Other stuff to be angry about today (with chorizo pic)

Craig of North Brisbane says:

01:18pm | 07/02/12

Yes, that’s pretty much been my assumption to.  They should just put their energy into finding those who are clean, rather than those who are cheating.

Shane* says:

01:26pm | 07/02/12

And a fair perception too. I’ve been ridiculed on The Punch for using the anecdote before, but I studied with a guy who rode in a youth side in Europe, and he said they’re all on some form of illegal performance enhancer.

The issue is that the dopers are always 1.5 steps ahead of the testers.

Any professional sport that relies heavily on power/endurance or a repetitive motion will have major drug problems.

Cycling, swimming, athletics, baseball (Designated Hitters)...

Thankfully we have sports like football (all codes including soccer), tennis, basketball and cricket where power and endurance only get you so far, and your skill takes you the rest of the way. There will be PEDs in those sports too, of course, but all the strength and stamina in the world won’t help if you can’t kick straight. No drugs can help in that regard.

Faz says:

02:53pm | 07/02/12

Not sure about that Adam but I’m reliably informed (by a Spanish ham) that the goat was high on clenbuterol.

Darren says:

03:12pm | 07/02/12

@shane*

Are you kidding me?? If you think that any professional sport is clean, then you are sadly mistaken.

If cyclists will dope for earn a few million euro’s a year (at best), what would a soccer player do to earn hundred’s of thousands a week? Add to that the club support, ie easy access to doctor’s and other ‘enablers’.

All the sports you mentioned where skill means they don’t dope, well they do. EPO/blood transfusions benefit footballers and basketballers (all codes) as much as cyclists. HGH will benefit anyone interested in accellerating recovery.

When they discovered that ADHD med’s assisted performance the NBA saw an increase from 20ish players up to 200+ who were diagnosed ADHD.

Don’t even get me started on tennis. Steriods much?? Look at some of the women. Beta blockers to improve concentration for all.

The fight against drugs needs to be taken away from the sporting administrators and handed to the police. Sports bodies have no incentive to catch their biggest stars, but at least cycling (well the Italians, the Spanish gave him a free pass) did.

Contador is just the latest, but at least he didn’t blame his mum, hey Warnie!!

Benrama says:

03:30pm | 07/02/12

Indeed drugs in cycling is rife, as though I would argue they are in many. Cycling often though is unfairly singled out. Certainly there is no attempts at cover ups from those that sanction world cycling if they are prepared to drag then name of their biggest event of the year through the mud in order to expose those that have cheated.

  Can the same be said for other sports even here at home? In both our dominant codes the AFL and NRL, Ben Counsins and Andrew Johns regularly had their illegal drug activites ignored by those high up. Admittedly these were not “performace enhancing” but clearly the willingness to keep certain facts away from the public eye (as well as law enforcement) has been shown.

  Also it what point do we the viewers take responsibility, in the sense that we continually demand of all athletes ability to perfrom super-human endevours? Current Usain Bolt holds the world record over a 100meters at 9.53secs. At the 1988 Olypics Ben Johnson, an incredible athlete juiced up to the gills could only manage 9.79, betaing Carl Lewis and Linford Christie. Lewis it should be noted also experienced his own drugged “steak” issues, though this time the culprit was “herbal tea”, thankfully the US track and field officials were quickly able to sweep his positive test under the carpet. Christie meanwhile won at Barcelona in 92 then had is career ended after testing positve to a banned substance i9n the late 90s. Enough rambling, what your point? First of all, is Bolt on the juice? Not sure but if supreme atheletes such as Johnson, Lewis and Christie all received such help and still couldn’t get near the times Bolt is currently posting then then what he does is truly amazing. But still we, the viewing public, want to see him or someone else go faster. And if they don’t keep going faster? We switch off. Lot of pressure to go faster, on a bike as well.

  A side note which, to anyone who has made it this far, I would like to address the question as to what is actually cheating. What we call natural talent is merely genetic difference, I would love to be a professional cyclist yet no matter how hard I train train nor drugs I may shoot up would result in me achieving such a goal. I naturally haven’t got the hear or lungs to make it. My lungs just won’t do the job. Imagine then that there was surgery avalible that would result in me getting an extra 10% output in lung capacity. Cheating! Illiegal! Would no doubt be the (fair) outcry. Tiger Woods however has had laser eye surgery that has improved his eyesight beyond what is deemed “perfect human” eyesight 20/20 to 20/15, effectively meaning he now has superhuman eyes in a sport that relies heavily on vision and depth perception. What was the result? Woods, who had lost 16 straight tournaments before his surgery, won seven of his next 10 events. Cheater? I really have no idea.

