From everything we have heard, USADA’s report will for once and for all silence the ever shrinking minority of Armstrong supporters and again cast a negative light on cycling.
However, the more pressing point that seems to have been forgotten all this time is that Lance Armstrong is yet another American drug cheat.
The last decade has revealed the depth and the scale of drug taking in American sport and yet the general public seem to brush it aside once its all over and done with and just assume that in the next race, or the next game, or at the next meet, American sport is clean.
I don’t presume for one moment that the United States are the only country that has many athletes banned for doping, but they are the only country that avoids the greatest suspicion despite a rather sordid history.
The very same people mentioned above still cast incredible suspicion upon Eastern European or Chinese athletes because of performances of today that, God forbid, break world records, or even worse, best the United States.
Ye Shiwen, the phenomenal 16-year-old swimming prodigy of China, was accused left, right and centre of taking drugs, simply because she is Chinese and the Chinese had (a very important qualifier here) a history of drug taking.
Yet rest assured, if American Elisabeth Biesel had won, and set a world record, we would have only applauded.
The systematic drug cheating that took place in China happened when Yi was just two years old. How awful and how considering the next paragraphs, how hypocritical to brandish abuse on poor young Yi.
When Americans break world records or win races, why don’t we look upon them with suspicion as we do with others? We should.
Let’s have a look at American athletics in the Sydney Olympics and list out the medal winning American athletes, that have since been exposed as drug cheats: Alvin and Calvin Harrison, Antonio Pettigrew, Jerome Young, CJ Hunter, Marion Jones and others were all been banned for drug taking in that Olympics.
Tim Montgomery was caught a later. Kelli White was stripped of her World Championships success. Maurice Greene has been suspected of drug taking. Justin Gatlin, after the next Olympics, was banned.
How many times this year did we hear how good it would be for Sally Pearson to break the 100m hurdles world record to remove a tainted Eastern European name (Yordanka Donkova of Bulgaria) of the record list?
Florence Griffith-Joyner has records that only Marion Jones, a drug cheat has come close to matching. Yet only for a brief period was she cast under some minimal suspicion.
Joyner’s death has allowed her to escape a significant amount of fallout from the sordid discoveries of US track and field in the 80s. The secrets of Flo-Jo will remain the secrets of Flo-Jo.
Her records in the professional world are quietly treated as suspicious. Do we, the general public acknowledge this when the field gets in the blocks for every woman’s 100m and 200m meet? No.
I argue that breaking Flo-Jo’s records are just as important as Pearson needing to break Donkova’s record.
Carl Lewis throughout the 80s and early 90s was a known drug taker but his tests were covered up and he avoided suspension. It’s probably the right time to mention that Lewis has accused Usain Bolt, a widely known non-American, of being a drug cheat while continuing to flout his innocence. Breathtaking.
The US Olympic 4x100m gold medal team won in a world record time, one that was previously set by East Germans in Canberra two decades ago, and yet no-one batted an eyelid.
After all the rampant and sustained drug cheating by US track and field athletes for the past two decades, no one had anything bad to say about that race. Personally, I believe the athletes involved are clean, but surely the reputation of US track and field entitles me to at least feel suspicious in the same way we did with Yi Shiwen?
Why can’t we cast upon with suspicion every world record set by an American athlete in the 80s, 90s and early 00s in the same way that we still do with every East German, Chinese or Iron Curtain record set in the 70s, 80s and early 90s?
How have Americans, despite repeated proven cases of cheating, gotten away scot free from suspicion?
It’s not just athletics though, even moving into the dangerously and hopelessly corrupt world of cycling we can see that most of the blame and suspicion is still strongly oriented towards European teams.
Yet, an American (Floyd Landis) was the first to have his Tour de France title stripped, Tyler Hamilton admits to drug taking, several other key teammates admit to taking drugs and witnessing Armstrong do the same.
