Any system that literally treats athletes worse than convicted felons on parole is contemptible. However, I am afraid to say that, while I have sympathy, I cannot respect much any athlete who puts up with it. Hard words, but these are hard times.
Given all that's happened with cycling over the last decade or so, you'd think people would learn.
Sympathy level hovering not much higher than zero.
This has been something that has been bothering me for a long time, as to the accuracy of the various tests as well as the chain of custody in France. There are similar problems with much forensic testing here in the states, things dressed up as science without any real science to back it up. Thanks for calling BS on it Doc.
Jesse, you don't want Floyd Landis to be guilty of doping. Understood loud and clear. It also seems very probable that he's a doper. His performance in the mountains that day, his thuggishness to Lemond -- the first was an anomaly, and the second wasn't. Simplest explanation: He used synthetic testerone that day, and he threatened Lemond to keep the clean champ quiet about it.
As a former analytical chemist I treat reports of qualitative/quantitative analysis in the mainstream media with a teaspoon of salt.
Unless I hear what an independent panel of their peers say about the lab's work I can have no opinion on this.
Unfortunately it can be easy to blame the lab, sometmes people have very legitimate criticsms of analytical labs but sometimes they don't. In short, I don't know enough about this to have an opinion on Landis' guilt or innocence
(Since this is a GNB Sports Desk discussion thread, and since the original WWC posting now faded into the archive...)
Thursday at the Women's World Cup:
Group C
Norway simply flattened Ghana 7-2; it may be fair to say that the Norwegians have finished rebuilding after their quarterfinal exit in 2003 and failure to qualify for the 2004 Olympics.
And while the Norwegian women have historically been known more for their stalwart defense and an offense characterized by long balls and headers, this team has also learned the virtues of incisive ground-level passing and flank play.
Needing a win to qualify for the second round, Canada struck immediately (after 31 seconds) against Australia, and managed to hold on to that advantage until halftime, despite sustained Australian pressure and their own cautious play. After the break, the Australians reaped the just reward for their labors, as Colette McCallum equalized on a picture-perfect free kick, thus giving the Australians second place in the group -- for the moment.
(The Australians also took the unofficial prize for the most intricate goal celebration: an impromptu game of patty-cake with their feet (presumably there's a fancy name for it in Portuguese).)
For a while, it looked likely that the Australians would quickly get a second goal and seal their spot in the quarters -- but they didn't, and Canada hauled themselves back into the game. An 85th-minute corner kick made its way to Christine Sinclair's head at point-blank range, and Canada had the second goal, the lead, and at least one more game to play.
But two minutes into stoppage time, Australian supersub Lisa De Vanna kept control of the ball in front of the goal area despite the attentions of several Canadian defenders, and laid the ball off to Cheryl Salisbury, who made no mistake. 2-2; Australia through.
Group D
After being dismantled by the Brazilians in their first game, it was reasonable to assume that New Zealand (which only qualified thanks to Australia's recent move to the Asian federation) really didn't belong at this tournament. And even though the Kiwis managed to keep Denmark at bay for an hour in their 2-0 loss in their second game, they weren't expected to approximate that performance against a host team which needed to win to qualify.
But despite the fervent support of the 56,000 fans who were there (despite yesterday's last-minute postponement), China couldn't score in the first half -- and as the Brazil-Denmark game also went into the interval 0-0, the hosts were at that point out of the tournament.
Eventually, though, Chinese pressure paid off with two second-half goals and the victory -- this meant that Denmark would have needed to upset Brazil in order to make the quarterfinals.
For most of the game, the Brazilians put on a clinic; unfortunately, it was a clinic on off-target shooting -- the best early opportunity actually fell to the Danes: a Maiken Pape header that required a remarkable save from Andreia. As the second half ticked away, the game and the group hung in the balance -- finally, Pretinha got the winning goal in stoppage time, to the immense relief of the Chinese crowd. 1-0; Brazil through as group winners; China through as well.
Quarterfinals
Saturday:
Germany-North Korea
USA-England
Sunday:
Norway-China
Brazil-Australia
(Further analysis tomorrow.)
Floyd Landis returnes, It's a happy news. Thanks for this article.
I used to work for a drug testing company, on e that mainly did tests for employment and court cases and after hearing some of the stories coming out of the sports world about the drug testing procedures these labs use I'm shocked that one of these banned athletes hasn't taken their case to a court of law.
I suppose the arbitration process prevents that but the standard seems to be so lax and so untrustworthy that there is no way that the results of these tests can be trusted one way or the other.
Bollox Ref: Did you even read Jesse's report? The conviction of Landis is bogus. The lab's behavior was such that nothing it said about Landis' sample should be trusted.
Queequeg: Your comment is just plain stupid. Using testosterone for one day would have been of very little help. It certainly would not explain his comeback that day. The simplest explanation here is that the initial test was an error -- which the ruling conceeded!
As for the Lemond business, even the arbiters who convicted Landis dismissed Lemond's testimony.
Marshall: I agree with you about the atheltes. If they had any self-respect they wouldn't put up with this BS.
baltogeek: A court of law is exactly were athletes should go. Then they might just get some real due process.
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