Rafa and P.E.D's

[Murderface84]

I can't help but notice the comments, any time I go on a news site to read about tennis, about Rafa supposedly using PED's.

As a huge tennis fan (obviously) this both shocks and upsets me. My question is where is this coming from???

How do I watch tennis every day and read about tennis every day, yet have never heard ANYTHING about this??? Is there any proof?? Is this all speculation simply because he's obviously SUPREMELY physically fit???

Most of the people making these comments are obviously fans of other sports where PED use is rampant (baseball, football, etc) and not huge tennis fans, so maybe it's just coming from a place of ignorance...but there are a LOT of people who are absolutely convinced he's using PED's.

Any thoughts???

Personally I don't know a whole lot about PED's, but it seems weird that somebody on PED's would LOSE muscle mass in the way that Rafa has since the mid 2000's.

Frankly it gets old arguing with these morons

[R0CK GAMER]

yes ive also read about nadal using p.e.d as a huge rafa fan it upsets me that people would think this i mean really? why would they think such things they spreading rumors should really get some proof/evidence before judging this kind well spoken young gentlemen

[BrushedBigJJ]

Personally I don't know a whole lot about PED's, but it seems weird that somebody on PED's would LOSE muscle mass in the way that Rafa has since the mid 2000's.

A tennis player wouldn't need peds that increased muscle mass, they would need the kind that would give them endurance or spurts of energy.
I can't tell who's clean and who's dirty now a days. The main reason is because of Lance Armstrong. He looked innocent for all those years but evidence kept piling up until it became clear he had cheated big time. The people that accused him early looked crazy and disrespectful, just like the Rafa accusers now. In the end if Rafa is clean there will be no proof to find. If he's dirty they will eventually have to come up with the proof or shut up.

[JohnCurveo]

I don't understand why Rafa would be guirlty really. The comparison with Lance Armstrong is ridiculous. Lance was not that innocent, there was strange stuff from the beginning. It's more ridiculous i heard someone saying they changed the bllod from Nadal to Puerta on that 2004 final in Roland Garros.

Everything is doped in Spain, for the masters of rumours and hypocresy. L'equipe.

We can see here some doped guy playing tennis for children: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqmPoRytiYE#t=2m58

[emate007]

I had an interesting conversation a few weeks ago with a guy who suspects Nadal has used in the past. His biggest points were:
1. Nadal took his 7 months off last year just before the start of the olympics, where testing is much more stringent and different than the ATP.
2. The types of PED's a tennis player would use are most definitely not anabolic. More muscle mass isn't the goal, but faster recovery from long matches. Very similar to the kinds baseball pitchers use (pitchers have been caught doping far more than hitters). I don't remember the drug names this guy rattled off, but he made a lot of sense. I really don't see it though, I think he's just an amazing athlete.

Was reminded of this article I saw last month, really interesting read:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-s ... -baseball/

[ICEMAN_9588]

I had an interesting conversation a few weeks ago with a guy who suspects Nadal has used in the past. His biggest points were:
1. Nadal took his 7 months off last year just before the start of the olympics, where testing is much more stringent and different than the ATP.

Speaking of that, there are people that say the same about Nadal's injuries in late 2005 and in 2009...Same old same old.
But yesterday (or just a few days ago) Federer himself complained about the anti-doping control tests.
He said (and I quote):
"I just feel like we're not getting tested enough. I wasn't tested in Basel and in Paris, but I got tested here after the first match. There needs to be more testing done,"
And also:
[i]"I used to get tested more. I think I was tested 25 times in 2003 and 2004. Ever since, it's clearly been going down. Last year when I won in Dubai, Rotterdam and Indian Wells, I didn't get tested in one of those three events. For me, that's not okay. You [should] just show up and test a guy that's winning everything, and that's sometimes what I struggle with."

In fact, this is one of the most controversial question in tennis anti-doping. There are few tests on urine samples, and the ones on blood samples are even less.
It's only a stat, I'm not accusing Nadal (by the way, I think he's totally clean).