PsychoHyena says:

10:29am | 08/02/12

@Darren, did you actually read Shane’s comment? At no point did he say that no sport is clean, but rather that you are likely to find less usage in sports that don’t rely entirely on stamina and speed.

Shooter says:

12:46pm | 07/02/12

Maria there is a time and place. Have you been drug tested? If not you should at least see your doctor

Dan says:

12:56pm | 07/02/12

Sorry Maria, I’m a bit slow (and a bit removed from cycling). Who are we talking about?

Craig of North Brisbane says:

01:28pm | 07/02/12

@Dan, either Bronwyn Bishop or Jackie O, I think.

Nick says:

03:27pm | 07/02/12

What else are we ma-a-a-a-a-d about today?
@Shooter you have missed your target again
@Dan we talk about the genuine cheaters
who else is a cheater?

Kika says:

01:15pm | 07/02/12

Agreed. Even if the meat was guaranteed ‘steroid’ free 99.99% of all breeds used for meat have been GM modified beasts by way of selective breeding and insemination. The poor little things don’t have a celluar chance to develop normally and it’s proven that today’s pigs used as livestock as more neurotic and unstable than ever thanks to their breeding and conditioning. Who cares? Well this affects the meat taste. So you should care, if you care about your meat.

Antibiotics are essential to keep them alive as well in the piggeries. It’s used in their feed. Factory farms accept 15% of their stock will die at some point, and some of them half dead already before the slaughter will end up on your plate. The use of antibiotics in livestock accounts for 75% of their usage globally so it’s no wonder super bacterias are growing to a point where we won’t have anything left to fight them with. A pandemic will come one day and given our factory farming lust it will be much, much worse than 1918 (which was later proven to be an avian flu).

The production process is also disgusting. Chickens often sht themselves (don’t blame them) after the electrocution and then when they are dunked into the scolding water to remove the feathers often this is done after 100 chickens have shat themselves so the contaminated water seeps into the skin and meat. Don’t forget they also eat their sht too in the cages. And each other. Ever had a flu which lasts a day? Or a tummy bug? This could be why.

Stanley says:

01:18pm | 07/02/12

LOL… steroid free. Who cares when the animals are purposefully bred to grow into the equivalent of an Arnold Schwazenegger by the age of 10 and are so large and in pain most of the time (their feet can’t handle their body size) they have to die anyway.

JC says:

01:22pm | 07/02/12

Shut up.

Thirsty says:

01:38pm | 07/02/12

@Kika
WTF are you on? Do you know the definition of GM? Genetically Modified?
Artificial breeding and selective breeding isnt GM, its called nature. Its the same process (speeded up with technology) where you mate your best cow with your best bull (or semen from another “best bull”) to achieve a natural improvement in body mass, type, yield etc etc.
If it wasnt for this process, cattle would still be half the size they are now, cows would produce 5 litres of milk a day, not the 30 odd that they do now
Steriods have been banned for decades in animal fodder, to suggest as much is just plain bullshit
Piggeries I dont know about, never been involved with them, but I doubt your claims
As for chickens shitting themselves when electrocuted, news flash, so do humans…its called dying. Chickens also eat their own shit when in natural surrounds, as well as peck each other (moreso in natural surrounds, as they peck lice and other insects off each other…a cheap way to get a feed…)
As for factory farms accepting that 15% will die, guess what, they expect all to die…thats how we get our food, thats how a farmer makes his money. Its not too much fun trying to eat a live cow, pig, chook

Kika says:

03:13pm | 07/02/12

Hate to burst your bubble, Thirsty, but it is. AGRISCIENTISTS have created breeds of pigs, chickens, cows and every other livestock to produce more meat (i.e. chickens with breasts so large they can’t even walk) so you get more yield from each animal. They are bred from stock with mutant genes, so it’s breeding animals with genetic abnormalities over and over again until they hardly resemble the original stock and they are so crippled at such a young age by their genetic problems that they have to be put out of their misery. It’s FACT.  Heard of broiler chickens and where they came from?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broiler

THAT Is genetic modification in the purest sense of the word.

Research it yourself.

I find it laughable that people who say they enjoy meat don’t care about where it comes from.

Kika says:

03:15pm | 07/02/12

@Thirsty - No, it’s not called dying. Farmers cannot afford to lose that much stock. News again, most meat doesn’t come from ‘farmers’ but factory farms. They can afford to lose that much stock.

