“WADA is now aware of at least three cases where athletes who had committed serious anti-doping rule violations were allowed to continue to compete for years while they acted as undercover agents for USADA, without it notifying WADA and without there being any provision allowing such a practice under the (global) code or USADA’s own rules,” WADA said in a statement to Reuters.
Still trying to get a grip, gain some grasp, of what the hell is going on in the world of running. The list of banned athletes is longer than my childhood phone book. Remain aghast at the newly ratified Women’s Marathon World Record of 2:09:56. Speaking as the erstwhile Director of Public Relations of Nike, even I simply cannot believe today’s shoes are THAT!!! super.
Prove me wrong. Please, somebody. Or, call the authorities. Oh, wait….
WADA statement on Reuters story exposing USADA scheme in contravention of World Anti-Doping Code
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) responds to a Reuters story of 7 August 2024 exposing a scheme whereby the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) allowed athletes who had doped, to compete for years, in at least one case without ever publishing or sanctioning their anti-doping rule violations, in direct contravention of the World Anti-Doping Code and USADA’s own rules.
This USADA scheme threatened the integrity of sporting competition, which the Code seeks to protect. By operating it, USADA was in clear breach of the rules. Contrary to the claims made by USADA, WADA did not sign off on this practice of permitting drug cheats to compete for years on the promise that they would try to obtain incriminating evidence against others.
Within the Code there is a provision whereby an athlete who provides substantial assistance can subsequently apply to have a proportion of their period of ineligibility suspended. However, there is a clear process for that, which does not involve allowing those who have cheated to continue to compete while they may or may not gather incriminating evidence against others and while they could retain a performance-enhancement effect from the substances they took. When WADA eventually found out about this non-compliant practice in 2021, many years after it had started, it immediately instructed USADA to desist.
WADA is now aware of at least three cases where athletes who had committed serious anti-doping rule violations were allowed to continue to compete for years while they acted as undercover agents for USADA, without it notifying WADA and without there being any provision allowing such a practice under the Code or USADA’s own rules.
In one case, an elite level athlete, who competed at Olympic qualifier and international events in the United States, admitted to taking steroids and EPO yet was permitted to continue competing all the way up to retirement. Their case was never published, results never disqualified, prize money never returned, and no suspension ever served. The athlete was allowed to line up against their unknowing competitors as if they had never cheated. In that case, when USADA eventually admitted to WADA what had been going on, it advised that any publication of consequences or disqualification of results would put the athlete’s security at risk and asked WADA to agree to non-publication. Being put in this impossible position, WADA had no choice but to agree (after verifying with its Intelligence and Investigations Department that the security threat was credible). The athlete’s doping was therefore never made public.
In another case of a high-level athlete, USADA never notified WADA of its decision to lift an athlete’s provisional suspension, which is an appealable decision, despite being required to do so under the Code. Had WADA been notified, it would never have allowed this.
How must other athletes feel knowing they were competing in good faith against those who were known by USADA to have cheated? It is ironic and hypocritical that USADA cries foul when it suspects other Anti-Doping Organizations are not following the rules to the letter while it did not announce doping cases for years and allowed cheats to carry on competing, on the off chance they might help them catch other possible violators. WADA wonders if the USADA Board of Directors, which governs USADA, or U.S. Congress, which funds it, knew about this non-compliant practice that not only undermined the integrity of sporting competition but also put the co-operating athletes’ security at risk.
I sent that WADA press release to some keen observers of the sport. Like a support group. Me and a few other OGs regularly discuss the latest advancements in the sport’s increasingly stupendous world records. Keeps us from silently screaming into our pillows.
Just noticed, all of us are Boston Marathon veterans, but I’m the only one who ever worried about the qualifying time.
Jack Fultz:
It appears that WADA and USADA policies and efforts are equivalent to a screen door in a submarine – or a painted line serving as a speed bump. Similar also to the FBI bedding down with certain gangster informants (Whitey Bulger comes to mind), letting a small percentage to roam free, provided they drop a dime every now and then.
