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Paddy's "Things that cheer you up"


rjw63

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Up in the big kip Dublin and out of the corner of my in Starbucks on O'Connell Street I see a suit drinking his latte playing championship manager 01/02 ......instant respect on what is one of the greatest games ever ......and that's getting the hashtag #fact

Edited by Meath_Villan
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1 hour ago, Tegis said:

What's the deal here? And how's the Norwegian press handling it?

 

Mixed, really, but the overwhelming reaction is shock and disbelief. The two athletes' explanations are plausible enough, and none of them have been caught with performance enhancing levels of any substance. In the case of Sundby, he even has medical clearance for the substance he got done for (astma medicine) hence the minimal punishment. Johaug's is trickier, because there is no way for her to prove her innocence, other than the fact that the level of steroids in her positive test allegedly is too small to be considered performance enhancing. She and her doctor claims the steroid is from a skin ointment bought at an Italian chemist's but we only have their word for it. She will most likely face a relatively severe ban, and a severely tainted reputation. 

People, media included, seem to be forgiving towards the athletes but there is a lot of anger directed at the perceived lack of professionalism among the coaching and medical staff. Innocent or not, the level of stupidity on show is staggering. Heads will most likely roll. 

However, there is absolutely no reason to suspect systematic PED use in Norwegian cross country skiing. Given the sport's relatively unique popularity there is a relatively massive pool of extremely talented athletes to recruit from. Systematic PED use would simply be unnecessary beyond stupid. Of course, maybe they are that stupid, I obviously have no inside knowledge to prove my claim, but none of the two cases suggest even a hint of systematic cheating.

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Thanks!

I must say, the Swedish media is holding back on the backlash. I thought they would go out guns blazing at all this. Sure, there are some subtle digs in quoting other athletes but that's it.

16 minutes ago, Michelsen said:

severely tainted reputation

This is the big thing, every good performance by a Norwegian skier for the next 10 years will be questioned, especially if more shit hits the fan. Basically what happened to the Finns after Lahti      2001

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So one has medical clearance and the other is at levels that are not PED and also has a possible medical explanation?

I get that people loooove to cast aspersions in sport but is this not a ...

storm_in_a_teacup_by_kritter5x-d31kwvp.j

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I am not going to derail this thread with a long post about doping, but

On Johaug; 17 days ago she made an interview how it is the athlete's responsibility to make sure what substances they get into their bodies. The package of this ointment is labelled with a text that says 'Doping'. It's law in Italy to mark it like that. It doesn't really add up that she uses it.

On systematic doping; no proof for this but in the 90's there was measured blood values on skiers from a lot of countries(even Norway and Sweden) on same levels that doped Tour de France-cyclists had. No major suspensions on any nordic countries more than that finnish incident.

and finally; Fridays cheer me up :)

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Booked Friday off from work, they cocked up and gave me Thursday too. Once I finish work in the Morning I'm not back in until Saturday night.

 

Haven't told the missus either, no chance of her thinking up some jobs she wants doing.

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