5 ms·

On track and field and running websites there is a lot more cynicism towards the rush of records that's taken place over the last year or so. Yes the new shoes

On track and field and running websites there is a lot more cynicism towards the rush of records that's taken place over the last year or so. Yes the new shoes probably help, but Covid has also made it difficult for drug testers to access athletes for random drug tests, many athletes have been able to take performance enhancing drugs with impunity over the last year.

rybosworld 6y ago
Interesting - that is the first I am hearing this. Why does covid affect the drug testing?
- baryphonic 6y ago
  My guess is the close quarters nature of drug testing (most protocols involve physical observation of the person giving the sample during the process) is a concern during COVID.
- sandworm101 6y ago
  >> Why does covid affect the drug testing? Because they cannot visit the athletes randomly. Because the athletes aren't training every day at a center, instead are training solo at lots of different places. Because much testing is tied to specific events (eg olympics) that have been cancelled. Cancel enough events and multi-month windows open where athletes know they will not be subject to testing. And with fewer events, those that are still happening become much more important. If there is only one qualifying event on the calendar then there is all the more pressure to perform on that day. There is no point in saving anything for the rest of the season. So athletes will risk injury if that means doing a little better that one day. If they are hurt they know they will have have a long while to recover.
  - sorenjan 6y ago
    But the testing doesn't just take place at competitions. Athletes have to report where they are every day, and failure to do so leads to warnings and eventually sanctions. They can be tested at any time, but maybe various agencies have cut back on that during the pandemic. https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/adams https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/adams
    - sandworm101 6y ago
      It becomes more difficult as athletes move further away from standard training facilities. They still need to report their locations but those locations are now more scattered. That is IF athletes are in the system. With so many events cancelled and athletes looking at a year or more between competitions, many might not need to participate in anti-doping programs for extended periods of time.
    - mschuster91 6y ago
      > They can be tested at any time Assuming that the various lockdown protocols allow it. Many countries have had (or still have) massive intra-country travel restrictions, some such as Italy had periods of complete curfew. Also, laboratories were generally either ordered or "volunteered" to prioritise covid19 swabs over drug tests.
- hydroxideOH- 6y ago
  Regular random testing of athletes slowed down over the last year since almost all competitions were cancelled.
asmos7 6y ago
SARMs, notably GW501516 otherwise known as Cardarine. SARMs occupy a legal gray area in the US and are widely available online as research chemicals. https://www.chemyo.com/gw501516/ https://www.chemyo.com/gw501516/
- ChuckMcM 6y ago
  Is that like "break a record, die of cancer" kind of choice. I wonder if you gave an athlete that choice explicitly which path would they choose.
  - Mountain_Skies 6y ago
    Quite a few would pick cancer and the record. Top athletes do all kinds of terrible damage to themselves even without the assistance of illegal drugs. Top cyclists have to wear heart rate monitors that wake them up when their heart rates get too low because their training makes their hearts so efficient that when they rest, the heart rate can get too low to be sustained. Top cyclists dying in their sleep happens far more frequently than it does for random selections of the general population. To combat this, an alarm wakes them up so they can exercise to get their heart rate up. Even knowing this, cyclists will train themselves at a level that ends up creating this condition.
    - fractionalhare 6y ago
      > Top cyclists have to wear heart rate monitors that wake them up when their heart rates get too low because their training makes their hearts so efficient that when they rest, the heart rate can get too low to be sustained. Do you have a source for this? I don't believe it. I tried searching for a few mins and couldn't find anything to confirm it either. I wouldn't be surprised if cyclists die in their sleep often due to drug use. But I would be very surprised if you can literally overtrain your heart to the point of dying in your sleep due to low resting heart rate.
      - dh5 6y ago
        The commenter may have been referring to Rendell's Death of Marco Pantani which IIRC had a line that went something like "during the day he lived to ride, at night he rode to live."
amelius 6y ago
So this means that when Covid is over, the record-breaking streak is over too?
- wott 6y ago
  Yes and no. Nowadays, a lot of the anti-doping control relies on monitoring variations in levels of this and that and punishing abnormal variations (biological passport). Only rare idiots could get caught by showing huge absolute levels of this or that. So, it is said that now, you dope young athletes before they enter the highly-controlled circuit. Then their levels can remain high and pass for their natural levels, you just have to keep the variations small by giving small continuous doses. I guess after a long period without control, we can partly have the same effect. Of course the effect of continuous doping comes on top of the benefits (extra training or such) acquired during the non-controlled doping period. ------ In cycling, there is a lot of suspicion around the young Slovenian and Swiss riders. Only unfounded suspicion so far. Several Slovenian and Swiss have already been 'caught' (nowadays cases come more from police investigation and trials than from anti-doping controls) but none of the top ones, and rather older ones or managers.
- hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
  I mean, Marita Koch's 400m record from 1985 and Flo Jo's 100m and 200m records from 1988 still stand. PEDs work, and if they go away they can cause records to stand for decades.
  - billfruit 6y ago
    Also Sergei Bubka's pole vault record from early 1990s was still standing till last year.

