Post #2346222

2026-04-26 16:19 UTC

@dpiponi@mathstodon.xyz Many elite athletes in the past aced drug tests but later turned out to be using undetectable (at the time) doping methods. E.g. in 2016, 35 Olympians who tested clean in 2008 were found via updated testing to have not been clean. I don't want to be a grinch, but a good friend left the pro cycling scene many years ago rather than acquiesce to routine doping. But in any case, a sub-2hr marathon is a watershed achievement, and if it *is* clean, even more so.

Replies (2)

@deech@mastodon.social 2026-04-26 16:26

@sanityinc@hachyderm.io @dpiponi@mathstodon.xyz Wow, 4m 45 second miles for 26 miles is just an insane achievement!

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@jameshowell@fediscience.org 2026-04-26 16:29

@sanityinc@hachyderm.io @dpiponi@mathstodon.xyz Only a few weeks ago I made the acquaintance of a colleague who was on the US Postal Service team with Armstrong in the 90s and then spent decades as a top level official in the sport overseeing doping testing. He came back to higher ed after what can only be described as an apocalyptic disillusionment. I let him vent for an hour, all kinds of stories, each one more spy-thriller than the next. And for every athlete that I'd heard of, and many I had not, the same story. "I thought he was clean, until...." "I knew him for all these years, and I honestly believed he was clean, and then...." tl;dr someone in a position to speak authoritatively says the entire sport is crooked without any exceptions

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