The triathlon world was hit with a bombshell on Monday as reigning U.S. Open champion Collin Chartier was suspended for three years by the International Testing Agency (ITA) following an out-of-competition drug test in February.
Chartier, a 29-year-old American who rose to prominence last year by winning the Professional Triathletes Organization (PTO) U.S. Open, tested positive for the banned substance erythropoietin (EPO) on February 10, and revealed his suspension with an announcement on Instagram Monday.
Chartier notably started out as a swimmer and competed in a number of meets for Marymount University during the 2013-14 season, though he spent the majority of his collegiate career competing in triathlon and cross country.
“The sample collected from Collin Chartier returned an adverse analytical finding for the non-specified prohibited substance EPO,” the ITA wrote. “EPO is prohibited under the 2023 World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List as peptide hormone (S2). EPO stimulates erythropoiesis (red blood cell production) and can modify the body’s capacity to transport oxygen and, therefore, increase stamina and performance.”
Chartier’s acceptance of the suspension resulted in it being a three-year ban rather than four, though he has declared his intention to walk away from the sport following the positive test.
View this post on Instagram
He fully admitted to taking PEDs as soon as he received word of the positive test, claiming to have started taking the banned substance on his own in November 2022.
“I started using this PED in November after feeling like I have lost my way in this sport,” Chartier said. “In the moment I was injured and sick and felt I had to do this if I was going to have the success I wanted in 2024 (assuming he meant 2023).
“Feelings of intense pressure and expectations to win the biggest races in 2024 along with feeling unhappy with the personal sacrifices I have made. In my mind I thought I had to deny myself friendships, happiness, socializing, and having fun in training to be the best, and I lost the love for the sport.”
Chartier’s triathlon career started off in the short course ranks, and he had designs on qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team in Tokyo before the COVID postponement halted his progress, telling triathlon outlet Tri247 he was “kind of getting pushed out of the USA Triathlon short course from some of the High Performance Directors” and ended up trying his hand at long course racing.
The Fairfax, Va., native began to find success in the middle-distance and long-distance events, winning Ironman Mont-Tremblant in August of last year and then picking up the biggest victory of his career the following month at the PTO U.S. Open in Dallas.
The PTO, an athlete-owned organization that was founded in 2020, has been offering all-time-high prize purses in triathlon, with Chartier’s U.S. Open victory earning him $100,000 USD.
The PTO released the following statement on Chartier’s positive test:
“We were deeply disappointed to hear the news about Collin Chartier’s anti-doping rule violation (ADRV).
“Protecting the integrity of our great sport is absolutely paramount to the purpose of the PTO and our members. There is no place for doping in sport and we have zero tolerance for anyone who abuses this.
“We are seeking legal and expert advice on the specifics of Chartier’s ADRV as they relate to the PTO and cannot comment further until this is completed.”
Chartier appeared on the triathlon podcast How They Train on Monday to go into greater detail on the situation. He claimed to have made the decision and administered the banned substances on his own, though many top pros are skeptical that he’s not telling the full truth.
“Let me guess, you bought it in the internet and also learned how to use it – all from the internet. Nobody helped you, nobody knew…,” Sebastian Kienle, former Ironman world champion and one of the most respected athletes in the sport, commented on Chartier’s post.
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The ITA conducted an investigation, according to Chartier, which concluded that he acted on his own. However, his coach Mikal Iden and former training partner Lionel Sanders both indicated they only learned of the positive test on Monday.
“I’m in shock and crying just now learning that an athlete I’ve been coaching for the last year has been doping,” Iden wrote on his Instagram Stories. “I can’t distance myself enough from this action.
“It’s such a complete crash in my values it’s unthinkable.”
Sanders, one of the most beloved figures in the sport who worked under Iden and alongside Chartier last year in the lead-up to the Ironman World Championships in Kona, released an impassioned video on Instagram giving his immediate reaction to the news.
Chartier had spent time living with Sanders last year while they trained together in Tucson, Arizona.