Yet we initially see them as a few bad apples, move on, and continue laying the most suspicion on European cyclists. It took a mountain of evidence and five years of hard work to finally categorically reveal that the US Postal Cycling Team had carried out the greatest and most systematic cheating regiment in all of cycling to finally trigger some kind of outrage against Armstrong’s actions.
History will record that an American team were the biggest drug cheats in cycling. Mainly thanks to Armstrong’s dominance of the sport, Americans are responsible for eight tour de France titles being stripped.
Baseball was exposed in the 2000s as some of the more prolific batters have slowly either been caught taking drugs or admitting that they took drugs. Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds are probably the most high profile drug cheats.
MLB had to hide quietly in the corner when Bonds broke the all time home-runs record. Time unfortunately prevents me from listing pitchers that have been caught taking drugs.
Drug taking in American sport has been rampant for nearly three decades. Yet, we continue to forgive and forget American athletes and assume the next generation is clean. But we are wrong. It won’t be instant, it takes time, but we are ultimately proven wrong. It’s happened before, and hopefully it won’t happen again.
We should be suspicious every time the US win or dominant a sport. But are we suspicious this happens? No.
We applaud American success and cast aside success of nations with drug pasts. America has a drug past and present, I can only hope not a drug future. I look forward to 2017.
Fang
Guest
That's been my view for a long time - it appears from subsequent events (and the physical appearance of many of the track and field athletes then and now) that systematic cheating is the norm.
mushi
Roar Guru
not really look at the laughable treatment of PEDs in their major sports. 4 game suspension anyone?
BigAl
Guest
The thing is Australian Sport authorities (and probably others ) have in the recent past been keen to ensure no drugs in Aus. sport, but even keener, if abuse is made aware to them, to hide it from the general public while in private giving offenders severe tickings off and 'last warnings' - and quite often suggesting that offenders take time off as a sabatical - to do good deeds etc...
Jojo
Guest
Really Nick? Your comment, "Cover-ups in America, not just in sport mind you are rife, and its only when someone from the inside slips up, or confesses, do things become really serious." Isn't that the case anywhere? I'd put American's general openness far greater than their European / Chinese / etc. counterparts any day of the week. Cover-ups for sure, but not as ingrained in the culture I think as other countries. If you read reactions from former WADA officials, they said now is the time for the Italian and Spanish federations to look into their dark past and personnel in management roles (and other sports to look at their own drug use too). Also, let us not forget that Australians and Americans were on many of the same teams and seemed to have a better rapport with each other than with the Europeans in the 1990's & 2000's. This is generally attributed to their being so few of them racing in Europe, were far away from families, shared same language, etc. Waiting for the shoe to drop on them.
Dave
Guest
I agree, look at this flowchart of Armstrong's business connections to see why - http://dimspace.co.uk/la/ArmstrongBusinessConnections1707.png - and to see why it's taken until now for USADA to unravel the mess.
Floyd Calhoun
Guest
Phil, please provide us with the rest of this 'long list of drug cheats'. This voluminous list we Australians have successfully ignored. Until now of course.
oldhacker
Guest
A few points to consider: Shane Warne tested positive to a diuretic used as a masking agent for steroids which have a proven medical benefit (why they were synthesised in the first place). He also dislocated his shoulder about five weeks before the World Cup in South Africa and made what some think was a miraculous recovery (to quote The Age "remarkably rapid"), only to test positive before playing a game. I'm not making a judgement; just pointing out the possibilities, one way (recovery and partipation) or the other (taking one of mum's diet pills to look good for the cameras). The decline of the US Dream Team performances from dominance in 1992 to failure in 2004? The word in Athens was that a lot of the big names declined selection because of drug tests at the Games they wouldn't have to undergo in the NBA. Hence the failure of the lesser but clean US players to make the final.
Phil
Guest
Warne used drugs to lose weight which had the potential to extend his career and possibly improve his bowling. Drugs have many advantages not just strength and stamina. Too defensive Floyd so just confirming my earlier posts about Aussies. A number of Aussies have been caught taking drugs in cycling including Michael Rodgers so time to stop pretending to be so clean
Floyd Calhoun
Guest
Shane Warne was an improved bowler due to drugs?!! Get off the grass Phil!