2. The types of PED's a tennis player would use are most definitely not anabolic. More muscle mass isn't the goal, but faster recovery from long matches. Very similar to the kinds baseball pitchers use (pitchers have been caught doping far more than hitters). I don't remember the drug names this guy rattled off, but he made a lot of sense. I really don't see it though, I think he's just an amazing athlete.

Exactly.
Of course, there are a lot of kind of PEDs. In sports like tennis, stamina but, above all, recovering the energy lost, are the most important goals.
That's the point of a lot of accusations against Nadal. People say that it's suspicious that he plays a 4-5 hours match and 1 or 2 days later, he's still at that level, or close to it.

[djarvik]

It is my opinion that there is something going on and that a vast majority of players use some sort of performance enhancers. The definition of "drug" is a bit vague... These guys travel with the "pharmacy kit" of all sorts of "supplements". They have people on payroll whose sole purpose is to improve their bodily response and performance. The science of various "performance enhancers" is further ahead of testing at the moment in this filed (from what I have read).

I also believe it is not in ATPs interest if anything like that will come out and be made public.

If it smokes like a duck, there's fire.

[BrushedBigJJ]

I don't understand why Rafa would be guirlty really. The comparison with Lance Armstrong is ridiculous. Lance was not that innocent, there was strange stuff from the beginning.

Which beginning are you talking about, the beginning of his tour de france run or the beginning of his retirement? I don't recall hearing about positive tests at either of these times. I don't even know if he would have been caught if those around him had continued to stay silent.

[ICEMAN_9588]

Armstrong case "proved" that test results are absolutely irrelevant (at least in cycling).
I mean, is there anyone here that still believes that UCI knew nothing about the fact that Armstrong (and Ulrich, Pantani, Riis and many many others) used to take PEDs or to transfuse (is the verb right?) their own blood?

[Corbon]

Armstrong has been protected for years by USAC. Samples disappeared or were swapped, hush money was paid, the whole package.

Remember who tested positive during the US trials for the '88 Olympics in Seoul and then went on to win 2 Gold and 1 Silver? Right, Carl Lewis. Or Marion Jones, who in 2007 admitted using PED's dating back to Sydney 2000. Was never tested positive. If they don't want you to get caught, you won't get caught.

[BrushedBigJJ]

The only person you mentioned that hasn't been brought down is Carl Lewis. And if memory serves one of his gold medals was only given after the Canadian guy who beat him(his name escapes me at the moment) got a positive test and was stripped of the gold...oh the irony. I watched a special about these two, a while back. The other guy admitted to taking peds, while Carl had an excuse for everything, and took every chance to slam the other guy for his dirty ways.

[ICEMAN_9588]

Armstrong has been protected for years by USAC. Samples disappeared or were swapped, hush money was paid, the whole package.

Remember who tested positive during the US trials for the '88 Olympics in Seoul and then went on to win 2 Gold and 1 Silver? Right, Carl Lewis. Or Marion Jones, who in 2007 admitted using PED's dating back to Sydney 2000. Was never tested positive. If they don't want you to get caught, you won't get caught.

I've heard about it in a documentary. They justified Lewis' test failure with some sort of cure for a respiratory disease.

[Corbon]

The only person you mentioned that hasn't been brought down is Carl Lewis. And if memory serves one of his gold medals was only given after the Canadian guy who beat him(his name escapes me at the moment) got a positive test and was stripped of the gold...oh the irony. I watched a special about these two, a while back. The other guy admitted to taking peds, while Carl had an excuse for everything, and took every chance to slam the other guy for his dirty ways.

In that 100m race Calvin Smith should have won Gold (went 4th, then 3rd). Everyone ahead of him has been tested positive during their careers in crucial moments. Lewis should've never started and Christie was protected as well.

[supinesmokey13]

The only person you mentioned that hasn't been brought down is Carl Lewis. And if memory serves one of his gold medals was only given after the Canadian guy who beat him(his name escapes me at the moment) got a positive test and was stripped of the gold...oh the irony. .

his name is Ben Johnson

[Corbon]

Another big name caught!

http://www.itftennis.com/antidoping/new ... vWH0O6y.99

She probably took the advise to "play like Agassi" too literally.