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Chartier also said he came to the conclusion that he needed to take a banned substance in order to find success because he believed many of the top pros are dirty, though he later backtracked and said he believes they are clean.
“I really wanted to win this year and beat the best,” Chartier said on the How They Train podcast. “At the end of the day, I don’t believe they’re clean and if I’m going to try to win, there’s no amount of self-belief I can have in myself if I believe the top guys are doping. I think it’s sad that I came to this decision. I have no evidence that the top guys are, it’s just the belief I had and what led me to dope.”
However, referencing the top two triathletes in the world, Norwegians Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden, Chartier later said: “I have to believe that these guys are clean and I do believe that.”
Chartier’s coach Mikal Iden is the brother of 2022 Ironman world champion Gustav Iden, though the two don’t work together in a professional capacity.
Chartier said he won’t return to the sport, given that he lost his passion for it after trying to emulate the training style of Blummenfelt and Iden.
“I became incredibly unhappy with where I was in the sport,” he said on How They Train. “I tried to emulate the Norwegian process – the long boring sessions, the same lifestyle … the more I did this, the unhappier I became. I have no desire to return because the sacrifices I’ve taken, I don’t believe it’s worth it.”
Chartier said he will return the sponsorship money he’s received for this year. He also responded to the calls on him to return the prize money he won at the PTO U.S. Open in September by reaffirming that the performance was clean.
In the pool, Chartier competed for the Potomac Marlins in club swimming along with racing for Woodson High School in the Virginia high school scene before joining Marymount in the fall of 2013.
They try to make this sound like it has never happened before. Nina Kraft tested positive in 2004 after winning
Kona. I think it is much more widespread than ITU would have you believe. I also have a hard time believing he just went online found some and took care of administering it himself. There are others involved and he is sheltering them which is equally as bad as taking it. It has amazed me how many people seem to go under 8 hours so easily. There have been strides in equipment and supplements but after this I am skeptical.
good riddance to bad baggage!
(tbh: since triathlon really isn’t exactly swimming, I really don’t care as much as if it were a “real” swimmer. Similarly, I really don’t care if track & field folks get tagged, but I do like trying to keep things as clean as possible)
I get one-off mistakes and pressure reactions are different than seeming patterns of sincerely trying to circumvent the rules too. So would he be welcomed back after his suspension?
With swimmers, for the most part, yes. Some of them even become the underdog for whom you cheer. Is it merely down to colors of the laundry (national flag) that so many worship? Is it something else? if the… Read more »
Since you asked, I’ll answer. To preface, I’m not claiming to be right. Just my words from what I’ve learned, where I’ve been, what I’ve seen, how I’ve lived.
We are born to love, we are taught to hate. And most of the hate learned is directed at what we don’t know, what we haven’t lived. When people get mad, the first thing they do is raise their voice. The last thing they do is raise their intelligence. Ever notice that the moment you raise your voice, your’e no longer concerned with finding the truth? Instead, your sole goal is being right. There is an unhealthy need and desire to always be right, as if being wrong makes us less… Read more »
One that sticks with me is that before the Sydney Olympics Massi Rosolino tested positive for HGH with astronomical amounts in his body. Then went in to beat Tom Dolan, Tom Wilkins, Josh Davis and Klee Keller. Should have been stripped of his medals and banned.
I remember that. They didn’t test for HGH in Sydney even though some German scientist had developed a reliable way to test for it before the games. Then the Coni report came out and it was all over the news.
But the motto wad “cleanest Games ever” and they probably knew beforehand everyone was taking HGH, so they didn’t want to tarnish the image. 🤷♀️
Honestly let’s just level the playing field all drugs allowed make it easier let’s stop the hypocrisy every one dopes at that level Ben Johnson said it
The issue is that will never be the case, it still won’t be level – there will always be incentive to go beyond the legal limits. This pantomime they currently play out is probably as fair as it gets. They just throw out the odd sacrificial lamb every now and then to keep up the facade.
