Is Usain Bolt clean?

[TheBluePrince]

Think and hope he's clean.

[Rogdogg]

I hope he's clean. If it ever turns out that he has been cheating that is me done with any athletics forever. I'll never watch another thing.
The farce over the Olympic boxing results has me already considering never watching another amateur boxing match again. You just can't trust it.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by directioneng

Simple really.

He just takes less steps than most to travel 100 meters.

I don't think any drugs are involved.

Have to agree 150% a great sportsman and athlete and has no need of drugs in any way.

[dddrees]

I'm at the point I no longer care that much, because I no longer care that much for what we used too call sports but unfortunately long ago it ceased to be real sports. The excessive amount of money and cheating has pretty much killed the enjoyment I used to get from watching what we used to call sports. I guess because I used to be one of those enthusiastic fans I was partly responsible for the mess it is today.

If it's too good to be true, then it probably is. Actually I've thought for years and still believe Tiger Woods took Peds. He was another one of those too hard to believe athletes as well. It wasn't through testing that Alex Rodriguez latest cheating was discovered. So has the latest tests really caught up with the latest drugs and or methods of cheating? I think we are at the point of trust but verify with athletes, but unfortunately we really have no way of verifying anything.

[cedargrove]

Usain is as clean as Phelps, which is very likely. Both have the right combinations to make them the fastest in their respective sports.

[Ferdelious]

I would love to think and hope that he is clean. He is great for the sport, fun to watch run and has the charisma to go along with it. But, he comes from a humble upbringing in a pretty poor country. There is a lot of money on line and that is usually what motives people to cheat. That has to be considered, especially in a sport that is known for doping.

[Headshrinker]

Originally Posted by Abdullah71601

People are suspicious because "greats" like Lance Armstrong were found to be cheats. And the PEDs usually outpace the detection technology. But that doesn't mean Bolt is cheating.

Whoever thinks there isn't huge pressure, and huge gain, from cheating is very naive.

I agree. By the way, EPO is old technology; CERT and even newer red blood cell enhancers are available.

[GB-man]

Who knows. I agree with Abdullah. So much money on the line everyone has incentive to take them. Do you think A rod, Lance etc have regret? Unlikely. $€£¥ in the bank.

[masyv6]

Until he fails a test he is clean.

However, I wouldn't ever be surprised if he failed a test. It's just the nature of top athletics these days.

[JP Chestnut]

People were asking the same thing about Lance before he got caught. This isn't a court of law - innocent until proven guilty doesn't really apply when it comes to sports and doping.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/oth...en-dreams.html

[amg55]

Originally Posted by JP Chestnut

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/oth...en-dreams.html

Another good read, thank you! An interesting observation from the article "At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Jamaican athletes executed a clean sweep of the 100m. Four years later in London, they repeated the feat. That this small Caribbean island of just 2.8million people should be able, time and again, to lead the world on the track is a captivating story."

[daveathall]

To be honest, I just like the man.

[Runnin' Rebel]

So much for a slow start..WOW. What a fun guy to watch and the crowd loves him.

lol

[amg55]

If the Jamaicans win the 4x100 today, Usain's triple, triple, will never be beaten.

[T. Ferguson]

Just looking at Bolt compared to everyone else he races against, he stands out. Can't believe there are not more sprinters built like him. First step out of the blocks his chest is half way to the finish line, and those naturally long strides are a huge advantage. He takes huge gulps of real estate with every step, for gosh sakes.

[GoingPlaces]

Who really knows? Sure, he's probably more physically gifted than most or all of his competitors but still, no one knows for sure. Nowadays anything is possible, and for this my interest has dropped a degree or two in all sports.

Would not be surprised either way.

[Runnin' Rebel]

Originally Posted by amg55

If the Jamaicans win the 4x100 today, Usain's triple, triple, will never be beaten.

How many people said that about Mark Spitz too. Michael Phelps destroyed that medal count. Every few years and over the years the athelets are getting stronger and faster with more endurance. (Cardio) Entering more events and having events closer together without much recovery time. But, I don't know if actual time records are being broken, someone can look that up. Times broken are broken every year, but I haven't seen anything drastic.

Look at Phelps, he won a gold then 30 minutes later did a preliminary and came in 2nd. The guy is a freak

Look at the NBA basketball players from 50-60 years ago. And the football players coming out of NCAA and compare them to 50-60 years ago. Even the women are so much more athletic.

Better training, earlier training, from womb to paycheck . Kids are starting younger as parents push for that special athlete. I'm not talking about PED either. I don't know, but a Gymnist on the floor running and doing 3 1/2 - 4 summersaults(sp) while in the air was probably almost unheard of 14 summer Olympics ago

[Cru Jones]

Bolt? All Bolt does is win. Not total insane domination.

What about Katy Ledecky?

Winning the 800 meters by 11 seconds seems totally impossible.

