Topic: News: Weightlifting still struggling to escape its sordid history

[Shaun Le Conte]

Mark, I'm also still wondering if you agree that a private sport organization has the right to set rules as it sees fit.

USAW is not entirely private however since it receives public funds with strings attached, right?

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

No, I don't think the USAW gets any direct public funding.

[Matt Erdman]

that already happens

How do they get around it then? How do they do drugs and pass the tests if they are doing them?

I do not believe Bulgaria, Turkey, Kazakhstan, etc. have the money to develop drugs that are not capable of being detected like we do here in the US. Like Victor Conte did.

I don't think the drug testing is as random and frequent as it is here. Also "word on the street" is that the testers get paid off.

Having said that, I don't think drugs is the major reason that these other countries are seeing such high results. I think the popularity is a big think too. Even imposing the same drug testing standards on other countries (and having it followed through), I think they would still beat us. Maybe by a lesser margin, but they still have the advantage of a bigger pool of lifters, more facilities, and full-time support for athletes. I should also add that having national competition would be helpful. Just think if we didn't already know who the winners would be at Nationals. There is some, like the recent Vardanian vs Wittmer. I think these guys are both going to see huge benefits from competing against each other. The 105's are starting to get a good number of guys in the 340+ range. They might actually start pushing each other into the 370s in the next couple years.

Don't misunderstand this as dogging our lifters. I think the are doing the best they can under the circumstances. It is just that the circumstance be much better, and they are better many other countries.

[Dave Almeida]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/athletics/7403158.stm

 watch the video, victor conte explains how to beat the current usada testing policy without designer steroids

aleko im going to have to disagree with you about that sort of testing policy already happening. can you provide WADA records of top lifters being tested multiple times in a short time span before the olympic games with no missed tests?

[AlekoKouva]

We were talking about random test...top lifter or not....there are still test being done...the question was about random testing...does it happen or not...and it does...how many test are done at certain times and who is being tested is a different story...but as a top lifter you should kno that ur will be tested randomly...and you do get caught sooner or later...look at mutlu...i was simply awnsering the question that there are random test being done...im sorry if i offended anybody...

[Dave Almeida]

i thought you were responding to brooke's entire post, sorry

[AlekoKouva]

lol its ok :)

[Cillian McNamara]

Sorry if I'm dragging up an old topic but there was a part in the original post that really got to me:

"You go to the world championships and pray to get 10th place, knowing that one through nine are all on steroids," he said. "It's tough to go there and try to motivate yourself to compete against these guys when you know they're cheating, when you know they're taking shortcuts."

Is what Matt Bruce says here accurate? Is true that 1st through to 9th are all on steroids? Is it really that bad? If its not true how many naturals are in the top ten positions?

I realise there is probably no way of knowing this with absolute certainty (someone in the thread had mentioned timing the steroids around competitions, so that competition testing would be ineffective as well as other ways around testing such as bribing etc.) but any opinions on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

I for one would find it very disheartening if steroid use was so pervasive that 1st through 9th or even 1st through 5th were all doping. Also if it really is 1st to 9th as Matt Bruce says that would mean that the current testing methods are absolutely ineffective and in need of immediate reform.