by Larry Eder
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The folks at USADA and WADA sure have been busy lately. Agent Mark Block had a few things to say about the press release that USADA sent out regarding Mr. Block’s ten year suspension.
Not sure what Baron Pierre de Coubertin would say about all of this BALCO stuff. de Coubertin was the founder of the modern Olympic movement. Seems that, the ancient Olympics were shut down due to cheating, and graft, among other things, by emperor Theodosius I in either 393 or 394 A.D. The ancient Olympics had lasted from about 776 B.C. to 394 A.D. A thousand years! Pretty long in anyone’s book. Seems that the cheating, bribes and betting had besmirched the whole Olympic ideal to the point that the emperor abolished them. About 1,500 years later, Baron Pierre de Coubertin comes along and, with the support of many who wanted to see the Olympics come back, established a modern Olympics movement.
Man is a creature of habit. If there is money or prestige, there is someone who cheats. Problem is, the level that it has been magnified to, in our modern media age of 24/7 observation, that it is quite hard to discern what is real and what is, well, bull manure. My father always told me, that if it smells like manure, it probably is manure.
There are always cheats and scumbags. This does not mean that we should not try and limit the number of cheats and such in our sport. My fear is that what it makes the folks chasing the bad guys–do they have to become as bad as the people that they are chasing? Just something to consider on your run or walk tonight.
Oh, and saw that jury selection is going on for the Barry Bonds lawsuit. Now there is a gentleman who has besmirched his fine sport. A recent story, picked up on Track & Field News, noted that Mr. Bonds allegedly obscured the facts and may have impeded a federal investigation:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/22/MNPF1IH3U1.DTL. Don’t know about you, but I am shocked.
(If you want to separate fact from fiction about the ancient Olympics, RBR suggests one spend some time at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/-this was a project done by Tufts University for the 1996 Olympics. Fascinating work.
BLOCK DISAGREES
NEW YORK (USA): Agent Mark Block strongly
disagrees with the arbitration panel’s March 17th 2011 decision on USADA’s
charges that he violated the IAAF anti-doping rules. “The decision misstated
the evidence,” said Block, “and then USADA, in its press statement, compounded
the error by overstating the decision. Many courts and arbitration panels have
held that possession alone cannot constitute illegal trafficking,” said
Frankfurt Kurnit’s Brian Maas, an attorney for Block. Here, there was no
evidence that Block offered any athlete, including his wife, EPO or any like
substance. “We believe the decision to extend the anti-trafficking rule to
cover Mr. Block’s case in this situation is reversible error,” said Maas. The March 18th press release issued by USADA
erroneously states that the panel decision “confirm[ed that] Block administered
and supplied banned substances including ‘the clear’, ‘the cream’ and
Modafanil.” Maas said: “But there is no such
finding in the panel’s decision.” Mr. Block has asked USADA to retract that
portion of its press release and is preparing to appeal the decision to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport on these and other grounds. Writes the statement
of Block´s lawyers.
