Floyd Landis, another low life of sportsmen

I've always thought the whole Olympics is screwey. They bar "professional" athletes and then claim that their contestants are the best of the best. They say it's about individual athletes, not countries, but all the coverage is about how many medals each country gets. It's supposed to be non-political, but it's the most political of all athletic events. And it's supposed to be about doing your best rather than just winning, but the whole competitive atmosphere is that winning is everything and the second-place finisher is worthless.

If I was emperor of the world I'd end the Olympics entirely, and replace it with a thousand local athletic events where no scores are kept, and no winners are recorded. Wear a watch if you want to know your own time in order to improve your own performance, but the last finisher gets as much credit as the first, for having put in the effort to develop a healthy body.

Screw all competitive sports. And 50 hours of detention to any kid who says to another kid "We lost because of you."

 

Say it ain't so, Floyd!

 

Yesterdays news is tomorrows fishwrap

 

AFAIK Conseco has never been caught in a lie.
Landis has been caught in many.

Armstrong does not even need to be brought into the conversation.

I was disgusted by Jalen Rose on ESPN2 on Friday who commented on Armstrong "there is no smoke without fire". He usually is right on the money - this time not.

 

Women were not allowed to participate or even watch the original Olympics. They were, however, sometimes given as prizes to the winners.

 

Anyone else remember the original thread here on PC, when Landis was stripped of his TdF win? It should be resurrected and stickied as an education to others. Common posts were that France was being petty and vindictive because an American won, or suggestions that the tests were wrong because Landis the upstanding christian would not lie. And now we complete the circle, insulting Landis because he will not take his punishment in silence.

I will say this: it must be *really* hard on an athlete to accept humiliation and loss of career, when the difference between that person and many others is getting caught. I have verrrry little doubt that Landis' expose of the rampant drug abuse in professional cycling is anything but spot on. Athletes with extra-ordinary talent and dedication reach the elite, and then face a choice: take drugs for that extra 1% edge needed to win, or toil in minimum wage for the rest of their short careers. Oh, and ignore the small print that says the fans will piss on you and your reputation if caught, like this noxious thread title and writing "roid" Landis demonstrate. We as a society give our best athletes three messages:

1. Coming in second makes you a loser
2. Cheating is fine, getting caught makes you a loser
3. Telling us that 1. and 2. are hypocritical makes you a pariah.

Will the coaches be barred? Anything less is more hyprocisy.

 

True - but I'd be surprised if what he is telling now doesn't have some truth. We all saw how baseball went ...

 

Testing in baseball is still basically a joke.

As a cyclist myself, I keep hearing stories about how guys who have ridden at cat 1/pro levels have seen their health deteriorate even though they were following strict nutritionally controlled/designed diets. It comes as no surprise then, that some of these guys are on jet fuel.