The long awaited Floyd Landis arbitration hearing opens today at Pepperdine University Law School in Malibu, California. The San Jose Mercury story here:
Floyd Landis stands accused of cheating in last year's Tour de France. But once the long-awaited hearing for the Tour winner begins Monday in Southern California, the sports drug-testing establishment also is likely to find itself on trial.
Landis plans to challenge the accepted practices of drug testing and the integrity of its officials in a high-profile case expected to last 10 days at Pepperdine University in Malibu.
The hearing represents "an important test to see if the anti-doping system can begin to change for the good of sport and the sake of justice and fairness," Landis said Thursday.
The case has attracted thousands of supporters who watched with awe Landis' stunning comeback in last year's Tour. Americans embraced the refreshingly honest Mennonite with the injured hip, who rallied to keep an American on the victory stand in the first Tour of the post-Lance Armstrong era.
The hearing will center on a positive test for artificial testosterone and the competence of the French laboratory that analyzed it last summer during the Tour. Landis, who plans to testify, faces a two-year suspension and would be the first Tour winner in the race's 104-year history to be stripped of his title.
Whatever the outcome of the hearing, one has to admire the perseverance, and the determination of Landis and his fans. The Landis camp partially turned the focus from his culpability to the testing agencies, including the French agency, the USADA, and WADA.
Landis continues under suspicion, however an appeal to the general public's distrust of bureaucracy, big government, and 'the man' now sets new standards for any anti-doping agency. Athletes dope then deceive the public; agencies commit sloppy work errors while lab testing, then return false positives. Where is Norman Mailer when you need him to sort out these moral dilemmas and complex scenarios?
Great coverage is over at Trust But Verify. TBV will keep you up-to-date with the press, and with the blogsphere on reports. Rant is always good for a idiosyncratic view of things. And we here at Steroid Nation are all about The Truth :-); which is what we say it is, basically because of our supernatural powers (don't we need some humor to get through all of this?)
Arbitrator Chris Campbell wrote this about the process:
Make your best points at the hearing quickly and narrow your focus. Your case will
often be won or lost in the first hour of the hearing.
Sounds like good advice.
Regarding Norman Mailer, it's also a shame we don't have Hunter S. Thompson to comment on the depravity of it all. Fear and Loathing in Malibu, now there's a fine title for a story about this whole mess! ;-)
- Rant
From the Nation: Good point. Interesting thought for a post....how novelists and writers would be writing about this year's steroid and PED scandals.
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