it came about that some Aw people told you they were on drugs? I always thought that if I were using PEDs I would never mention it to anyone under any circumstances.

malmo wrote:

Just one more thought. It's not as though I went in and asked for "steroids"...

You have to understand that your original post - years ago - makes it appear that this is precisely what you did. Thanks for clarifying, actually. because your subsequent comments in this thread seemed as though you were walking back that statement back then and quibbling about intent. Frankly, there was no need to split hairs about it.

No offense malmo but cheating does not depend on whether your performance improved.

It doesn't matter whether you knew what it was or not. It's your job to know as an athlete.

The medical condition crap is the same thing most drug cheats use as justification.

"Hey, I just had low T"...so it makes sense to take testosterone to get my levels to normal...right?

low T is now a medical condition if you listen to radio and TV ads...

The point isn't to vilify. I think it would be productive if you put it all out there and let people understand the culture at the time.

It's different then now. But the issue is we still have people who are in power who operate within the ideology of the 1980s culture

malmo wrote:

domestic pro wrote:

No grain of salt needed. Thanks for the candor.

Thanks for your explanation.

Should be noted that my sister, who has never run a step in her life had meniscus tears, as well, resulting in a knee replacement. Also of the 800 some thousand meniscus surgeries done each year the great majority are age related. Collagen deteriorates with age.

Your excuses, Malmo, are tiring. You mitigate your cheating by saying your times did not improve during your cheating. Who cares? You cheated - plain and simple. End of Story!

I think we've gotten off track here because there are folks on this board who are fans of Malmo, and others who are not. His regular candor (some might refer to him as snarky) put some off. As such, some people are like sharks right now, smelling blood and going after the guy because they see an opening. If that's your agenda you should leave, plain and simple. The guys has outed himself, and that's a benefit to the sport. Interpretation of his motivation is secondary.

Our sport is on life support, and in large part it's due to drugs. People watch track track for the "oh my god" associated with a great performance. We want to see other humans perform beyond what we perceive is possible. Drugs take that phenomenon away ... and that's not good because it steals away the main reason anyone would be interested in watching.

The more we unveil the drug culture in sport, the more likely it can be removed. Will it be? Doubtful, they were cheating during the Tour de France in the early 1900's; humans cheat. But if getting caught is something that will reduce that athletes stature, maybe the consequence will reduce the number of cheats. Whether that will save the sport .... doubtful I say, but we can't keep on this path.

HRE wrote:

Do you recall or be willing to talk about how it came about that some Aw people told you they were on drugs? I always thought that if I were using PEDs I would never mention it to anyone under any circumstances.

Yes. 1980 spring april or may. Three of them told me. Confirmed by another person today that two of the above told him too.

HRE wrote:

I always thought that if I were using PEDs I would never mention it to anyone under any circumstances.

Friends talk to friends. I found out 2 months ago that two others had admitted to a friend that they too were on drugs. Never suspected them, but it made sense. Obviously hearsay, but the person who told me was close to them.

HRE, I really want to stop hinting and focus on aggregating all of the information.

reasoning wrote:

The point isn't to vilify. I think it would be productive if you put it all out there and let people understand the culture at the time.

I think you are wrong about "the culture of the time". I never had any interest in PEDs in the 80s or the 70s. My response to people who told me they were doping was "that's their choice."

None of this was something I pursued on my own, if it wasn't for an accidental dinner at a local pub where the UO throws coach gave a seminar, and the talk the next day with a runner that was already a Smulovitz patient I would have never known about him nor ever even cared.

"The culture of the time" wasn't my culture.

"If you want me to say that I cheated because I ran a 23:30 8k and wanted to improve to 23:28 then I'll say it for you. I'm a cheater. A dirty rotten cheater. All of my PR's were tainted. A complete fraud. Is that good enough for you? Feel better now"

Oh for F---'s sake. No, you cheated because you took a banned substance. How complicated is that to understand? You were an elite athlete; you don't just shrug and take banned pills that a doctor gives you after asking whether or not you will be drug tested. Only you know if all your PRs are tainted, but for those of us who value a clean sport and fair play and would never take PEDs, you fall clearly into the group of people who knowingly take PEDs. The only other group is those that would never do this. And once you've left that group, there's no going back.

