Retrospective Testing

unichall

I have just read an article about the retrospective testing program the IAAF put in place in 2005 and the periodic retesting of samples from world championships since. Is this done in cycling and if not would you be in favour of it? Personally I can't see why not.

What also struck me was the unfair publicity cycling gets as a 'dopers' sport. As we have discussed many times before cycling is as clean if not cleaner than many other sports but just a lot more proactive in doping control.

What brought me to this thought was in the IAAF retrospective testing program, 28 samples from the 05 & 07 worlds have shown adverse findings, and yet the media aren't going that crazy, could you imagine the media circus that would be if 28 cyclists were found to he in this position? Why do you think this is? Could it be because the type of journalists that follow cycling, kimmage, walshe et al, hype the news when it does break or is it something else?

This is the article I read:

Eurosport : IAAF: 28 athletes from 2005 and 2007 World Championships 'have adverse doping results' - http://www.eurosport.co.uk/athletics/world-championships/2015/iaaf-28-athletes-from-2005-and-2007-word-championships-have-adverse-doping-tests_sto4853729/story.shtml

pelevin

Nibali made that point last year during or after winning the Tour - that if a major rider was winning big races now & doping, that with restrospective testing it would presumably come out in the wash down the line.

kumate_champ07

cycling has always had a doping problem, some of the other big sports probably became dirty when they became big business

Koobcam

I reckon the IAAF are pretty low on credibility given the recent ARD/Times investigation of suspicious blood values. Seems to me like they are saying "hey, look at us, all concerned about doping".

harringtonp

Simple solution would be for all sports to made all tests publicly available in a public database where anybody can analyse as they so wish

The Cycling pianist

Lance Armstrong tested positive in a retrospective test. In 2005 they tested one of his samples from the 1999 Tour, because in '99 they didn't have the technology to detect EPO. Fairly sure Jan Ullrich was caught retrospectively too. So it has been used in cycling, but now that technology has improved, I don't know how much they bother testing old samples, if at all.

12 sprocket

harringtonp wrote: »

Simple solution would be for all sports to made all tests publicly available in a public database where anybody can analyse as they so wish

that's a wonderful recipe for releasing gob****es and pontificators who haven't a clue to analyse complicated data..

Would anyone want their test results out there to be commented on by people who haven't a clue what they are talking about but are arrogant and stupid enough to give their ANALYSIS!! and comment anyway?

unichall

12 sprocket wrote: »

Would anyone want their test results out there to be commented on by people who haven't a clue what they are talking about but are arrogant and stupid enough to give their ANALYSIS!! and comment anyway?

It would be like boards.ie

harringtonp

And the internet where you can find contradictory points on everything.

But the weight of general opinion would generally align itself with the cleaness of the tests. And it would keep the regulatory bodies on their toes if the data was obvious in implicating a sports person and any expert anywhere could show this.

eeeee

I think it's essential as long as it tests what was legal at the time, e.g. not testing for things that weren't banned at the time of testing, like how Tramadol is now maybe, pretty much every pro now would fail that if it was banned in 10 years time and if tested retrospectively IYKWIM.

Unless that's tacit in which case don't mind me

Lumen

12 sprocket wrote: »

that's a wonderful recipe for releasing gob****es and pontificators who haven't a clue to analyse complicated data..

Would anyone want their test results out there to be commented on by people who haven't a clue what they are talking about but are arrogant and stupid enough to give their ANALYSIS!! and comment anyway?

Maybe you should ask Mo Farah, since that's what he appears to be asking for.

http://www.itv.com/news/story/2015-08-09/mo-farah-leads-athletes-who-want-anti-doping-results-made-public/

petethedrummer

Lumen wrote: »

Maybe you should ask Mo Farah, since that's what he appears to be asking for.

And a few others... http://features.thesundaytimes.co.uk/web/public/2015/the-doping-scandal/index.html#/data-transparency

scroll down to the drop down box.