Landis found guilty of doping

[Dumbellina]

Landis found guilty of doping (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/21/2039228.htm)

Floyd Landis, who tested positive for the banned male hormone testosterone during his 2006 Tour de France triumph, has been found guilty of doping by a US arbitration panel.

"He has been found guilty. It proves that the system works no matter who you are," Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), told Reuters.

Landis said in a statement: "This ruling is a blow to athletes and cyclists everywhere".

"For the Panel to find in favour of USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) when, with respect to so many issues, USADA did not manage to prove even the most basic parts of their case shows that this system is fundamentally flawed. I am innocent, and we proved I am innocent," the 31-year-old said.

McQuaid said that Spaniard Oscar Pereiro, who finished second to Landis in 2006, would be the winner of the race.

"Under our regulations, Oscar Pereiro will be declared the winner of the 2006 Tour de France," McQuaid said.

Three arbitration experts decided Landis had injected himself with testosterone after lengthy deliberations following a USADA hearing in May.

Landis now faces a two-year ban from the sport.

However, the American can still take the matter before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Landis tested positive for elevated testosterone to epitestosterone levels after his victory on stage 17 of last year's Tour.

Testosterone can speed up recovery after exercise and generally improves stamina and strength.

- Reuters

[DarrenHunt]

its about frikkin time.

if he takes this fight up again i'm gonna cry

[iscarrr]

Agreed, glad its done with, think this quote from the bbc sums it up:
He got a highly qualified legal team who tried to baffle everybody with science and public relations, and in the end the facts stood up
-Pat McQuaid, UCI president

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/6686943.stm

[fridgemagnet]

dopers suck mkay.

[Techno Destructo]

NO WAY!!! I can't believe it!

APPEAL!!!





















;)

[liamo]

He got a highly qualified legal team who tried to baffle everybody with science How dare he try and defend himself with facts :mad:

and public relations, and in the endour PR was better

Liam

[Dumbellina]

[He got a highly qualified legal team who tried to baffle everybody with science and public relations, and in the end the facts stood up
-Pat McQuaid, UCI president

This is the problem. There is a real disconnect between the legal processes and "science". Essentially its coming down to an argument between WADA, USADA and the sports federations (ie UCI and US Cycling) saying that science is infallible, that is the scientific methods and the technicians applying them are always right. And the athlete who argues that the science is wrong or ignores possible false positives or possible innocent explanations of positive results (eg Tyler Hamilton's blood doping case), or that the laboratory or the lab technician stuffed up (eg applying the wrong label to a sample, or a data entry error). Scientists and most observes know that the truth is somewhere between those extremes, but most fatally for science itself it is being torn apart by non-scientists who fail all too often to grasp the basics, including the baffled McQuaid and Dick Pound.

This is the problem that adversial dispute resolution that sports arbitration has become. Arbitration is not supposed to mirror a judicial process, rather to be more informal and to make it more of an inquiry into the truth, and for the arbitrator to make an award on that basis. Instead they are now doping courts.

[Some Guy]

or that the laboratory or the lab technician stuffed up (eg applying the wrong label to a sample, or a data entry error).

Twice? This is why they have A and B samples you know.

I do agree that the way the samples are handled needs to be improved though. The public shouldn't hear a whiff until the result has been confirmed.

[sprocket]

who cares? let them take drugs its there choice.. might make it more interesting when all there hearts start exploding "LOL"..

[Mo]

who cares? let them take drugs its there choice.. might make it more interesting when all there hearts start exploding "LOL"..

if everyone doped and everyone won, it'd make great tv only not a great sport.
real winners would never win.

[istepinyards]

Funnily Enough the case did not make headline news here (Scottsdale AZ)
Just a quick 5 second peice on CNN then on to Football.
The real tradgedy is Levi Liephiemmer runs 3rd in Le Tour and got 4/5ths of F**kalls coverage.The media were more worried about the chicken getting the boot than a countrymen fighting for the title.
Landis should go back to the armish and horse and cart it around. I suspect he would juice the horse so it would win the Church and Back Derby

[Dumbellina]

Twice? This is why they have A and B samples you know.

I do agree that the way the samples are handled needs to be improved though. The public shouldn't hear a whiff until the result has been confirmed.

Accidents can happen to samples A and B if you're some tired over-worked underpaid, underloved, stressed lab technician. Instruments malfunction or aren't calibrated correctly, samples get contaminated, samples get frozen or exposed to heat, labels mysteriously fall off, typos,... the list could go on for ever. (The one lab that the Tour people use seems rather accident-prone, so too was the lab that the Athen Olympic people used.)

My argument is not strictly about leaking positive or negative results to the press before confimation; but how the current means of prosecuting doping charges results in the regulators arguing vigorously the science and the testing regime is without fault, and the athletes arguing just as vigorously the faults in the science and/or the testing regime.

