Mo Farah.......

[Steven M. McCann]

Drug testers banging on his front door for well over a hour, maybe he's a wee bit hard of hearing or maybe he just didn't fancy being tested that particular day, who knows?
Did the testers not have his phone number? why didn't they call him and ask him to open his door? or maybe they did, but him being a "bit deaf" he didn't hear his phone either!

[Gavin Chipper]

Is that what happened? I know he apparently missed two tests, but were they banging on his door for over an hour? I read that athletes have to say where they're going to be for an hour every day and I suppose because of that they allow up to two no shows, and I don't think he's the only one that had two no shows. Is this definitely not a non-story?

[Mark James]

I'm inclined to think it's a non story in the kind of way that I think all drug allegation stories are non stories since I don't really care why anyone is able to do the things the do, drug assisted or otherwise, I mean could you imagine drug tested musicians? Should Jimi Hendrix not be considered an amazing guitarist/musician/songwriter because he took copious amounts of lsd which may have contributed to his musicianship? I understand the argument that one should not have to jeopardize any kind of health risk due to side effects of the drugs but at the same time, putting a ton of effort into the required training is just as much of a sacrifice in order to become the top competitor at any level. If someone is willing to go the distance and take a drug which will help them get a gold medal but will eventually kill them, to my mind, is no different to someone who is willing to get up at 4 in the morning for training, sacrifice many more hours in terms of social life, drinking alcohol, having sex and all sorts that must be sacrificed in order to reach the top. If you can't compete with the drug takers in the same way that I couldn't compete with those people who make those kinds of sacrifices then I'm afraid that you just lose.

[JimBentley]

Is this definitely not a non-story?

It's a story, it was just a question of when. Salazar has been notorious for exploiting every loophole and grey area available for years.

For instance, a surprisingly high proportion of the - previously perfectly healthy - athletes he coaches seem to be diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Not only that, but most of them coincidentally suddenly develop asthma. They haven't got either of these conditions, it's just that Salazar knows special doctors who will give these diagnoses (no doubt for certain "inducements"). This enables him to obtain Therapeutic Use Exemptions for his athletes for drugs such as thyroxine (increases metabolic rate, promotes weight loss) and salbutamol (increases oxygen uptake by dilating the airways) which are otherwise banned. I suppose if you're that desperate for every possible "edge" you can convince yourself that this sort of behaviour isn't wrong, but I think it's really shady.

And obviously if the overt stuff (androgens have been mentioned) turns out to have substance then Alberto's definitely gonna get a ban (and maybe more, sending scheduled drugs by federal mail is a serious offence). However, reading between the lines of what Seb Coe's been saying - he seems to be trying to distance himself from Salazar (despite them having been friends for 30 odd years) while simultaneously implying that Mo knew of no wrongdoing...Coe is running to be the next IAAF president, coincidentally, which may have some bearing on how the whole thing pans out. Or is that going a bit far?

This is an article that was posted online in 2011 (just before Lance Armstrong got done and I think before Farah joined Salazar's group) and although Salazar isn't mentioned (it's more about the BALCO and EPO scandals), I'm pretty sure I've had my suspicions about him since before then. That Rupp and Farah showed such sudden and marked improvements through 2011-2013...let's say it's coincidental for now.

[Gavin Chipper]

I'm inclined to think it's a non story in the kind of way that I think all drug allegation stories are non stories since I don't really care why anyone is able to do the things the do, drug assisted or otherwise, I mean could you imagine drug tested musicians? Should Jimi Hendrix not be considered an amazing guitarist/musician/songwriter because he took copious amounts of lsd which may have contributed to his musicianship? I understand the argument that one should not have to jeopardize any kind of health risk due to side effects of the drugs but at the same time, putting a ton of effort into the required training is just as much of a sacrifice in order to become the top competitor at any level. If someone is willing to go the distance and take a drug which will help them get a gold medal but will eventually kill them, to my mind, is no different to someone who is willing to get up at 4 in the morning for training, sacrifice many more hours in terms of social life, drinking alcohol, having sex and all sorts that must be sacrificed in order to reach the top. If you can't compete with the drug takers in the same way that I couldn't compete with those people who make those kinds of sacrifices then I'm afraid that you just lose.

I think athletics is slightly different from music. Athletics is a specific competition with rules you have to obey to compete. And while you might argue that the music industry is competitive in some sense, it's not simply a competition.

People are also impressed with athletes simply because they win competitions or set record times/distances. You wouldn't watch an athlete running in isolation and think "Wow, this guy is brilliant. I need to see more of this." It could have been that the average person could run 100m in 10 seconds. We're also not impressed with rabbits. It's purely a relative thing. Music is different. We can appreciate a piece of music in its own right. It matters less how it came into existence.

But yes, I see your point to some extent, and there's nothing stopping someone else from setting up their own rival athletics organisation with its own rules. But I think it's good to have it as a healthy ambition for people to compete, and this would go out the window with no drugs rules. Imagine a teacher talking to a promising athlete at school: "You're really good and you could go on to compete at national or maybe international level. But there will reach a point where you're not going to get any better through training and good diet. You're going to have to start taking performance enhancing drugs. Sure, you'll be dead by 40, or at least a wreck of a human being, but your work will be done by then."

[Jon Corby]

So do we have to go back to saying that nobody has beaten The Cube now?

[Oliver Garner]

From a contact of mine (whose identity I will not reveal) close to Mo Farah, one of the missed tests happened as the testers knocked early in the morning whilst he was sleeping in an oxygen tent which produces a considerable amount of noise, leading to him not hearing the doorbell. My suspicions of Mo start and end at the suspicions I have of anyone who trains with Salazar, for the reasons Jim gives.