Finally Over?

[Possegal]

My take was always that he did it, but that he wasn't someone that chronically doped and just got caught this time. I sort of thought what happened was he bonked, he was distraught, and he bought the BS the phonak dr handed him - we put on this patch, it helps you recover, and by the time you pee in a cup at the end of the stage it won't be detectable. In reality, most scientists would argue that testosterone has any acute effects like that, so I tend to think that a placebo patch would have done the same thing. And clearly the dr didn't know enough to realize that the tests would pick it up despite the length of the stage.

But - the 'system' has failed him in that you can't have labs just disobeying SOPs and the results of their tests being accepted. SOPs are there for a reason and if you don't properly conduct the tests, no matter what the outcome is, the outcome needs to be tossed out. That's how it works in science, we have to control the process to be sure the results are valid. There seem to be so very many ways in which the tests were botched, and even though they likely were positive, you can't let the lab get away with disregarding proper procedures.

So in the end, I still think he got shafted through the whole process. Never met him, but I've always thought he seemed like a decent guy and I felt very very bad for him, even if he did do it.