Count Me In

From Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times (via Trust But Verify) comes this:

Tour de France champion Floyd Landis is seeking help to meet the expense of fighting the doping charges against him. A spokesman for the cyclist said he has established the Floyd Fairness Fund, which aims to raise more than $2 million in a public appeal, to help pay his bills for legal assistance and scientific experts.

Landis says he has already spent $150,000 to defend himself against the charge that he doped with testosterone during his victorious ride in the race this summer. Landis maintains he is innocent.

Landis says he will also start a separate entity, tentatively called the Athlete Fairness Organization, to help wrongly accused athletes fight doping charges and lobby for improved protection for accused competitors.

I’ve always wondered how long Floyd would be able to carry on the fight, given how expensive the fight must be. When you consider that the anti-doping authorities have much greater resources at their disposal than the average pro cyclist, it’s no surprise that the ADAs can keep going long after the accused athletes have run out of resources and must fold their tents and go home.

Word on the street is that the organizations will be up and running shortly after the first of the year. Sooner would be better, as far as I’m concerned, but anytime is better than no time.

So here’s another way you can support Floyd, if you’re so inclined. And, for as much as I shoot my mouth off in support of Floyd, when it comes to bellying up to the bar, count me in. Just tell me where to send the check.

On a different note, here’s a story about a … umm … different kind of “doping” test. It seems that Santhi Soundararajan, a runner from India, failed a gender test after winning the women’s 800 meters event at the Asian Games in Doha recently.

“Santhi was subjected to a gender test in Doha and we have received the report which says she failed the test,” said Manmohan Singh, chairman of the Indian Olympic Association’s Medical Commission.

Soundararajan is refusing to comment. “I was not informed about the test results and I don’t know much on that. I do not want to talk about it,” she told journalists.

I hear echoes of the 1972 East German Women’s Swim Team here. But seriously, how could Soundararajan pass a gender test at the Asian track and field championships in South Korea last year, and then fail a gender test this year?

Could this be the dawn of genetic doping? Dick Pound must be wetting himself with glee, now he’ll really be able to scare up huge amounts of money to create tests to detect genetic doping.

After all, what other explanation could there possibly be? (Unless, of course, it turns out that Soundararajan happens to be a hermaphrodite.)