Who Has the Juice ????

He has the Juice !
Actually that's my brother in law's homemade Maple Syrup
in the hands of a performance enhanced juicer.  It's all natural
and it won't trigger a positive drug test.

I waited impatiently for the scandal to erupt like a smoking volcano.  There was warning smoke and there were flaming plumes but no full fledged eruption - yet !

The I.A.A.F. World Championships (Track and Field) were held a few weeks ago in Beijing, China. As always, I look forward to such events with anticipation. Track and field rarely receives much television coverage in North America. Fortunately this year was a windfall. The Pan American Games were held in Toronto so the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) covered the events especially track and field. Two weeks later the CBC also had coverage of the World Championships. I was like an opium addict                                                                                   set loose in a wild poppy field.

This athletic buffet was not without the presence of possible and potential pitfalls of performance impropriety.There were some ominous storm clouds conjuring on the horizon that suggested a scandal to come:

• Russian racewalkers withdrew from the world championships due to drug innuendos from a German documentary.
• Russian distance runners including a woman Olympic champion were filmed discussing using doping products.
• The Russian Anti Doping Federation was alleged to be guilty of systemic corruption and cover ups.
• Another documentary shows Kenyan physicians openly admitting to providing E.P.O to Kenyan distance runners.
• According to the Track and Field News and the U.K. Daily Mail, other rogue nations suspected of systemic doping programs include Morocco, Turkey and Ukraine. 
• A BBC documentary discovered that numerous drug tests showed blood profile irregularities in 1/3 of Olympic and World Championship medallists since 2001.
• The same BBC investigation took aim at a target who was one of my running heroes. Alberta Salazar is the coach of the Nike Oregon Project which is a team of elite, mostly American, distance runners sponsored by the sports apparel giant. Salazar was a former world record holder in the marathon. Supposedly he provided prescription performance enhancers to an athlete  (or athletes) that was not prescribed to them. 
• Salazar is also a coaching adviser to the British track team He coaches British Olympic and world champion Mo Farah. Farah has not been linked to any performance enhancing drugs other that by his association with his coach. Salazar denies any guilt.
• Some Jamaican sprinters have returned from suspensions for using stimulants. It does not necessarily mean that Jamaica is guilty of state sponsored doping. At least, I hope not!

   My fears proved unfounded. There were no major drug test failures at the World Championships. Only a few lesser lights tested positive. Usain Bolt was supreme. Mo Farah won 2 gold medals. The Canadian Track and Field team had its best showing ever on a world stage. Programs that support Canadian athletes are  paying dividends on at the elite levels of competition.

  

  I watched every event and watched the replays over again. I was in sports Heaven viewing such excellence in action. Athletes ran fast; jumped high; and threw far. Track and Field seems to have survived and avoided the possible scandalous eruption. However as I absorbed this magnificent spectacle on my big screen there was this nagging, persistent, cynical voice of skepticism in my head that kept barking in my ear.   "Who has the juice !!!!!!"

Until next time, ..........Keep Fit

Little Bobby Strong          

References

1. The Doping Secret : the Dark Side of AthleticsHajo Seppelt, Germany ARD/WDR

2.  Sunday Times, London

3.  Daily Mail, London 

4. Track and Field News, Sept. and Oct. Editions

Links
schwabe27.uwmfatloss.hop.clickbank
AudienceBuilder.ca
www.fitnwell.com
www.rabbitview/rabbitview-crossfit