Was the olympic 100m clean?

[pugwash4x4]

I really want to beleive that the 100m world record fell to a clean athlete, but i just bring myself to think that one man can be so much quicker than everyone else.

it was only a few years ago that sub 9.9seconds was amazing and today we could have seen a sub 9.60. That's a hell of an improvement.

am i just too cynical?

[Simpo Two]

Seeing as the winner is sure to be pounced on straigh afterwards and mercilessly tested, he'd be pretty dumb to try anything.

[Bernie-the-bolt]

pugwash4x4 said:

I really want to beleive that the 100m world record fell to a clean athlete, but i just bring myself to think that one man can be so much quicker than everyone else.

it was only a few years ago that sub 9.9seconds was amazing and today we could have seen a sub 9.60. That's a hell of an improvement.

am i just too cynical?

9.69 but still quick

[SwissCamel]

He's going to be kicking himself if he breaks his ankle, can never run again and someone runs a 9.68.

I mean, he's in the Olympic 100m final for fks sake, who slows down before he's actually across the line? Fair play to the guy, and I hope he's clean, but that made me angry for some reason.

[Blib]

Simpo Two said:

Seeing as the winner is sure to be pounced on straigh afterwards and mercilessly tested, he'd be pretty dumb to try anything.

I agree. The 100 metres is the flagship event of the Olympics. These guys have been tested many times each in the lead up to Beijing. If any event is clean then I would suspect that this would be it.

[coolcatmaz]

SwissCamel said:

He's going to be kicking himself if he breaks his ankle, can never run again and someone runs a 9.68.

I mean, he's in the Olympic 100m final for fks sake, who slows down before he's actually across the line? Fair play to the guy, and I hope he's clean, but that made me angry for some reason.

So he can break his own record again...........all down to sponsorship probably at the end of the day. He's also running the 200m so will not over exert himself when he has comfortably won anyway and has another race to run.

[Jasandjules]

He's a big lad with long legs. He was born to run. I reckon he'll give it full beans in the 200 - that will be good.

[IforB]

Bolt has already been checked 4 times in this Games, before he'd even run a foot. He's either got a really smart Doc and science mob behind him, or he's clean.

The one's that surprised me were the two female Chinese swimmers who got Gold and Silver the other day. They had improved by over 10 seconds in under a year. In a 200m swimming race.............

I was talking to FiL about that and he's an ex-olympic swimmer and commonwealth champion and he said that was pretty much impossible at that level without "help".

Funny if the Chinese athletes aren't being checked.............................

[pugwash4x4]

thing is I reckon it's a lot easier to hide a drug than try and a find a new susbance that you have no idea about.

[jagman21]

who reckons he'll break the 200m record, when i saw micheal johnson a few years ago, destroy the field for 19.32 i thought to myself no one will ever break that, but may be now, considering it's his main event, the 100m was a last minute descision to enter, because of a lingering injury!!

[Vario-Rob]

jagman21 said:

who reckons he'll break the 200m record, when i saw micheal johnson a few years ago, destroy the field for 19.32 i thought to myself no one will ever break that, but may be now, considering it's his main event, the 100m was a last minute descision to enter, because of a lingering injury!!

When you consider how long the 200m stood from when Pietro Mennea ran 19.72 at altitude all the way back in 1979 it was a further seventeen yeares before Michael Johnson broke it in the US trails and then smashing it again at Atlanta down to 19.32. It seems almost inpossible that eight years later what seemed an almost unasialable world record is now under serioud threat, quite incredible

I’m not sure what speed Bolt actually acheived today but when Michale Johnson broke the 200M world record he got to 40 KMH, Carl Lewis I think went a little faster than that in the 100M final in 1988, I’d love to know

[Twit]

I think he was clean. And as for world records and slowing down, it isnt about that - its about being Olympic Champion!

As he said himself he didnt care about the time, it was all about winning! Who cares about the world record? - that would come and go, but being Olympic Champion is for ever so I can see why he reacted as he did.

[ewenm]

There's no evidence he isn't clean so you MUST assume he's clean. There is no other credible position to take. You must trust the testers to do their job otherwise what's the point?

Additionally, this run was no fluke, no sudden jump in performance. He's been ripping up the tracks all season.

[MonkeyHanger]

Wasn't it Asafa Powell who was complaining that he'd been tested 5 times since he arrived in China and he hadn't even set foot in the stadium yet?

Bolt himself has been tested 3 or 4 times so unless Jamaica has a drugs programme that would do Glaxo SmithCline proud i think it's safe to say he's clean.

Just from looking at him he seems to be one of those "freak" athletes that come along once in a generation.

[elster]

ewenm said:

There's no evidence he isn't clean so you MUST assume he's clean. There is no other credible position to take. You must trust the testers to do their job otherwise what's the point?

Additionally, this run was no fluke, no sudden jump in performance. He's been ripping up the tracks all season.

Not all season. He has been ripping it up since Junior championships

[Blib]

MonkeyHanger said:

Wasn't it Asafa Powell who was complaining that he'd been tested 5 times since he arrived in China and he hadn't even set foot in the stadium yet?

Bolt himself has been tested 3 or 4 times so unless Jamaica has a drugs programme that would do Glaxo SmithCline proud i think it's safe to say he's clean.

Just from looking at him he seems to be one of those "freak" athletes that come along once in a generation.

That reminds me. Earlier this week I heard the Jamaican sprint coach commenting that his squad have been tested so many times in the lead up to and at the Games that he felt that it was affecting them. It didn't seem to affect Bolt though

[NoelWatson]

Blib said:

Simpo Two said:

Seeing as the winner is sure to be pounced on straigh afterwards and mercilessly tested, he'd be pretty dumb to try anything.

I agree. The 100 metres is the flagship event of the Olympics. These guys have been tested many times each in the lead up to Beijing. If any event is clean then I would suspect that this would be it.

So you are saying that BALCO was a one off and that there are no other labs out there creating drugs that the testers have no idea exists?

[IforB]

I was chatting to my Doctor today (He's a consultant Haematologist) and we were talking about blood doping etc. He reckons only very stupid athletes will be caught and that all this testing at the games themselves is just daft. All the doping will be going on during training and there will be no sign of any drugs in their systems by the time the Olympics rolls around.

Unless they do something stupid.

[CLK-GTR]

Doping in athletics is quite similar to doping in bodybuilding and other strength sports. The development of drugs is ahead of the development of testing equipment, so its a constant battle to avoid getting caught. It's very likely that all of them are on something, at least during training.

[ewenm]

IforB said:

I was chatting to my Doctor today (He's a consultant Haematologist) and we were talking about blood doping etc. He reckons only very stupid athletes will be caught and that all this testing at the games themselves is just daft. All the doping will be going on during training and there will be no sign of any drugs in their systems by the time the Olympics rolls around.

Unless they do something stupid.

You do know about out of competition testing, yes?