Originally Posted by Jaccobabe:
“Problem is very difficult to actually do since she was never caught?”
Originally Posted by
Lunatic Dreyfus:
“It's all well and good doing that, but we still can't be certain that the athletes setting the new WR's will be clean and above board either, particularly in the women's 100m to 800m events. The sport's in such a state at the moment that anyone doing anything really special is considered a probable doper, until proven otherwise.
You could argue Mike Powell's 8.95m long jump is out of reach by today's standards. Dibaba's 1500m time is pretty outrageous as well. especially compared to the next best current woman. Where would the axe stop?
I fear we're stuck with them and any slash and burn of the books might just encourage more doping in the mad free for all to get the glory and financial rewards on offer for setting new records.”
To clarify, it's not the scrapping of all world records that I'm in favour of (I think that's a pretty bad idea). I'm talking about specific cases where the circumstantial evidence of doping is overwhelming, as with Flo Jo's. I'm not basing that purely on "outrageous" or extremely impressive results either, as I don't believe that is enough to base doping accusations on.
I agree that it wouldn't be easy because she was not officially caught, and it would therefore be unrealistic of me to expect it, but I imagine they would have a much easier time of removing the wind-aided 10.49 (especially since the actual world record holder would remain the same) and that would be a start.
Just because current athletes have the opportunity to, and sometimes do cheat, does not mean nothing should be done about past athletes who have if the case against them is strong enough. I think it's too cynical to suspect that every single one is doing so and, in that case, why shouldn't they actually be given a realistic shot at breaking the WR, and receiving the plaudits that accompany it, if they genuinely
are the greatest of all time? Besides, I suspect that athletes who are prepared to cheat would already be doing so for World Championship and Olympic glory..