LCP wrote:
I think the letsrun community is also more sympathetic to Landis because he is a distance athlete. Even though Gatlin runs track and cycling is a different sport, the distance guys I know are more invested in the Tour de France than sprinters because the mentality is much more similar. If a suspect A test came out about Bekele, Geb, Meb, Lagat, etc. I think you would see a lot more faith from letsrun posters because they want to believe they are accomplishing what they do clean.
You are only partly right: distance runners are more apt to believe distance runners than sprinters I think, but only by a little. Why is that ? (why do they believe distance runners more, BUT....only "by a little" ?) And why do the really support Landis so much?
Because yes, maybe there is some "distance bias" exhibited on these boards. But what other types of bias come into play and offset other biases?? Why, contrary to what you suggested and going against the "endurance bias", do so many LetsRunners NOT believe in the innocence of the average cyclist, but DO believe in Landis' innocence? Well-
a) because of the reality of doping in cycling AND
b) 2 other biases come into play: a "sport bias" (we tend to like runners better than cyclists), and a "nationalism bias"- despite America's recent success in cycling, the majority of top cyclists have been European, so we don't trust them. This second bias is why Letsunners, on the average, will trust Lance and Landis over the top Euro cyclists who have some drug rumors surrounding them.
So there are all types of biases: sports bias, event bias, nation bias, and of course race bias(racism). And these race and nation biases comes into play when we examine your statement of: "If a suspect A test came out about Bekele, Geb, Meb, Lagat, etc. I think you would see a lot more faith from letsrun posters because they want to believe they are accomplishing what they do clean. " I don't think that is really true! Think about, that IS what happened with Lagat, and it appears that Lagat did indeed have a "false positive" test A, yet tons and tons of posters on here still think he is guilty? Why? Because he was NOT born in America, and is NOT white. And despite pratically zero evidence of drug use by Bekele, Geb, and some other top Africans, tons of LestRunners are wholeheartedly convinced that these guys are on drugs! Why is that? Do they think the same about Webb and Ritz? Of course not. Race and nation bias are at play her for sure.
And that is why it is silly for wejo to talk about people he knows that "swear" that that Irish guy Turnbull (?) is clean as being evidence in his favor. Every person whoever used PED's could find people that "swear for their innocence". It means nothing. Wejo doesn't know anyone that "swears" for the African runners innocence?? Of course he must (well, Renato comes on here all the time and does it). But it doesn't stop wejo from looking for any loose connection between top African runners, their coach, and drugs (remember the thread wejo started about Hermens' brief mention in the Spanish drug raid article? ) And rojo once printed his statistical analysis of WR's that pretty much demonstrated that he thought the top African runners were on drugs, despite many people in the sport "swearing" for them.
So of course all sorts of biases comes into play when people accuse other athletes of using drugs, and race is certainly one of them.