Olympics

So why did she miss another 2 in a year? This is her livelihood, once you've missed 2 tests you wouldn't miss a 3rd under any circumstances. I'm not saying she has doped but the rules need to be applied across the board. Not a chance anyone on here would be defending her if she wasn't British. Christine Ohuruogo was banned under similar circumstances and Rio Ferdinand got an 8 month ban for missing one test. Athletes are responsible for what is in their body and fulfilling the obligations of the whereabouts system. If they're not, how on earth do you enforce the system?

Don't compare her with Ferdinand - he deliberately avoided a test. In the circumstances if presented with another athlete who had also been tested the following day and has been tested 16 times this year I would take the same view that they should be allowed to compete. Chris Froome missed a test this year when his Italian hotel refused to give the official his room details. I think they need to refine the testing procedures to have more flexibility. I'm sure the hotels in each case would have themselves contacted the rooms if asked but clearly it wasn't.

If she was russian she would have received an immediate ban with no appeal, you can not have one rule for one and one for another. After missing the first two tests she should made sure that she did not miss the third especially with the Olympics coming up.

(03-08-2016 11:37 )SecretAgent Wrote:  Don't compare her with Ferdinand - he deliberately avoided a test. In the circumstances if presented with another athlete who had also been tested the following day and has been tested 16 times this year I would take the same view that they should be allowed to compete. Chris Froome missed a test this year when his Italian hotel refused to give the official his room details. I think they need to refine the testing procedures to have more flexibility. I'm sure the hotels in each case would have themselves contacted the rooms if asked but clearly it wasn't.

How do we know she didn't deliberately avoid a test (or 3)? Because she says so? Her statement is laughable, asking for sympathy and failing to take responsibility. Yes Chris Froome missed one test, but not three and not in a year! As for more flexibility in the system, yeh that's just what we need given the current perception about drugs in sport. The rules are clear and the vast majority seem to manage ok.

^ My point about flexibility was that when a drugs inspector arrives they should be flexible in making sure that they do everything possible to carry out the test. She was in the hotel asleep and it was the official team hotel. As I've already said I would take the same view for any athlete from any country.

If you're saying that the first test was not her fault, as CAS did to be fair, then all athletes could now start sleeping in hotels where the policy is not to give out room numbers and they could avoid being tested. Even if the first one wasn't completely her fault, she still missed two more tests after knowing she'd already missed one. This is inexcusable, and as I said before, totally unprofessional. If athletes are allowed to get away with it there will be those who look to exploit the system and that's where the problems lie. Sport in general is in the midst of a doping crisis and we, the spectators and fans, need to believe that what we are watching is genuine. It may well be that she is just guilty of stupidity rather than doping but the rules are there for a reason and as such I think it is a poor decision to allow her to compete at the Olympics. Remember, there are plenty of athletes banned from competing who have never failed or missed a drugs test

^ You seem to want to twist my point each time so I'll repeat again - the drug testing regime should ensure that the officials doing the testing make every reasonable effort to test the athlete. In this case they did not. In fact after the first missed test she included her room number on all her whereabouts submissions even though it is not a requirement. She has published a personally written statement today which is well worth reading

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(03-08-2016 13:47 )SecretAgent Wrote:  ^ You seem to want to twist my point each time so I'll repeat again - the drug testing regime should ensure that the officials doing the testing make every reasonable effort to test the athlete. In this case they did not. In fact after the first missed test she included her room number on all her whereabouts submissions even though it is not a requirement. She has published a personally written statement today which is well worth reading

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And as I have said, even if you take that missed test as not entirely her fault, there were still two others afterwards when she knew she had one strike against her. As I have also said, I have read her statement and think it is nothing more than an attempt to gain public sympathy and absolve herself of responsibility.

(03-08-2016 11:20 )jimminybob Wrote:  So why did she miss another 2 in a year? This is her livelihood, once you've missed 2 tests you wouldn't miss a 3rd under any circumstances. I'm not saying she has doped but the rules need to be applied across the board. Not a chance anyone on here would be defending her if she wasn't British. Christine Ohuruogo was banned under similar circumstances and Rio Ferdinand got an 8 month ban for missing one test. Athletes are responsible for what is in their body and fulfilling the obligations of the whereabouts system. If they're not, how on earth do you enforce the system?

love this from paddy power

(03-08-2016 13:55 )jimminybob Wrote:  even if you take that missed test as not entirely her fault

The court ruling was that she was blameless on the first missed test and innocent of any wrongdoing, not that it wasn't entirely her fault.