Film Review – Icarus by Brian Fogle I was fortunate to be given a pass to go to DocFest to see the film Icarus, by Brian Fogle. On Tuesday 13/6/17 I will be talking about this in Sheffield (DocFest Link) please come along. Brian Fogle finished the Haute…
Tag: EPO
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WADA report on Rio dope testing flaws
At every Olympic games there is a drug testing programme, coordinated by the local organising committee on behalf of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). For the past few games there has also been a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) “Independent Observer Team” to monitor these tests. Their report was released…
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The Radcliffe conundrum – Is the biological passport fit for purpose?
This week blood has been a big issue. In particular the blood of Paula Radcliffe, Britain’s athletics superstar and marathon world record holder. I imagine most of you have seen some of the coverage. This has been a fairly fast moving story today, I have had to scrap the first draft and…
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Does professional rugby have a drugs problem?
There has been an increase in doping control positive samples from rugby players recently. Has rugby (combined league and union) now overtaken the cyclists as the sportsmen at the forefront of doping? Now it doesn’t need a trained medical doctor or even a sports doping expert to see the physical…
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Cycling and the athlete biological passport
This week Team Sky, the poster boys of the new clean cycling, have hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. Firstly John Tiernan-Locke (JTL), a British rider who won the Tour of Britain in 2012, was charged with an offence picked up by the athlete biological passport. Last night it was…
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Operation Puerto
For those interested in pro cycling one ‘Operation’ has been of massive interest and intrigue over the past 7 years – Operation Puerto. Currently this case is in court – what have we learnt in the last couple of weeks and why should it be of interest to more than just…
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5 questions I would now ask Lance Armstrong
Having had a few days to think about the Lance Armstrong confession session there are some questions I would still like answered. Here are the top 5 questions that I would ask if given the chance. Last week Oprah Winfrey recorded an interview with Lance Armstrong. This interview was shown over…
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Lance given the key to the EPO test
Was Lance Armstrong told how to beat the EPO urine test by the Swiss laboratory director? Of all the stories to have come out of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) investigation this is the first involving what could be impropriety from a scientist. It was alleged this week that Lance…
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The Lance File
This site is about scientific evidence – so what’s the evidence versus Lance Armstrong then? ‘ Isn’t it all a witch hunt?’ ‘Where’s the smoking gun?’ ‘It’s all hearsay’… I hadn’t intended to talk doping this week but these are the comments I have had this week from students, colleagues and friends. So I…
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Doping – 13 years ago…
I was reading through my Forensic Science MSc project this evening to help prepare a lecture when I came across the following quote: Many events have recently had problems with doping. The Tour de France was overshadowed in 1998 by seizures from competing teams of products such as erythropoietin (EPO), a…