A site has been officially opened to further the Floyd Landis anti-antidoping fight. It's called the Floyd Fairness Fund. This is from the website:
What's Fair is Clear
Our Mission Fairness and Justice for Floyd
The Floyd Fairness Fund was established to support Floyd Landis in his efforts to clear his name of unsubstantiated doping allegations by providing him with the means to attain a fair and just hearing.
Our Mission is:
- To support Floyd Landis against unsubstantiated doping allegations
- To provide the means to attain fairness for Floyd
- To bring justice to those responsible for misconduct in the case
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'To bring justice to those responsible for misconduct'? Wow. What does that mean? That officials trying to clean up doping in sports are being intimidated?
NEW YORK, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Supporters of 2006 Tour de France
Champion Floyd Landis today launched the Floyd Fairness Fund (FFF)
(http://www.floydfairnessfund.org), an initiative supporting Landis in his efforts
to clear his name of unsubstantiated doping allegations. The FFF will
provide Floyd resources focused on attaining a fair and just hearing to
retain his 2006 Tour de France title, and to return as soon as possible to
his full time career and passion -- bicycle racing.
People should investigate who is behind this site. 'unsubstantiated'? Is an abnormal T:E ratio 'unsubstantiated'? Is synthetic testosterone 'unsubstantiated?
By championing Floyd's cause, the FFF hopes to establish a legacy of
advocacy for athletes' rights to compete in fair and clean sport by
advancing best practice standards in anti-doping testing and enforcement.
The Fund is seeking to raise some $2million to cover legal and other
professional fees and expenses in connection with Floyd's defense. Despite
their lack of adherence to individual rights and due process -- and lack of
accountability and transparency -- the sports bureaucracies pursuing Floyd
are funded in large part by multi-million dollar grants of U.S. taxpayer
dollars and have financial and human resources that far outstrip those of
even a professional athlete of Floyd's accomplishments.
FFF executive director Michael Henson said, "Since the faulty lab
results last July, Anti-Doping Organizations and sports federations have
leveled -- through leaks and media interviews -- unsubstantiated doping
allegations without adherence to the fundamental moral code that protects
human rights in democratic societies."
Henson added, "Floyd has been subject to a public 'show trial'
conducted by sports bureaucrats who have engaged in a campaign to discredit
his achievements with little scientific or technical competency and even
less interest in determining the facts behind his faulty test. We have
clear, publicly available evidence that proves Floyd won clean...
Steroid Nation posted several pieces on Landis (we will reference later). However, now we will add this: If Landis indeed thought he was 'innocent' then it behooved him to go out and test himself out the wazoo. Hire an independent professional to substantiate his defense. How excuses did he give?
- high natural T
- he drank some alcohol
- the lab erred
How many more?
Is this one more effort to intimidate those who would clean up the sport? Steroid Nation has written the Floyd Fairness Fund asking them to clarify their statements. Stay tuned.
You wrote:
If Landis indeed thought he was 'innocent' then it behooved him to go out and test himself out the wazoo. Hire an independent professional to substantiate his defense. How excuses did he give?
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I guess this means your not really paying attention to this case.
Have you looked at his online documents? The two slide shows of his defense? His comment in the Daily Peleton Forum? Becasue if you did, you would realize he has done exactly what you said. Further, he has also said to do this requires money which is why he started the fund.
So, you appear to be critical of someone doing exactly what you suggest they do. Can you clarify?
Posted by: What? | 01/04/2007 at 15:11
I will check the references out further. I want to examine this as objective as I can.
I am not exactly critical, but skeptical. I believe that is fair.
There are clearly cases when a bureaucracy becomes out of control, forgetting that there can be false positives. I am both sympathetic and skeptical of Landis. I am both sympathetic and skeptical of the lab.
However, I also want to make sure that this isn't intimidation of the officials.
Further, we all need to think about how to prevent situations like this in the future.
Posted by: GRG51 | 01/04/2007 at 15:23
What about the "system" leaking his name to the press violating all their protocols and putting Landis in an impossible situation?
How about Dick Pound's intimadation of USADA into finding Landis guilty? On August 9, Pound wrote an op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/opinion/story.html?id=c6740180-1345-4c77-8f32-1a2e3aa117ea
Direct Quote From Pound:
We will have to wait for the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to organize an appeal process, since both [Gatlin and Landis] are American athletes, before any formal sanction can be pronounced. Who knows, USADA may subscribe to a suggestion that both athletes, in separate sports, were ambushed by a roving squad of Nazi frogmen and injected against their will with the prohibited substances. But, if USADA does not bite, Mr. Landis faces a two-year suspension and Mr. Gatlin (because of an earlier violation) a lifetime suspension.
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What about the hacker into the LNDD. As far as I have seen, no one is denying the authencity of the documents which show this lab has screwed up many other tests and asked that the parties involved DESTROY the documents!
The Landaluze's decision.
The LNDD lab admitting to mis-labelling Landis sample. If you're going to have strict liability, and you cannot question the science behind the test, then they CANNOT make mistakes! It cuts both ways.
The Vrijman report.
http://www.uci.ch/imgArchive/Homepage/Rapport%20HR%20zonder.pdf
Travis Tygert (USADA's general counsel) bragging they have never lost a case. Is he interested in the truth or wins?
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Yes I want to believe that Landis is innocent, And in looking into his case, I've grown totally digusted with the anti-doping porcess. It is as bad as dopers as it is unfair and has ruined the career of a lot of non-dopers (see the two part LA times piece last month for names)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sp-doping10dec10,0,2627563,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines
So, win or lose, you should consider looking at the other side of the equation, are the doping cops really interested in cleaning up sports or creating a crisis atomsphere so they can get more money and power to further their political agenda.
(Don't mistake this as criticism, I REALLY like your blog. Consider it a suggestion as to another place to focus your efforts.
Posted by: What? | 01/04/2007 at 17:20
I agree that there should not have been leaks. That is indefensible.
On the one hand, it is agreed that sport is ruined by doping and cheating. Cycling is pretty dirty. It needs to be cleaned up.
On the other hand, the 'accused' should be given due process.
On one hand the lab should have a very good procedure for handling specimens.
On the other hand, the lab should also be credited with ascertaining the data under tremendous pressure.
It isn't fair to condemn the process of anti-doping as all about grants and money. That demagoguery.
We have come to the forensic situation, because of cheaters. I understand law enforcement and regulation are heavy-handed (oh boy do I understand that). I also understand cheaters stop at nothing.
In the forensic situation, sport becomes like every other aspect of life in a regulated bureaucracy: It is going to take forever (the winner of the 2006 TdF isn't going to be known until this spring), and it is going to make people suffer.
There might not be a good outcome in Landis' case that satisfies everyone. Yet, there has to be an outcome.
Will sport be like the wild unregulated West, where an athlete takes his doped life in his hand to compete? Or will sport be able to police itself with reasonable rules?
We sure need Solomon in this case.
Posted by: GRG51 | 01/04/2007 at 23:36
I don't take this as criticism. I am amazed, and impressed at the defense of Floyd Landis. As a natural defender of the underdog, I tend to fight authority.
However, I just cannot tolerate cheating (at least cheating I don't do :-) ).
We need opinions on this blog so we can look at all angles of the issue.
Next topic: global warming (a topic on which I am afraid I have offended all my conservative friends yet again today)
Best of wishes to you all
Posted by: GRG51 | 01/04/2007 at 23:42
I took them out of the box, put them on my feet and didn't take them off for the rest of the day. Perfect fit, comfortable. My second pair of MBT sandals.
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