Oh well. That's modern sports for you. It's tough to purely enjoy a moment, no matter how much one wants to.

[erling]

Clean or not..... Hope I'm not stealing the thread.... What about running in the Olympics with a 620.000$ watch,
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/th...anded-sprinter
and
http://blog.perpetuelle.com/watches/...august-4-2012/

[locutus49]

Clean. And fast as lightning.

[slorollin]

Nope, they're all dirty. Sorry, we're just to the point of rewarding the most competent cheaters.
Every program has a "guy(s)" that everybody knows by a nod and a wink and a thick cloak of plausible deniability.
And every pro sports team along with most top college programs have their "advisers".
Start with looking at the strength and conditioning coaches. Yep, that's pretty cynical, but, every year my assertion is proven many times.
There is too much money at stake to let the other guy get the edge, even in amateur sports......which really are not amateur any more.......another topic.
Watch a baseball or American football game and look at the players in the dugouts and on the sidelines. Many are showing outward signs of stimulant use, wide open eyes with dilated pupils, intensity that is palpable, agitation, etc. Like the tip of the iceberg, that's just what you can see.

[AK797]

I think he's clean or he would have run a lot faster, times were very slow in both 100 and 200, I really thought he'd go under 19.4 in the 200 final after his semi, but not even close, I would have got a bronze in that.

[rolehex]

I wouldn't bet my Rolex on it.

[Rashid.bk]

No, Usain Bolt is a beast. He towers over his competitors and and his stride is 20% longer than his competition.
There was a science breakdown on his running on Nat Geo or something and they discussed his size and how he does not have the average build to be a runner, his height and musculature. But the man is powerful, a speed mutant who happens to stay healthy.

If you notice his starts, he's always behind his opponents by more than a meter and sometimes two meters at the 25m mark, because he's lanky and tall, but once his head comes up and his stride gets in rhythm, he just powers past.

With the incredibly stringent controls and examples like Marion Jones and the Russian doping fiasco, these athletes are put through extreme testing. It isn't cheating, it's hard to believe but it really is pure raw talent, just like Michael Phelps and Lebron James. Skill, determination and God gifted ability.....hard to believe but yes it does happen.

[Sublover2166]

The man and his performance are just awesome, period.
There are just some athletes that defy logic, and he is one.

[Rashid.bk]

Originally Posted by Runnin' Rebel

How many people said that about Mark Spitz too. Michael Phelps destroyed that medal count. Every few years and over the years the athelets are getting stronger and faster with more endurance. (Cardio) Entering more events and having events closer together without much recovery time. But, I don't know if actual time records are being broken, someone can look that up. Times broken are broken every year, but I haven't seen anything drastic.

Look at Phelps, he won a gold then 30 minutes later did a preliminary and came in 2nd. The guy is a freak

Look at the NBA basketball players from 50-60 years ago. And the football players coming out of NCAA and compare them to 50-60 years ago. Even the women are so much more athletic.

Better training, earlier training, from womb to paycheck . Kids are starting younger as parents push for that special athlete. I'm not talking about PED either. I don't know, but a Gymnist on the floor running and doing 3 1/2 - 4 summersaults(sp) while in the air was probably almost unheard of 14 summer Olympics ago

Exactly, the science of physical training and the technology to support it is way beyond the scope of practice for how people trained 40 years ago. They have cameras, and techniques built around the individual that focus on specific developmental tasks, isolating and strengthening just one key weakness....
Athletes train with scientists now, it's not simply swimming more to swim faster....they have swimming athletes training on bicycles or soccer players doing resistance training playing in three feet deep pools.

Athletes are afforded things like a special coach for a special task...in case of someone like Usain Bolt...
a coach for starts, one for just finishes...now they may not all get credit as he may have "a" coach or "manager" while the others are referred to as counsellors, etc...
Training has come a long way, and more money gets you more science.

[JP Chestnut]

Originally Posted by amg55

Another good read, thank you! An interesting observation from the article "At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Jamaican athletes executed a clean sweep of the 100m. Four years later in London, they repeated the feat. That this small Caribbean island of just 2.8million people should be able, time and again, to lead the world on the track is a captivating story."

Ignoring any doping, or lack of it, that's not a completely fair observation they make. Most big time short distance American runners are black. There are approximately 8.8 million blacks in the USA, so it's not a huge difference. Even further, most super athletic black Americans (and non-blacks) aren't doing track and field. They're in the NFL, NBA, Baseball, etc. Had Bolt been an American, there's a high chance he would have been a high school football star who possibly ended up in the NFL.

[USALV]

Originally Posted by daveathall

To be honest, I just like the man.

[USALV]

Originally Posted by Sublover2166

The man and his performance are just awesome, period.
There are just some athletes that defy logic, and he is one.

[handsfull]

The truth is, no one really KNOWS.

In my world...I wish they had two divisions. One for clean athletes and one for 'other'. Not interested in giving any time to individuals with zero integrity.