Lance Armstrong and the Science of Drug Testing

Hugh Pickens writes "As the media reports that seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong says he will no longer fight doping charges from the US Anti-Doping Agency, which will strip him of his titles and ban him from competitive cycling for life, Tracee Hamilton writes that the Lance Armstrong vs. USADA fight is a tough one in which to take a side, because to believe USADA means suspending belief in the science of drug testing. 'If you take personalities out of the equation, you're left with pee in a cup and blood in a syringe,' writes Hamilton. 'Armstrong never failed a drug test. He was tested in competition, out of competition. He was tested at the Olympics, at the Tour de France, at dozens if not hundreds of other events. And he never failed a test.' Instead Travis Tygart, chief executive officer of the USADA, gathered a group of people who swear they saw Armstrong doping. 'If the results can be discarded in favor of testimony, then let's go right to the testimony phase and quit horsing around with blood and urine.' There has been no trial, no due process, but in the minds of many, that testimony outweighs the results of hundreds of drug tests. 'I don't know if Armstrong did the things he's accused of doing, and neither do you,' concludes Hamilton adding that it can't work both ways. 'Either a drug test is the standard, or it isn't.'"

Re:drugs

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

My grandmother relied exclusively on anecdotal sources of evidence, and she lived to be 104!

Re:Drug test the final standard?

[Forty Two Tenfold]

This reminds me a quote from George Carlin:

FUCK Lance Armstrong. [youtube.com]

Re:Drug test the final standard?

[Surt]

I have bad news for you about college sports.

Re:drugs

[AmiMoJo]

Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.