At least he accepted his ban and didnt put up any silly excuses. I hate when cheaters are caught and act surprised.
The honesty is refreshing and we could use more of it, but counterpoint: I love the absurd excuses. The North Korean women’s soccer team being struck by lightning and requiring deer steroids or whatever still makes me giggle like a child every time.
One of my favorites is Ma’s army “turtle blood” secret recipe.
And my favorite “gotcha” is when Australian custom found a bag of vials belonging to Chinese swimmers arriving in Perth for 1998 Worlds.
On 21 April 2023, the SwimSwam-afarians were out in force with their pitchforks and torches, ready to Joan of Arc on Evgeniia Chikunova for having the audacity of putting together arguably the most-perfect swim over 200 meters of women’s breaststroke at this point in the event’s history.
Why?
Because of her birthplace.
And now, here we are, five days later, and the U.S. Open Triathlon champion is banned for three years, and it’s mostly crickets.
Come out, come out, wherever you are.
What? You don’t want to play once the proverbial dirty needle is currently stuck in your arm? Well, that’s no fun.
It;s the good old American Double Standard. Do you remember just how quietly Conor Dwyer went away?
How many more Conor Dwyer’s do we have in the US evading the drug tests?
I do. And you pose a question many in the U.S. do not want the answer to.
Gary Hall Jr used to talk about this issue. I can’t think of another US swimmer that turned the spotlight back on their own country. He was very brave in doing that.
People automatically assume Russia athletes don’t speak out against their government. It’s just not true. Case in point. Mariya Lasitskene, the high jump gold medalists at the Tokyo Olympics, was barred from the Rio Games in 2016, as was the rest of the track and field federation from Russia. Lasitskene traveled the world, was tested all over the world and pass all the tests for years leading into 2016. After the games were held, she actually sent a letter to the director of Russian sports ministry asking them to stop lying and do what WADA and IAAF wants because they were destroying athletes’ careers. She received a response. To paraphrase, it said if you don’t keep your thoughts and words… Read more »
And it also leads to further questions: Who was in his training group? Did they know? Did they also use drugs but were never caught? Did his coach know?
All great questions. Maybe one day, an athlete will come out and say how they pulled it off. Perhaps, that athlete will be Lance Armstrong. Truly, he is the only one. Hard to fathom that he was 500-0 when it came to passing drugs tests over a 7-year period. And yet, he was. I’ll bet WADA and USADA would restore his seven Tour de France titles if he told them how he did it. Though, the Tour de France would never go for that. Something tells me Lance will either go to his grave with that information, or someone will have to write a $1 billon check for the tell-all.
But what the Icarus also pointed out is something most… Read more »
It is interesting that Dwyer and Shayna Jack were both suspended for doping in the same year but Dwyer got basically zero attention. Dwyer contributed to multiple Olympic golds for both Phelps and Lochte while Jack has never even been an Olympian.
The Dwyer doping article got 216 comments. https://swimswam.com/conor-dwyer-suspended-20-months-for-inserting-testosterone-pellets/
I think the big differences are:
1) You’re in Australia, so you heard more about Jack, and
2) Jack’s was an ongoing story as she fought the case. Dwyer was one foot out the door, and just walked away.
I take your point. But I’m not talking about mainstream media, I’m talking about on here. This is the first time since 2019 I’ve seen anyone mention Dwyer. And Jack’s initial ban got more comments than that and her ban is still mentioned constantly.
Literally a week ago there were several comments saying that anyone who is on a relay with Jack in the future should worry that their medals will be stripped and that her relay WR from 2018 shouldn’t count. I’ve never seen anyone suggest that Phelps or Lochte should have their medals on relays with Dwyer stripped.
