Avocado's Number wrote:
I think that you may be overstating .. her role in "caus[ing] the end of Ms Yegorova's running career.
Ms Yegorova was met with a barrage from the press as a result of P Radcliffe's actions, which caused her to end her season, and she never again had the motivation to compete at the highest levels she'd attained.
The A sample does NOT test positive for anything. It is only an indicator that that B sample should have closer scrunity, which it did and Ms Yegorova was cleared.
The 2008 Russian Olympic Team fiasco had nothing to do with actions by Ms Yegorova, but was again based on politics. Whether some Russian official had stupidly, as alledged, tainted all the women's team samples, was not ever proven, or whether it was simply another case of bad testing procedures. In any case, Ms Yegorova was not guilty of any wrongdoing, and very likely did not even know the person who tampered with the samples.
Again all the supposition regarding Ms Yegorova has been based on Politics, not athletics. The hysteria began with the lies and misrepresentations by P Radcliffe. I recall at the time, even after the truth had come out and Ms Yegorova was cleared, P Radcliffe kept spouting the lies.
That, to me, was where the cheating occurred.
When an athlete in 2nd, 3rd, 18th or wherever, conspires to cheat the winner out of their just reward -- that is cheating. That person is a cheat.