In accepting the 1964 Republican National Convention’s nomination to run for the US presidency, Barry Goldwater paraphrased Cicero, saying:
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Taking a page straight out of Goldwater’s playbook, Dick Pound told reporters at an anti-doping conference in Athens,
You can’t be prudent in the fight against doping.
Pound, in his comment, was refering to the rebuke handed him by the International Olympic Committee’s ethics commission earlier this month, which said Pound should, “exercise greater prudence…when making public pronouncements that may affect the reputation of others.”
He went on to say,
I’m very happy to be known by the enemies I make. You’re dealing in most cases with organized cheating and hypocrisy beyond belief. You’ve got to challenge them; you’ve got to be right in their face.
Classic Pound. WADA’s current chairman also spoke with reporters briefly about the man most likely to succeed him, Jean-Francois Lamour.
The guy who’s presumably going to replace me, Lamour, he’s a two-time Olympic champion, he’s been there…he doesn’t like what’s going on, and he’s way ahead of me, suggesting that the penalty should be four years.
That’s right, Lamour has suggested that the current first-offense penalties be upped to 4-year suspensions from competition, instead of the current 2-year bans. For many athletes, this would amount to a permanent ban from competition, as the dedication and focus needed to maintain peak performance would be sorely tested through 4 years of training without the opportunity to compete. That, and their income will suffer greatly, too.
So, if Lamour does replace Dick Pound, we will get all the zealousness of Pound (and more) without the quotable quotes (or verbal cluster bombs, depending on your point of view). As the saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for … “
It is amazing how disfunctional WADA and UCI actually are. Here we have the report today that the Tour de Epo didn’t even test for it! WTF??
Amgen, a terrfic company if you bought stock in the 80’s, has EPO as their signature product (first big $$ making hit for them years ago), and they have generously signed on to support the Tour de Left Coast. According to Amgen, they are outraged that UCI did not test for ther own product.
This is such a farce no way that you could make this shit up!
What was UCI thinking, if they had a positive epo hit that Amgen would pull the sponsorship? Maybe that IS the culture in Europe cycling, which may be why the pro sport of cycling is so screwed up, I don’t know.
But this morning, reading this NYT story, I can only shake my head and wonder if any of these guys running WADA and UCI have more than two firing neurons. I don’t think so.