There are regular comments saying that Jack’s suspension should also throw suspicion on McKeon, Titmus, McKeown and all of the… Read more »
Jack’s initial ban article has 21 comments: https://swimswam.com/australian-swimmer-shayna-jack-given-4-year-anti-doping-suspension-will-appeal/
Initial positive test got 219: https://swimswam.com/australian-shayna-jack-tests-positive-days-before-start-of-gwangju/
Ok Jack’s initial test article got more comments than Dwyer’s one article covering the test and ban. That kind of proves my point even further.
I find it interesting that you only addressed one tiny point to point out what you deem a “mistake” but ignored the actual substance of what I said.
I must’ve missed those comments. Do you remember what article they were on?
Was it all the same dude? One guy, who’s obviously just trying to piss you off, repeating it 6 times doesn’t really convince me of a deep-seeded conspiracy against Australians.
3 comments proves your point? I actually think that’s a remarkably-even count of comments.
Found one comment. Same guy as referenced in my other post on this thread: https://swimswam.com/2023-australian-championships-day-1-finals-live-recap/#comment-1186232
(And y’all can’t even read it, because it was a reply to a comment that got deleted – I can see it in the back end of my system, and it didn’t accuse anyone but Jack of doping, just referred to the potential for collateral damage).
Was there more than that? You said you saw multiple. I could find one.
There was one guy (who has now created multiple other accounts that all use the exact same phrasing and are obviously the same person) who was trolling all articles about Australian Nationals and even randomly trashing Australia in unrelated articles. I’m not talking about him.
To my memory there were multiple comments about it but I’m not going to go searching for them. But yes, I have seen Jack’s suspension mentioned countless times in the past two years to invalidate the achievements of others on the team.
You’re right: it is a fairly even amount of comments. The difference is that one of them was a double Olympic champion and one had never even been an Olympian.
If double… Read more »
The difference is that Conor Dwyer’s suspension was more of a “loll” and then he just disappeared while Jack’s suspension was full of intrigue after she mysteriously dropped from the Worlds team without explanation in a supes sketch scenario? Plus it was RIGHT AFTER Horton’s whole protest?
Also Dwyer hadn’t raced in like over a year. So he was kind of out of sight out of mind.
Maybe ask this question: which would get more comments, if Ariarne Titmus tested positive today or if Ariarne Titmus tested positive a year after she stopped competing?
Jack’s case was just way more interesting. You should take that as a complement not an insult. Plus I see a lot of familiar Aus names… Read more »
Look fair enough. The point isn’t actually Jack vs Dwyer anyway. The underlying point is that non-Americans who perform beyond expectations are constantly heaped with unfounded accusations and ridiculous theories to invalidate them while that rarely happens to Americans on here.
Kaylee McKeown was accused of doping last week on an article (and no, not by the troll). McKeon and Titmus have both been accused on here a number of times. There is no evidence for any of it.
I’m more than happy to tag Brayden every time I see a comment that contains an unfounded accusation of cheating so he can see the full extent of it.
I would actually appreciate that. In general, we don’t allow unfounded accusations of doping in absence of someone having actually tested positive in their career, because once that begins, it becomes a giant flamewar.
I do my very best to monitor and remove them all, but sometimes during big meets, they get missed.
In the case of the recent Chikunova thread, it’s a tricky balance, because most of the conversation was actually about Russian doping – I tried to remove ones that actually accused her of doping, but I’m sure I did an imperfect job of it.
Swimswam and its readers talked about Dwyer, while Swimswam and particular readers keep bringing up Shayna Jack doping offense which she has fully served.
It’s a double standard.
Shayna Jack fought her ban for years and is continuing to swim. So yeah, she’s going to come up more often than Conor Dwyer, who took the suspension and retired.
I was curious, so I looked through the last 20 English language article about Shayna Jack. There were exactly 3 comments by 2 people about her suspension, and the suspension was brought up once by a SwimSwam writer – very briefly to provide context to the depth of Australian sprinting.
