For a few, mid tier athletes, sure. WADA isn’t exactly a new organization… there’s no question if an entire team is on the sauce, at least 1 will get caught. It’s not just the podium getting tested, there’s random tests all the way down to DFL. Even if it’s something more sophisticated than has been seen before, in an entire team, there’s gonna be a minor error somewhere.
I have zero doubt there’s dirty athletes in every professional sport on earth. I would be shocked if there were still entire national teams doing it. They’re testing for the drug and then 7 different metabolites of the drug. That’s why this is so puzzling to me
Nope not questioning NYT one bit. Not really sure my position on it. Can’t decide if the team/country was really that stupid to think they could pull it off or there’s something fishy going on. I’m just saying that to do this right and under the radar, there’s so many things that would have to happen perfectly and there’s too many variables to ensure that.
I think Lance showed, and by extension the Icarus doc, and by extension many ‘busted’ athletes own anecdotal evidence suggests that the testers are far and away behind the doctors and chemists who make these products available. Even the BALCO situation showed how the ADAs worldwide are basically useless. Those whom have the means will and continue to dope and those who don’t don’t.
These days I prefer to enjoy sport for what it has turned out to be, entertainment, and the athletes merely actors in that
Id suggest that It’s your assumptions that make it difficult for you to believe, whereas I am neither surprised it’s happening nor surprised it’s taken so long to be revealed.
Just recently, entire team doping (FC Porto/W52), they had a Lab and everything (apparently also selling). This was happening for a few years. Guys doing hard long climbs with same wattage as Pogy.
It is cases like this where Occam’s Razor plays in for me……a country with a decades long state-sponsored doping program is caught doping in a sport where they demonstrate dominance.
Those looking to cheat the system will always be ahead of those trying to protect the rules. Too much money / prestige on the line.
People have been saying “the testing is so good now, there’s no way a team/nation/large group could be doping these days” for literally decades.
Taking the most obvious example, even after Lance had teammates speaking out, ran out the back door while testers rang the doorbell, etc., there were still massive numbers of people saying “it’s impossible for him to be cheating”.
It just takes a while for the investigations and testing to catch up because by the time they’ve figured out the modern methods, the cheaters have moved on to the next method.
It’s the same with crime and espionage. The aim is to minimise the occurance, the impact. Nobody seriously expects to eliminate the cheats/criminals entirely.
Some decide what your pragmatic/acceptable levels are and aim for that, state sponsored programs can’t be acceptable - individuals maybe. Then there’s the cost/benefit or the controls to consider.
As far as I know there is still no test for blood doping with your own untainted blood. My guess is that the protocols are more conservative. Maybe it’s just an extra 50-100 ml per day or every other day during the Tour de France or something like that?
My understanding is that one can still microdose with EPO (directly into the vein rather than under the skin) as the half life is less than a day plus it wouldn’t show up on a pee test.