Unlucky fighters

I think you're on extremely shakey ground if you start saying people taking any kind of potentially performance-enhancing drug are unlucky when the rules change, particularly an athlete from a country with a known history of state-wide drug tampering.

Boxing is still playing catchup in the sporting drug war but if you look across other sports and Russian involvement, there is a very clear pattern of cheating. There is a reason meldonium was banned - it was clearly being abused by athletes to give them advantages.

Does that mean I think Povetkin intentionally cheated? Well, put it this way, maybe boxing is still in a honeymoon period regarding PEDs but if this had happened in track and field or tennis there would be no benefit of the doubt given and it is right that there was none given with Povetkin too.

But that's probably a conversation for another thread. Suffice to say, I don't think he should be considered unlucky at all.

 

Thanks for the links, man - will read and get back to you (familiar with some of these stories already but will read the articles first before passing comment on those cases).

But, irrespective of these examples, there is no doubt about the level of state-wide cheating in Russia. Entire nations don't get banned from the Olympics - albeit half-heartedly for political reasons - on a whim.

There's a difference as well between individuals from a country being banned or escaping bans and state-sponsored doping. Russia has been involved in the latter.

 

A lot of these stories are based around USADA, an anti-doping agency that has historically not regulated their nation's athletes with the greatest viligance.

The first story is certainly one of the more creative reasons for an athlete testing positive. I think we should be past the benefit of the doubt era in track and field so I'm amazed USADA found that explanation to be acceptable (whether actually true or not) but, like I said, they are known for being a little more lax than other national doping agencies.

As for the other stories, back in 1988 it was still the Wild West in terms of drugs and drug testing and USADA were giving the benefit of the doubt to almost all US athletes, despite some pretty flagrant cheating going on. BALCO and the Marion Jones case really blew the lid off in terms of allowing that to happen with the same frequency.

So, I take your point and I don't think other nations should get the benefit of the doubt either but there's a distinction to be made between state-sponsored doping of the kind Russia has been involved in and the less-than-stellar administration of an anti-doping authority dealing with individual or smaller group cases of cheating.

But I'm a hardliner when it comes to this as I've seen it destroy a sport I loved watching (track and field), making me doubt on some level any incredible peformance I've witnessed over the past 30 years.

To bring it back to boxing, the better zero-tolerance policy the sport takes to this, the better it will be in protecting itself from the scourge of PEDs.

 

Yes and no. There were doping violations with regard to Olympic sports but meldonium use was peculiar to Russia and other Baltic states and was used in a more widespread way than just in Olympic sports. Good summary on its use and why it was banned here:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....8/meldonium-maria-sharapova-failed-drugs-test

 

I fully agree. In fact, given the risks associated with boxing, the penalties should be higher than in almost any other sport.

 

Anyway, sorry for derailing the original thread with talk of PEDs. Any other genuinely unlucky fighters?