You know the old story about making sure chicken is 100% cooked right through otherwise you’ll get salmonella and e.coli? Where does E.Coli come from? Sht. How does it get in the meat? IN THE MEAT.

You should really spend some time learning about where your food comes from.

Kika says:

03:18pm | 07/02/12

Oh… and Thirsty. Your point about getting 30L from your cow instead of 5L - so the poor thing is bred for giant udders which produce more milk. This is called unnatural. The poor thing will have mastitis and your milk ends up with blood and mucus in it and that’s just a byproduct of dairy farming. It’s in your milk.

http://www.peta.org/issues/Animals-Used-For-Food/Cows-Milk-A-Cruel-and-Unhealthy-Product.aspx

Kika says:

03:21pm | 07/02/12

One last thing…. so Thirsty it’s ok to change the genetics of an animal, but not a plant? So trying to yield more from a plant by way of manipulating it’s genes, the same way as the dairy cow and meat livestock you have mentioned is ok but doing the same with wheat is wrong?

semi concerned citizen says:

04:44am | 08/02/12

Kika check out chlorine spin chilling currently in aus cheapest way to keep the bacteria ecoli and the old sals down. Would you believe chicken processed under these conditions stored between 0-4 degrees has a shelf life of 14 days. I’ve seen the results sent back from the labs. Try cooking your meat properly as well.

Thirsty says:

07:14am | 08/02/12

@Kika
Obviously you have a bee in your bonnet about agriculture. Yes there a Agriscientists, that is, they use science to improve agriculture, same as scientists as looking for cures for cancer etc in humans…doesnt mean that you are genetically modufying things, just trying to find a way to make things better
You mentioned modified wheat, one of the greatest advancements in the production of wheat was when an Aussie scientist grafted one species of wheat with another to control rust stripe. This is not GM, this happened in the late 1800’s.
You go on and on about e coli etc…e coli is a natural bacteria….if you dont cook game animals from the wild properly, you can get e coli
As for your bullshit about dairy cows, you really should go and visit a farm and have a look, not just rely on groups such as PETA for their propaganda crap
Chickens growing with massive breats pieces etc is the result of an extremely high protien diet, something similar to body builders. The same type of effect is achieved by glass house and hydroponic grown plants, you concentrate the necessary growth enablers, such as water, sunlight (or UV light) and hey presto, the plant grows much quicker than what it woud in its natural surrounds
Very little, if any, beef comes from factory farms per se, most comes form naturally grown pasture, then the animals are sometimes placed in a feedlot for 60 days on a high protein diet to “top them off”, ie, fatten quicker than would happen naturally so that the animal is killed at a younger age, hence, the meat is more tender (not as tastey as grass fed though…)
@Stanley…most animals killed for human consumption are only 12 to 36 months of age, not much is killed for us humans when it is 10 years of age…would be as tough as nails

PsychoHyena says:

10:37am | 08/02/12

@Kika, so it’s not okay to selectively breed animals but it’s okay for humans to selectively breed?

If not then you should be breeding with everyone you walk past.

Al B says:

01:52pm | 07/02/12

it is worth debating ... where the line should be on what is legal performance enhancing assistance and what isn’t.

As well as the diet and training, atheletes take a whole bunch of things for that boost. Then there’s the things that are at the cutting edge so to speak.

Ideally it should be athlete welfare, but then i guess much of the ways most of them train would then be outlawed as being harmful to their long term health.

i guess if everyone is on the same juice it is leveling it out, as the one with the highest starting point performance wise will win. But then it turns into a pharma war. Unless they introduce some “control juice” ala “control tyres” in motor racing!

Rose says:

02:11pm | 07/02/12

I agree that this ad is beyond appalling and that that kind of violence is inappropriate regardless of who the perpetrator and victims are and that it is a form of sexist hypocrisy to condemn gender violence against women and not against men. i don’t however, think that it is ok to counter this type rubbish by turning a blind eye to other examples of sexism, violence or any other examples of bad behaviour. I really don’t understand why you think that because of a bad American ad for Greek yoghurt means that Julia Gillard should cop it!

Tom says:

02:43pm | 07/02/12

Rose, you should have stopped after your first sentence.
The rest of your post is just straw man ranting.

gobsmack says:

04:03pm | 07/02/12

Good idea.

Instead of representing their country, the athletes could be divided into teams representing the major pharmaceutical companies.

Pfizer, Pfizer, Pfizer! Oi! Oi! Oi!