Both can't be right and arbitration isn't strictly a fact finding investigation (rather both sides presenting their arguments and the arbitrator(s) making an award based on their assessment of the arguments). But what it turns into is a circus of non-scientists (sports federations, olympic bodies for good measure, and athletes) trying to make arguments about science, generally through the conflicting evidence of each side's expert scientists. "My scientist has more letters after his name than yours..." kind of stupidity...

[McBain]

But when their careers are on the line, is it surprising that they are attacking the science? Do you sit back at let them win, or do you try anything you can to save yourself? (Mind you, some of what the UCI/ASO/WADA gets up to doesn't sound entirely kosher by what we've seen.)

No other sport hammers people for using drugs like cycling does. Ok, maybe some of the other Olympic sports, but no other high paying professional sports that I can think of. Most of them it is a couple of weeks out for being busted, if they test at all.

It has gotten out of hand. Seriously.

[scblack]

But when their careers are on the line, is it surprising that they are attacking the science? Do you sit back at let them win, or do you try anything you can to save yourself? (Mind you, some of what the UCI/ASO/WADA gets up to doesn't sound entirely kosher by what we've seen.)

No other sport hammers people for using drugs like cycling does.
You could easily be facetious and say no other sport has drug problems as bad as cycling.;)

Ok, maybe some of the other Olympic sports, but no other high paying professional sports that I can think of. Most of them it is a couple of weeks out for being busted, if they test at all.

It has gotten out of hand. Seriously.
Rugby Union - Wendell Sailor - 2years for cocaine.

[DaGonz]

Rugby Union - Wendell Sailor - 2years for cocaine.

Cricket - Shane Warne - 1 year for something...

[liamo]

Rugby Union - Wendell Sailor - 2years for cocaine.Which may have been seen as a politic opportunity for the ARU to punish Wendell for his off field behaviour rather than a genuine effort to keep the sport free of drugs. http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/07/21/rugby.sailor/index.html But only if you're a cynic...

Liam

[dcrofty]

I was under the impression that a positive drug test results in a mandatory 2 year ban in any sport, depending on special circumstances a la warnies "I was stupid and vain" excuse.

Weightlifting has had a pretty bad record of positive tests over the years too.

[McBain]

You could easily be facetious and say no other sport has drug problems as bad as cycling.Yeah, no NFL/NRL player ever takes 'roids to help bulk up. :rolleyes:

Looking at this list, by far the biggest group is athletics, but there are some others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sportspeople_sanctioned_for_doping_offence s

Ok, it was a pretty sweeping generalisation, but the point about them fighting for their careers still stands.

[liamo]

I was under the impression that a positive drug test results in a mandatory 2 year ban in any sport, depending on special circumstances a la warnies "I was stupid and vain" excuse.Depends on the sport. The ARU's antidoping policy currently allows for a warning as a 'punishment' for a first offence http://aru.rugby.com.au/verve/_resources/ARU_Anti-Doping_Policy_(Jan_07).pdf section 23.2.1

I don't know what the policy was when Sailor was given his penalty.

Liam

[Dumbellina]

The WADA Code is the legal framework, but it is up to sporting federations to apply (ie enforce) it through their own policies, rules and tribunals.

The Australian Government has enacted the WADA code in its legislation, so sporting federation are not eligible for funding if they don't apply the WADA code. Sports like rugby league, AFL etc are not funded through the Australian Sports Commission, so the Cth laws have no effect. Cycling Australia and the Australian Olympic Commission do, hence their strict application of the WADA code.

Why the federations hammer athletes, and the federations and athletes hammer the science and testing regimes is really irrelevant. Its like asking why 90% of plaintiffs commence civil action - because there is something important that's at stake, money, reputations, justice, fairness, equity, principle. It doesn't change the question about what legal forum and what legal system we provide the parties to have their argument so it doesn't just become a slanging match.

My point is, and for a long time has been, we don't have the anti-doping tribunals (internationally and nationally) that can:
* investigate doping allegations properly
* sanction athletes in a fair and consist manner and protects athlete privacy but issues its decisions in a public, open and transparent manner, including publishing the full reasons for their decisions
* to hear appeals that examines the facts of the case in a inquisitorial manner, and doesn't become a science-bashing or laboratory-bashing exercise that the adversial arbitration process can become.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport, I think, is very good at dealing doping cases. The problem is that its the forum of last resort or appeal. That is, once the national sporting federations, the international bodies, IOC and national olympic bodies have done their bit to fark things up good and proper.

[Ham]

interesting a lot of the cyclists in that list are there for epo and a lot of them are self admitted.

and one rythmic gymnast.

see all sports are affected.