Phil
Guest
It's amazing that Australia doesn't recognise itself in these comments. Aussies were just as loud about Chinese swimmers in the last Olympics just because they were beating them at their favourite sport. Aussies have always been quick to point the finger while ignoring their own long list of drug cheats, starting with Shane Warne taking a masking agent. Aussies are also in the thick of it with Armstrong and even a current CA coach was involved. Maybe this explains Aussie success in track cycling
Jimbo
Guest
I think the NFL also deserves a mention here. A first offence results in a pathetic 4 week suspension, as opposed to the 2 year suspension in WADA sanctioned events. Additionally, they don't even test for HGH. Not that there is anything unnatural about 120kg blokes running 4.5 second 40 yard dashes... -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download it now [http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-roar/id327174726?mt=8].
Nick I
Guest
Hmm, Many many US athletes (including Marion Jones and of course Armstrong) have been exposed as drug cheats without ever failing a doping test. There has still been no re-testing of his samples. Its only from the incredibly hard work and lengthy investigations and the odd athlete 'fessing up' and naming others do cheats get exposed, not necessarily through technology. Cover-ups in America, not just in sport mind you are rife, and its only when someone from the inside slips up, or confesses, do things become really serious.
Nick I
Guest
Agreed. But we can't bask in the triumph of US or (Australian) glory and immediately cast doubt over other nations simply because they perform better than we initially thought. An American agency outed Armstrong only after the wall had been broken down by others. Arguably it took Floyd Landis being suspended, well after Armstrong first retired before anyone started to think about whether Armstrong was implicit in mass doping. Even then, Landis had to name many people, and Hamilton had to come clean before the USADA took action, and by that point, their credibility was at stake if they didnt.
Swampy
Guest
It's not that bizarre that dopers are exposed years later - that is due to the cheats being ahead of the detection technology. It is often only retrospectively that samples can be tested years later when the testers know what compound it is that they are looking for. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download it now [http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-roar/id327174726?mt=8].
Andyroo
Guest
One thing the US deserves credit for is that they are actively looking and exposing their own cheats. Isn't it an American organisation that has outed Armstrong? I don't think people trust China to be so rigorous. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download it now [http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-roar/id327174726?mt=8].
Nick I
Guest
There is a bizarre pattern in American sport...dopers tend to be exposed several years after they leave it. If Phelps did cheat (and I don't think he did btw, but we are entitled to be suspicious) watch this space in 2017.
Nick I
Guest
Yi Shiwen did indeed swim a final 50m freestyle than Lochte, but not an overall 100m. In the 200m, her freestyle leg was slower than all the men's were. @swampy: I've been very careful not to imply anyone in drug taking but am merely echoing the published thoughts and suspicions of others. You're quite right that we dont do a great job exposing our own dopers (if there are any). Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the sports that Australians tend to excel at are team sports where drug taking tends not to be as necessary. With the exception of basketball, the US do not compete in international team sports to the same degree we do. American 'excellence' in sports typically involves individuals (especially swimming, athletics etc), where to make a good living you need success, leading to drugs and so forth etc etc. Perhaps I am naive and believe that Australian's just don't cheat.
Steve
Guest
Yes, that's true enough; all I meant is the actual U.S Government has never had sole control of athletes, media, passports and papers to the same extent.
Red Block
Guest
Your article and the Chinese do make a good point. While the world was whispering and pointing fingers about the success of the Chinese swimmers not one question was raised about the incredible performance of Michael Phelps. Not only the greatest swimmer at the 2008 Olympics but the greatest swimming performance of all time. Agreed he was always there abouts and had an incredible natural talent but he took swimming performance to an elevated level that was unprecedented. As my old Pappy used to say, 'if sounds too good to be true, it usually is.'
Droppa
Guest
If its a sporting champion & American,then its on drugs.