“If you’re keeping track, between the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the 2022 World Championships, and the 2022 Commonwealth Games, seven women have won gold for Australia in the 4×100 free: Cate Campbell, Bronte Campbell, Emma McKeon, Madi Wilson, Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna… Read more »
When are ye gonna stop making stuff up when you know the machine always has receipts?
Uh, it should be written The Machine to give him his proper gravitas.
yeah, not talking about the issue but if the issue was talked about… that is one way not to talk the issue.
I think the point Sub13 and many others are trying to make is that there is a very prominent double standard – bias if you will – when it comes to doping allegations between American and non-American swimmers.
I am Hungarian, and so the one I remember the most was when Casey Barrett – by all available evidence – unfairly accused Katinka Hosszu of using performance enhancing drugs. Around this time Ledecky was swimming unbelievable times everywhere, constantly in the women’s mid- and long distance freestyle events. Her results were much more amazing and out-of-this-world than Katinka’s ever were, and yet nobody from America (or anywhere, really) ever publicly accused her to this extent. Disclaimer: I don’t believe either… Read more »
Casey Barrett is Canadian and that article essentially ended his writing career.
I fully agree that there’s a double standard when it comes to us v. them. I wouldn’t dispute that at all. There are tons of accusations against Katie Ledecky for doping – they come from China.
Americans forgive their dopers the same way Australians forgive theirs, and China forgives theirs. I think if you look through my historical commentary on the topic, you’ll see that I overwhelmingly agree with that.
I think it can feel more like “American” versus “not American” because 1) the site is mostly in English, and 2) about half our audience is American. There aren’t a ton of Russian or Chinese commenters here unless… Read more »
I understand your point, thank you for taking the time to answer.
The double standards is a human trait, not particular to the US or Australia. If you read the French sports newspaper l’Equipe as I do, you would have read countless accusations by readers in the comments section that Phelps, Dressel, or whoever was the latest American swimmer to break a world record, was doped.
The difference with Russia at the Sochi OGs is that there, the effort was government-led.
It is George Orwell’s 1984 ”Doublethink.” Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality. Doublethink is related to, but differs from, hypocrisy. Examples: War is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength.
There’s no apostrophe after a person’s name. A plural name is the name with an “s” after it.
And if swimmers evade tests they are subject to the doping rules – Connor Dwyer missed too many and banned.
I’m not sure I follow your point. Conor Dwyer got caught – why does that make him an example of evading drug tests?
This one is a stretch my man. It’s a swimming website that occasionally hits triathlon news. People here just don’t care that much about triathletes testing positive.
I promise you, if banned triathlete would have been from Russia, the comments would be in the hundreds by now and at least half would include the word Icarus. Check this site’s history. When people see the word Russia in a headline, they react like Pavlov’s dogs when the bell sounded. And anyone who doesn’t join their pack is, for a lack of a better word and apologies about the pun, hounded.
It’s a double standard.
From those who have been taught better.
But in current times, common sense is like deodorant. The ones who need it the most, never use it.
For every Chartier, there is a Bryukhankov, a Polyanskiy and a Turbayevskiy.
Three times as many doping offenders from Russia vs. the U.S. is pretty much the norm throughout every sport.
And you can’t cry “unfair” when the Russian cases aren’t even reported about on here, because 1) it’s an American website and 2) who would want to read that? Between all the aquatic sports and now even triathlon, there’d be doping-related articles every day if SwimSwam started reporting on the Russian bans. It’d be Sun Yang trial-levels all the time. No thanks.
If you have facts of Russians being banned daily, please present them. Facts. Not falsehoods. Not fantasies. Not fiction.
The last Russian swimmer placed on the World Aquatics suspended list occurred in 2016. It is 2023. Seven years have passed and not a single Russian has flunked the ”A” and ”B” sample. So exactly who are these Russians who are being banned daily?
And since you have told me your nationality, and since you continue to be one of the ”Ghosts of Dopings Past” in regards to Russia, why not also include the 1972 Montreal Olympics and the East German women’s swimming team?
