I want to believe. But watching him coast across the finish line to break the record just seems really improbable w/o some help. But maybe he's just a once-a-millenia level sprinting talent.

On the flip side, everyone would be sure Bo is juicing now. No one can be that strong and that fast at the same time.

Honestly, if Bolt is cheating then so is LeBron. Both are just freakish athletes. Tyson Gay cheating is not surprising since I can't believe someone that small is one of the best sprinters in the world.

This is where I'm at. Bolt is a once in a generation athlete. I would put serious money on him being the best in a World where PEDs didn't exist. However, being the only athlete inside the top 5 that hasn't cheated seems improbable.

It has been the #1 question for 8 years now and there's still not any strong evidence. WADA has a history of not giving a **** when it comes to busting high profile athletics stars.

Re: Blake - if someone shows you day in and day out that you have zero chance of winning anything, you get desperate. I choose to believe.

There's also Victor Conte, who says everyone at that level is doping to some degree.

Their secret is they are fueled by Red Stripe.

There is the argument that essentially the entire difference between Jesse Owens running 10.2 in 1936 and Bolt running 9.58 in 2009 can be accounted for based on improvements in track surface and sprinters spikes.

I can't say for sure that Bolt is clean, but his career actually looks a lot like that of a clean athlete. He has been well known since the age of 15, and his athletic progression follows how you would expect a once in a generation talent to progress. His sprinting form is considered to be the picture perfect form that all sprinters should aspire to, and his height provides him with a longer stride length than any other elite sprinter can run. Simply he is a freak of nature who has perfected his art.

TED talk on the difference between him and Owens here. Changes in the track and spikes aren't all of the difference; however, they are a large chunk of it.

Hooray Beer!

Odds the Russian whistleblower gets got in the next 4 years?

Every Olympic Village is basically a greased up, multi-national **** pile from my understanding.

Ye I can't remember exact numbers but Im pretty sure that the organisers of the London games distributed tons of condoms in the Olympic village

That's the problem with the Olympics today. There is absolutely no respect for tradition.

article about this

Iirc 9 of the guys that ran the 10 fastest ever 100m times have been popped for doping. The last guy is significantly faster than the other 9. Assuming doping confers considerable advantage (otherwise who would bother?), which is more likely: that the number 1 guy is way way better than everyone else in his generation (and since records began?); or that he's significantly better than anyone else and is cheating as well. My money would be on the latter

Can you expand on the bolded? I follow the distance runners more than the sprinters, but Galen Rupp has been well known since at least 16 and is tied to potential doping.

I also have no idea of Bolt is clean or not, but from the history of the sport it would not surprise me if he was not clean. Actually, I'd probably be more surprised if he was clean.

What's your view on Michael Johnson?

ya the "9.79*" 30 For 30 was good for ^ too, every runner in that final got popped at one time or another iirc

think basically everyone has been doping in about every sport for like 30 years at least, i can't even pretend to care anymore

iirc, Calvin Smith was the one who came out as the winner of that show as the one who ran his best leading up to that Olympics and wasn't doping. Not sure if he got popped afterwards.

I wouldn't put it past some countries to discourage condom use at the Olympics, especially if the man and woman are both from their country. Breed those show humans!

For those who don't want to click through, article is meh but I loved this graphic:

But seriously, he never even competed in the 100M until the year before his first Olympic gold--before that he was a 200M runner they wanted to take on 400M if he could just stop getting hurt. Basically they thought his form was **** before he started running juice-fast. Don't those other career arcs just refer to guys who started juicing late?

If his art is test evasion, absolutely.

I think he's referring to the comment I made on the previous page about his peak performances occurring around the age of 26-27 then dropping off?

Not in the case of Christie:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linfor..._and_Education

Gatlin's bans also occurred relatively early in his career.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Gatlin#Doping_bans

For me basically being significantly better than every (other) super talented doper is enough circumstancial evidence for occam's razor to point to guilty at this point. I don't know anything about Johnson specifically though past what was in that wiki.