Seems also at this stage to simply be a lame effort on the part of World Athletics and National Governing Bodies to protect the integrity of the sport by revealing their efforts to keep it clean – knowing full well that will never happen – that the cheaters will always be a step or two ahead of them. But if WADA efforts were simply abolished due to ineffectiveness, how long would it be until only the cheaters stayed in the sport and the clean athletes retired or ended their careers right after college (scholarships being the incentive to that point for D1 athletes). And that’s when the sport would wither on the vine.
So it’s arguably all just a smoke screen – the cost of doing business so there remains a business.
If there’s a smoke screen, must not there be fire? If there’s a fire, who started it?
Peter Bullen on Facebook 12/31/2024:
I spoke to Benji Durden some time ago. We are both the 70’s / 80’s breed. We would be surprised at the odd doping case and make a prognosis on the fallout. Then that was it.
One probable aspect that has not been taken into account, is the expanse of criminal activity that is at large.
I have been wrestling with the consequences of running these fantasy records. Why is it that two of the worlds leading distance runners, at the height of their careers, simply had domestic accidents and died? Were these coincidences?
Most have succumbed to the fact that it was bad luck. Within a short space of time two leading runners from the East African continent have had accidents and died! One in a car accident, the other gets torched to death by her ex! The question looming is, why the sacrifice?
In my mind, the doping in East Africa is that rampant, drug syndicates are involved. They are a source with a means. Do these simple people with ordinary lives, with an abundance of athletic prowess, take the bait from syndicates and then don’t fulfill their obligations legal or illegal? How many of these African super runners have a decent education to rely on? Why do they strap on a pair of sponsored shoes and exhaust most of the western worlds high profile marathons of their budgets? Why are they prepared to go to extremes for a few bucks?
Well, it’s not a few bucks to these people who live their whole life in poverty, unless…well we know the rest. What they don’t see in their naivete are the consequences. It’s opportunities they see, and believe the rest will sort itself out sooner or later. However, syndicates are well thought out and have no scruples. You don’t pay for the support you get, you must suffer the consequences! And for you doubters, many fall in disbelief only later to be confronted with the very truth. There is no fantasy in my words but possibles (sic) at the very least.
A drug cartel messing with elite athletes? Sounds silly until you remember Tony Soprano was in the garbage biz and the mob was always fixing big fights in the black & white movies of the 1950s. Starts to make sense now, right?
“I don’t think the numbers are big enough to interest ‘cartels’, Jack,” said Bill Rodgers.
Yeah, well, seems to me, a ‘cartel’ could be something as small as a street gang. An avaricious psychopath with three henchmen – trained like Golden Retrievers – with two dented Toyota pickup trucks could probably control an elite training group.
Boston Billy has a different cartel in mind.
To be honest, Jack, I think the syndicates are the agents working with the federations. I think the federations are paid off. You’ve seen how it works. Limit the number of people you catch, get them near the end of their careers. Perhaps ‘cuz there’s money in their pockets with the ongoing system and then with the enablers – being the world majors, making sure they have the fastest runners posting the fastest times. And, of course, no significant look by any media here in the United States at least. Not sure what it’s like in Europe they don’t seem to mind the super fast times either. I haven’t read much from Europe but I can imagine comments Ron Hill would have; He would have had comments, I’m sure of that.
I don’t know about the modern era runners. Maybe they have just accepted so much but they’re also stunned by it. And what are you going to do? Are you going to go up against these huge organizations, like Boston Marathon and their holier than thou attitude?
Ron Hill (2:09:28 PR) was a chemist, as well as the 1970 Boston Marathon champion in 2:10:30, shattering the course record by three minutes. He would be curious indeed. A scientist who ran daily for decades would have questions, for sure.
Is Beatrice Chebet’s solo 13:54 for 5K as exciting as Ruth Chepngetich’s 2:09:56? As likely or not? Is it chemistry? Is it racism? Is it sexism? Could it really be the shoes?
Caolan MacMahon had this to say on FaceBook.
Sorry – but the fact that women WILL be running times that elite men ran in the past is not a logical argument that this can’t happen. The issue here is that this is a huge jump for THIS athlete and that she works with a notorious doper. But predicting that women will not run these times is unfortunately sexist – no one places limits on males.
Ms. MacMahon is not wrong. One of the petition – see below – signers, a lady named Abby, phrased similar thoughts differently.
I think the “exceeds the limits of female performance” line is bullshit. Absolute dog shit. We do not know what the limits are until humans stop existing. However, I agree that doping is rampant and change needs to occur.