If America should hold a lifetime grudge against any country and any program, it should be… Read more »
Here’s RUSADA’s list of current banned individuals: https://www.rusada.ru/upload/iblock/4b6/e21s70vkb8xf4c7f2011kj972xe9urjg/%D0%A1%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%BA%20%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%84%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D1%85%20%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%82%D1%81%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%20ENG.pdf
Here’s the US list: https://www.usada.org/news/sanctions/
I’ll let y’all do the math.
(FWIW – the World Aquatics list is wildly incomplete – for both Americans and Russians. I belive AQUA also removes people when their suspensions expire, so I’m not sure we can say that no Russians were on the list in that time period. We definitely can’t say no Russian has flunked the “A” and “B” sample, because RUSADA itself has reported multiple occasions of that in this time period – https://swimswam.com/russian-swimmer-sergey-isaev-banned-for-two-years-by-rusada/)
Thanks for the sites. The one I found was FINA. I figured since FINA was the governing body for the sport, it would be the most accurate. It my list is wrong, I take full credit and stand accountable. The blame is one me, not FINA.
RUSADA lab testing Russian athletes for accuracy. Here, that comment alone is going to make you a lot of new friends.
And, also, you are unstoppable. Like math.
Found eight swimmers on Russia’s list. (After all, as it was pointed out to me, this is a swimming website.) None matched the names on FINA’s list. Not sure any of them have ever competed internationally. But a banned athlete is a banned athlete. In perfect world, there would be only a single site that included all the athletes.
I talked about daily reporting (not daily bans) and specifically referenced Sun Yang’s trial, because it got so much attention. How much attention does a Russian apologist like you actually want on Russian doping cases on an American website?
I have zero problem talking about East German offenses. Let’s talk about them and how they influence the Russian doping machinery to this very day. Are you finally admitting that that is what’s going on in Russia? 😀
Or are you still all about “let’s leave the past int he past, it’s 2023 not 2014” and “and those poor Russian who really had no choice but to cheat, because… the opportunity was just too good to pass up” –… Read more »
I never denied Russia’s doping history. I’ve never condoned it, either. You can check all my posts. I apologize my mistakes, not others’ mistakes.
So, wait? In one sentence you want to talk about the past. In another, you bring up the present? Which is it? Past? Or present? You can’t hold on to the past and grab for the future at the same time.
If you want to live in past, it is all yours. I live today.
See, the past is a place of reference, not a place of residence. The past is a place of learning, not a place of living.
I live for today. In fact, this is my life’s motto. “If God sees me… Read more »
I’m not living in the past… 9 vs. 0. that’s the present tally. YOU wanted to talk about the past and how it’s somehow still responsible for the present.
Anyway, I love that you’re all about your imaginary friend. That totally tracks 😂 My bad I didn’t see that sooner. But I’m out of this conversation. Can’t argue with omnipotence.
When did the dialogue become a disagreement? I must have missed that. I don’t like to argue, I like to learn. I respect everyone’s opinion. And if my friend is imaginary, no moisture. But I prefer omniscience to omnipotence.
Nine-zero. Facts are facts.
One question, though, if you don’t mind. Of those nine, do you possess undeniable proof that all were ”state-sponsored” and not a single one went rouge and decided to begin a ”program” on their own? If you do, you have one incredible source.
I understand it’s not swimming. But I believe it deserves mentioning. Then again, I could be way off base. If Major League Baseball knew of its ”Steroids Era” as it was taking place, and there are those in the know who believe it did, saw what it was doing to the game and the record books, and did nothing, because suddenly the sport was once more ”America’s Pastime,” doesn’t that make MLB either… Read more »
And by “live for today” you mean make grumpy posts that a triathlon doping article didn’t receive enough comments for your taste
My post is ”grump-free.” Sadly, because there is no other way, we read others’ words with the sound of our voice and not the tone in which they were written. Seldom does perception and reality blend when it comes to the written word. That’s life.
