JooMo’s new #DumptheJunk campaign coincided (very topically!) with
the revelations that several Jamaican athletes and a few other high
profile athletes tested positive for doping. The most notable being
Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell, two of Bolt’s closest rivals and on the
women’s side, Veronica Campbell-Brown, the reigning world 200m
Champion and Sherone Simpson.
Gay, who is the 2nd fastest man EVER over 100 metres, second to.. I
can’t remember at the moment.. blamed someone he “put his trust” in
and said they “let him down”.
Powell’s story was somewhat similar: “I want to be clear in saying
to my family, friends and, most of all, my fans worldwide that I
have never knowingly or wilfully taken any supplements or substances
that break any rules,”
All of this seems to make out each of the athletes as a victim, it
was someone they put trust in or they didn’t willfully take it so it
must have been due to the amazing amount of regulations about drugs
that they failed the test, they simply couldn’t keep up with the
demands and so, made a mistake with their supplements.
Want to know my opinion on this? Ok:
Absolute crap.
There it is, blog done!
As an athlete, you have grown up with the constant and obsessive
care taken over which foods to eat, regulated time of eating,
specific amounts of each category of food, vitamins, nutrients and
supplements. You will have grown up being completely fussy about
looking at what is in everysingle thing administered as that can
have a difference – as Dave Brailsford from British Cycling said
“marginal gains” give you the best chance of winning. So are these
athletes saying that the regulations are so fussy and long that they
didn’t take their utmost care to make sure anything they were
taking, whether it be them administering it themselves or through
someone they “put their trust in”? Are they saying that although
they’ve spent their lives being, basically, OCD about their intake,
they suddenly didn’t think to check, with the same thoroughness,
their supplements?
Of course not.
Going back to Dave Brailsford, apparently Rebecca Pendleton and her
fellow cyclists weren’t allowed to shake hands with strangers in the
fear of catching something, all about the marginal gains. This is
completely nutty on the face of it, but as a professional athlete,
marginal gains and attention to detail are what win races. My point
is, how come no one in these sort of regimes (which will be most
regimes of any top athlete) “accidentally” take illegal substances
in supplements? There is no coincidence here for me, the athletes
who take it “accidentally” have just made an excuse.
So, as JooMo launched their #DumptheJunk campaign, all about
dumping the un-natural ingredients in so called natural products and
stopping false advertising, it was so amazing to see Bolt and Froome
win their respective races, being clean and dumping the junk! These
guys are the real heroes! Competing in a time with dopers tainting
the image of sport, it’s funny how the dopers are the ones who
believe they are the victims.. Ah well, being clean wins out right!