“She does have NIKE shoes on,” offered Jeff Johnson. “I think that explains everything,” Employee Number One agreed this may be an outlier position.
Both women were wearing the swoosh, just as numerous cyclists rode the same bike as Lance Armstrong.
Meanwhile, Many Continue To Cast A Suspicious Eye At The Newest Women’s Marathon World Record Holder
Remember where we started. The number of banned East Africans exceeds the entries of many road races back in the day and a bunch of old guys are just tearful – Freudian typo – fearful the same thing that killed bike racing will kill road racing. That and fund-raising, don’t get us started.
And in the middle of our collective year-end hand-wringing, Beatrice Chebet’s solo 13:54 for 5K. Yikes. Whatever.
Coincidentally, Ruth Chepngetich was there, too, in Valencia, in the 10K.
Chris Chavez on X.
Did not see this one coming… Spain’s Marta Garcia (European Championships bronze medalist and Olympian at 5000m) beats marathon world record holder Ruth Chepngetich at the San Silvestre Vallecana 10K 31:19 to 31:32. This was Chepngetich’s first race since running 2:09:56 at the Chicago Marathon – where she split 30:14 through the 10K mark.
In other words, Ruth ran faster splits multiple times en route to her WR marathon and this was a downhill course. Which should portend a faster time, not slower, right?
Conspiracy theorists immediately thought of Lasse Viren – a very nice man, I understand – and reindeer milk. Or was it polar bear blood?
The final word – for now – goes to Benji Durden: “I’m not saying this current WR is something I am comfortable with, rather that it is not out of line with other records I am not comfortable with.”
Petition To World Athletics
You don’t have to be a conspiracist to have questions. Nor a racist or a sexist. But hundreds of elite athletes are banned, far too many from Kenya. Home of our most recent record breakers, it must be noted.
Bans result from tampering and whereabouts program failures – CAN YOU BELIEVE A FAKE BOARDING PASS? – as well as Athlete Biological Passport inconsistencies. We are seeing far too many positive – which is negative – results, both in and out of competition. Think tainted burrito.
Chepngetich and Chebet have NOT tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Are the shoes really that game-changing?
Change is hard and sometimes it is hard to keep up. Just like running.
Is it change or is it cheating? Anybody who cares about the sport – running, marathoning, athletics -is simply looking for reassurance. GOVERNING BODIES MUST DO BETTER.
And now there’s a global petition.
I got the news from John Downes. Who is gathering signatures with Peter Eriksson, Richard Mayer, Alastair Leslie, Peter Bullen and others. A Brit, a Swede, a South Africa, a Kiwi – think international cartel for truth. END DOPING NOW.
The Issue
The ratification on 11 December 2024 of Ruth Chepngetich’s 2:09:56 marathon performance in Chicago on 13 October 2024, which has been greeted with profound scepticism by leading athletics experts because it exceeds the limits of female human potential, is an embodiment and symbol of the abject failure of World Athletics (WA), the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to detect and control rampant doping in international athletics.
The failure of WA, AIU and WADA to prevent widespread abuse of performance-enhancing drugs in athletics is a dereliction of their duty to protect the interests of and opportunities for clean athletes to compete fairly against their co-competitors who engage in doping and severely harms the integrity, image, and sustainability of athletics as a viable competitive activity for honest athletes.
The Petition
Please sign this petition to compel WA, AIU and WADA to disclose all testing, if any, conducted on Chepngetich, in the 12 months prior to 13 October 2024, and to hold these organisations accountable by requiring them to take urgent measures to eliminate doping in athletics, including
(1) the disclosure and suspension and coaches and agents linked to athletes who test positive for doping,
(2) enhanced testing, particularly in East Africa,
(3) reporting back on the enhanced testing on a half yearly basis and
(4) to immediately suspend all athletes from competition for the balance of a calendar year from any country that has more than 10 of its athletes test positive during the calendar year.
Link below is where you can add your name to those who have already signed. Clean athletes like Bill Rodgers, Rod Dixon, Steve Jones, Benji Durden, Ron Tabb, to name but a few.
“It will be interesting if a woman makes the men’s world champs qualifying standard, and an American man doesn’t?” – Tom Raynor