rybosworld 6y ago

Interesting - that is the first I am hearing this. Why does covid affect the drug testing?

baryphonic 6y ago
My guess is the close quarters nature of drug testing (most protocols involve physical observation of the person giving the sample during the process) is a concern during COVID.
sandworm101 6y ago
>> Why does covid affect the drug testing? Because they cannot visit the athletes randomly. Because the athletes aren't training every day at a center, instead are training solo at lots of different places. Because much testing is tied to specific events (eg olympics) that have been cancelled. Cancel enough events and multi-month windows open where athletes know they will not be subject to testing. And with fewer events, those that are still happening become much more important. If there is only one qualifying event on the calendar then there is all the more pressure to perform on that day. There is no point in saving anything for the rest of the season. So athletes will risk injury if that means doing a little better that one day. If they are hurt they know they will have have a long while to recover.
- sorenjan 6y ago
  But the testing doesn't just take place at competitions. Athletes have to report where they are every day, and failure to do so leads to warnings and eventually sanctions. They can be tested at any time, but maybe various agencies have cut back on that during the pandemic. https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/adams https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/adams
  - sandworm101 6y ago
    It becomes more difficult as athletes move further away from standard training facilities. They still need to report their locations but those locations are now more scattered. That is IF athletes are in the system. With so many events cancelled and athletes looking at a year or more between competitions, many might not need to participate in anti-doping programs for extended periods of time.
  - mschuster91 6y ago
    > They can be tested at any time Assuming that the various lockdown protocols allow it. Many countries have had (or still have) massive intra-country travel restrictions, some such as Italy had periods of complete curfew. Also, laboratories were generally either ordered or "volunteered" to prioritise covid19 swabs over drug tests.
hydroxideOH- 6y ago
Regular random testing of athletes slowed down over the last year since almost all competitions were cancelled.

asmos7 6y ago

SARMs, notably GW501516 otherwise known as Cardarine. SARMs occupy a legal gray area in the US and are widely available online as research chemicals. https://www.chemyo.com/gw501516/ https://www.chemyo.com/gw501516/

ChuckMcM 6y ago
Is that like "break a record, die of cancer" kind of choice. I wonder if you gave an athlete that choice explicitly which path would they choose.
- Mountain_Skies 6y ago
  Quite a few would pick cancer and the record. Top athletes do all kinds of terrible damage to themselves even without the assistance of illegal drugs. Top cyclists have to wear heart rate monitors that wake them up when their heart rates get too low because their training makes their hearts so efficient that when they rest, the heart rate can get too low to be sustained. Top cyclists dying in their sleep happens far more frequently than it does for random selections of the general population. To combat this, an alarm wakes them up so they can exercise to get their heart rate up. Even knowing this, cyclists will train themselves at a level that ends up creating this condition.
  - fractionalhare 6y ago
    > Top cyclists have to wear heart rate monitors that wake them up when their heart rates get too low because their training makes their hearts so efficient that when they rest, the heart rate can get too low to be sustained. Do you have a source for this? I don't believe it. I tried searching for a few mins and couldn't find anything to confirm it either. I wouldn't be surprised if cyclists die in their sleep often due to drug use. But I would be very surprised if you can literally overtrain your heart to the point of dying in your sleep due to low resting heart rate.
    - dh5 6y ago
      The commenter may have been referring to Rendell's Death of Marco Pantani which IIRC had a line that went something like "during the day he lived to ride, at night he rode to live."

amelius 6y ago

So this means that when Covid is over, the record-breaking streak is over too?

wott 6y ago
Yes and no. Nowadays, a lot of the anti-doping control relies on monitoring variations in levels of this and that and punishing abnormal variations (biological passport). Only rare idiots could get caught by showing huge absolute levels of this or that. So, it is said that now, you dope young athletes before they enter the highly-controlled circuit. Then their levels can remain high and pass for their natural levels, you just have to keep the variations small by giving small continuous doses. I guess after a long period without control, we can partly have the same effect. Of course the effect of continuous doping comes on top of the benefits (extra training or such) acquired during the non-controlled doping period. ------ In cycling, there is a lot of suspicion around the young Slovenian and Swiss riders. Only unfounded suspicion so far. Several Slovenian and Swiss have already been 'caught' (nowadays cases come more from police investigation and trials than from anti-doping controls) but none of the top ones, and rather older ones or managers.
hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
I mean, Marita Koch's 400m record from 1985 and Flo Jo's 100m and 200m records from 1988 still stand. PEDs work, and if they go away they can cause records to stand for decades.
- billfruit 6y ago
  Also Sergei Bubka's pole vault record from early 1990s was still standing till last year.