The universe of runners with anemia is large; those that took PEDs to "treat" it: exceedingly small.

And no, I feel no better, or worse. I knew you took drugs before, I know it now, and I know that you were not the only one to do so. I hope that going forward, with better detection, with seizing records from quack MDs like the person who gave you the stanozolol, with biologic passports, and with no tolerance for intentional cheaters, past or present, the sport will approach a level of cleanliness where I can be shocked at doping again.

I was a serious runner in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Oregon. I was good, but not great (close to 8:00 3K; mid-29s 10K). I ran against the AW guys a number of times (road runs, track, and (rarely) XC). It is seriously disappointing to hear that some of those guys might have been using PEDs. Back then, most of us knew that Eastern Europeans doped, but to think Nike was allowing (encouraging) it to happen here is disappointing. Who would have thought, that at a mini-meet in Eugene, one would be racing drug cheats.

I did not lose prize money or national team spots (I wasn't ever that good), but I still feel betrayed (if it is true), as it just isn't right. It violates the whole spirit of the endeavor - to take what you have, your physical capabilities, and through training and hard work fight for every last tenth of a second of improvement. That struggle is noble. PEDs are a shortcut, an artificial aid and they violate the purity of the sport.

reasoning wrote:

No offense malmo but cheating does not depend on whether your performance improved.

It doesn't matter whether you knew what it was or not. It's your job to know as an athlete.

I'm not playing devil's advocate here.

In regards to "cheating does not depend on whether your performance improved" I would agree on an individual basis. For instance, if one individual takes EPO, but messes up and does it wrong or something and gets slower, that's still cheating obviously because it's been show to work incredibly well for thousands of athletes.

But if no endurance athletes are showing benefit from something, such as Winstrol (according to Google), should it be considered cheating?

Maybe this isn't the place to have that discussion, I don't know, but the general consensus online seems to say Winstrol is absolutely performance inhibiting for endurance athletes.

Just wanted to give your props for trying to clean up the sport. It takes a lot of guts and you got nothing to gain financially. It would be nice to have confidence that the guys breaking records are clean. Anyway your quest requires lots of integrity best of luck.

1970s-80s runner wrote:

I was a serious runner in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Oregon. I was good, but not great (close to 8:00 3K; mid-29s 10K). I ran against the AW guys a number of times (road runs, track, and (rarely) XC). It is seriously disappointing to hear that some of those guys might have been using PEDs. Back then, most of us knew that Eastern Europeans doped, but to think Nike was allowing (encouraging) it to happen here is disappointing. Who would have thought, that at a mini-meet in Eugene, one would be racing drug cheats.

I ran those same mini-meets as you did, only I knew that some of the guys I raced were dirty by their own admission. I never really thought about it at the time, but imagine how many kept quiet? That's not a comforting thought.

In 1984 the USOC effected a massive coverup for track athletes. Go to 22:20 in the video below. Do you think that Eugene didn't have a lion's share of those positives?

I may be blasted for this since I'm only a HS Junior, but I'll take my lumps since I feel strongly about this.

Malmo: I applaud you for going public about this cheating, even if it was thirty years ago. I don't know you and I had never heard the name George Mally until I googled it. I was born way after you competed. If it can somehow stop others from cheating in the future, it needs to be said. Personally, cheating has never crossed my mind. Never in school and never in athletics. I have turned people who have cheated in school and athletics in. It is part of our Honor Code and I think it is your duty as a steward of the sport to turn others who you know have cheated in also. I thank you greatly for this since it may affect how others act in the future.

As for what you did personally. From your description of the situation and from your comments on this thread, I think you cheated. It doesn't matter if it improved your times or not. As an elite athlete, you should know that there are many, many factors that go into a race and may lead to a better or worse performance. Improvement means nothing in terms of cheating. If Tyson Gay takes a banned drug, but his PRs do not improve does this mean he didn't cheat. Surely not. Your intent here was to cheat and to gain an unfair advantage. You have to live what is in your heart and I hope you someday make a clean admission.

Good luck in your quest to keep the sport that I love clean for future athletes. Thank you.