Comments on: Floyd Landis wants a 2nd Tour de France win

By: Blaine Moore

Blaine Moore — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 02:55:04 +0000

Jank,

I will not dispute the work that Pound has done in the past; he has obviously had a long career. But I never hear of anything worthwhile that he does any more; I only hear about his persecution of athletes without cause and his championing circumspect and sometimes illegal drug testing. I think that time has past him on, and some sort of reform is needed. The sport does need protection from cheating, but the athletes deserve protection from persecution until they have been legally proven guilty.

Anne,

Thanks for the link. The article brings up some good points.

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 20:31:07 +0000

The LA Times about a month ago did an expose on how out of control the system's gotten and how incredibly hard it is for innocent athletes to clear their name. It really opened my eyes. You can read the first part here (with a link to the second in the article).

By: jank

jank — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:28:57 +0000

I think that Dick Pound’s done a phenomenal job in setting up a logical set of doping controls that span all sport, and was, indeed, the right guy to wake athletes, fans, and regulators up to the wave of doping in the 80′s and 90s.

But, given his conduct in the Landis and Marion Jones cases, you’re exactly right -- he is overstepping his bounds. I do not think that athletes can get truly fair hearings while he’s the head of the WADA.

But that should in no way minimize his contribution to getting doping recognized as a problem.