IN an interesting twist, WADA chief Dick Pound revealed yesterday, that not only undeterred by Lance Armstrong's recent attack, he has resolved to hunt down Armstrong even more. Story in The Age, Aus.
Dick Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), said on Tuesday that an International Olympic Committee (IOC) reprimand will not stop him from seeking answers to doping allegations surrounding Lance Armstrong.
"If Lance thinks this is going to make me go away he is sadly mistaken," a defiant Pound said.
Now in round 10, the ongoing fight between Pound, the swashbuckling head of WADA, and Armstrong, the 7 time Tour de France, megastar, continues in the media.
The retired seven times Tour de France champion has denied using performance-enhancing drugs after reports he used the banned blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO) during his career.
In May last year, an independent investigation cleared him of doping during the 1999 Tour and accused anti-doping authorities of violating testing rules.
Armstrong filed a complaint against Pound for continuing the allegations.
Ruling on the complaint, the IOC Ethics commission recommended the WADA chief had, "the obligation to exercise greater prudence consistent with the Olympic spirit when making public pronouncements that may affect the reputation of others."
Retroactive testing of samples taken during the 1999 Tour were conducted only after an approved test for EPO had been developed.
The French sports daily L'Equipe reported that six of 15 positive results were produced by samples provided by Armstrong.
Pound states that the French lab found 16 positive urine tests from past Tours. Six were Armstrong's. With the determination of a bulldog, Pound believes the IOC should pursue the truth. Armstrong, meanwhile enjoying the fruits of his victories, believes Pound should be impounded.
Pound believes many questions surrounding the positive tests have yet to be answered by the International Cycling Union (UCI) or Armstrong.
"These are documents. This is an accredited laboratory that found EPO in (Armstrong's) urine from 1999 and it's been matched with forms you signed so if the analysis is right and the forms aren't forgeries you may have something to explain," said Pound, a Montreal lawyer and Canadian IOC member...
"This (the positive 1999 tests linked to Armstrong by L'Equipe) isn't the only piece of evidence that the UCI could consider if it wished to do something," said Pound. "There's lots of other evidence around.
"You would have to test it and make sure it was reliable but there's evidence given under oath by people who were on the same team who have claimed to have heard Lance admit to all this stuff.
Should Pound let sleeping dogs lie? Or should Pound relentlessly hammer away at the Armstrong reputation? This writer for The Nation says Pound has a responsibility to pursue drug cheats wherever they may hide. Let the dogs out of the Pound...
The truth is that every competitive athlete in any endurance sport or any sport which requires physical strength like weightlifting etc is on steroids.Anyone out there who thinks that drug testing is 100% sucessful at catching drug cheats is only fooling himself.Steroid labs are a high tech industry.These guys are so far ahead that we can only dream of catching the dopers.And mind you,this thing has been going on since eternity.Does michael phelps use steroids?You bet.Some would say that he is built to succeed.There is no doubt that his body is an advantage,but to train for the hours he does,at the intensity that he does and at the level he does,day after day,will break down a clean human being in a couple of weeks.It can almost kill a person if he is that intense for that amount of time without steroids.If you think he's not built like a steroid user like ben johnson...dont forget the tragedies of Petr korda (tennis player) and John McEnroe.Could anyone even imagine at that time that these guys were on steroids??
The truth will ultimately come out.
Posted by: Mayur | 10/05/2008 at 07:53
McEnroe admitted to use of corticosteroids (prednisone). I'm sure you're aware that is not the same as the anabolics that people commonly refer to as "steroids". As I learned recently, WADA doesn't prohibit the use of corticosteroids outside of competition.
http://www.wada-ama.org/rtecontent/document/2008_List_En.pdf
Posted by: Methuselah | 10/06/2008 at 09:25