My original question is based on two beliefs Americans used to hold sacred. “Innocent until proven guilty.” “You don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.”
There are lists, and lists, and lists of athletes banned in the past. Not just from a single country. Those same lists also consist of names of the present. The name, Evgeniia Chikunova, the ”one-and-only” reason for the original post, does not appear on any known list.
Yet,… Read more »
Here is a list of last weeks positive test.
https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/the-sii-anti-doping-monitor-week-ended-21-april-2023/
Yes this is an amazing resource – though it’s mostly built on media reports, so we have to acknowledge that the timing of every test listed isn’t necessarily precise. Samy and Kenderesi, for example, are much older positive tests.
That is true. I’m not sure how they get their data. It’s not actually a positive test it’s the decisions and some of them haven’t been rendered yet that I can see.
I don’t know for a fact how they get their data, but I’m pretty sure that they have a few systems (maybe scrapers), and then just spend a lot of time hustling to find stuff.
You didn’t take it nearly far enough. There should be at least 5 Russian names for every non-Russian, regardless of which country is being referenced. Here’s the tally of Olympic medals stripped by country. And it’s not even updated. There have been several more Russian medals stripped since this was published 2 years ago, primarily from London 2012 track and field:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1288717/countries-most-stripped-olympic-medals-doping-worldwide/
“As of 2021, the country with the highest amount of stripped Olympic medals due to anti-doping rule violations was Russia, with 51 stripped Olympic medals. Meanwhile, Ukraine and Belarus both had 11 Olympic medals stripped due to doping as of 2021.”
It’s the same for anything related to China.
True that. Scars remind us where we’ve been. But they don’t dictate where we’re going. Never understood why some continue to pick at scabs that have been hardened over time.
They just hear the buzzwords and they come running as fast as possible because they’ve been told that’s what they’re supposed to do. It is what it is sadly.
Indeed. These days, most people don’t read to learn, they read to respond.
There will always be cheaters regardless of nationality. But to falsely equate individual dopers with a state-sponsored doping system is laughable. Nice use of “whataboutism”
There will always be cheaters regardless of nationality. But to falsely equate individual dopers with a state-sponsored doping system complete with a system to falsify test results is laughable.
Some are state sponsored, others are privatized. And others, still, are falsified, courtesy of TUEs. If the needle fits, inject it.
Can you think of any particular reason why someone would link her birthplace – which is already a bit of an obfuscation, because one’s birthplace does not necessarily have to be their sporting nationality – would garner additional suspicion i/r/t performance-enhancing suspicions?
(And this is where I’ll add my disclaimer that I assume literally every elite athlete is doped up on something – because that line of thinking worked hella well when I was but a wee lad seeing everyone behind Lance Armstrong get popped for doping, but yet this former cancer patient was smoking them all, being held up as the only clean one.)
Russia had a state-sponsored doping program before they… Read more »
Perhaps a couple points of clarity. Russian athletes are currently unable to compete internationally because of the unjust and deplorable war it started against Ukraine. And the athletic federations are right to ban them until the war is over.
Athletes are state-used pawns in the political chess game. Now just now. But always. Currently, only Russian track and field athletes are banned, save for five, who have proven to be as clean as athletes can be, by the governing federation.
The IAAF, the world governing body, made that decision prior to the Rio Games. It was not based on the documentary Icarus. Hajo Seppelt, a German journalist, produced a documentary called: The Secrets of Doping: How Russia Makes… Read more »
I believe the entire Russian federation was also banned from competing as well. Can’t just sweep that under the rug as “because of her birthplace”.
Go to slowtwitch this is a swimming forum
The headline of this story begins: “U.S. Open Triathlon Champion Collin Chartier Tests Positive . . .”
Am I missing something?
Anything with cycling and much of running is a drug fest. Sad a sport that started as a dare/bet between buddies in Honolulu has fallen prey to doping too. Shame.
That’s a good “tainted burrito” burn. And props for being like, “yup, totally did it.”