Why did Marion Jones cheat?

[mrbowie]

The biggest question for me out of all of this stuff if why, if she in fact did, would Marion Jones decide to cheat?

She had all of the natural talent in the world and probably enough to win Olympic gold with cheating.

It must be like beautiful women that are so insecure they need to be told all the time that they are wonderful to look at.

[tafnut]

Re: Why did Marion Jones cheat?

you are premature - let's be patient in the process.

[Realist]

Re: Why did Marion Jones cheat?

Without casting aspersions on Flojo, if MJ had any hopes of running 10.49, she quickly realized there was only one way, one can easily surmise. It's also not "cheating" if you think everybody around you is doing the same thing.

[Friar]

Re: Why did Marion Jones cheat?

The record is out of everybodies reach, and a lot of people in this sport think records. While I'm not concluding her guilt yet, let's just say she hung with the wrong crowd.

[Mel]

Re: Why did Marion Jones cheat?

"if MJ had any hopes of running 10.49, she quickly realized there was only one way, one can easily surmise. It's also not "cheating" if you think everybody around you is doing the same thing."

b4 everyone rehashes many of the arguments previously put forward by myself and Asterix, you may wish to review this other thread:

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/tfn/di ... hread=4489

of particular relevance to Realist's remarks quoted above, is this:

what constitutes "cheating" : I agree on paper the rules are clear and therefore "black and white". However, cheating is defined as "seeking to gain an unfair advantage", and I would strenuously argue that such a situation has long since expired, that currently the majority of those taking drugs are "seeking to ERASE an unfair advantage", not to gain one.

and this:

"there IS motivation to chase records perceived (usually correctly) to have been made artificially, in the same manner as was employed by the record holders."

[mojo]

Re: Why did Marion Jones cheat?

We really have no idea if MJ has cheated or not. It doesn't look good but hopefully the truth will come out either way!

I will be very disappointed if she has cheated that she has lied repeatedly and held herself up as a clean athlete. I pray she is innocent- I just want her or the USADA to clear things up!!!

[Friar]

The record? It ain't approachable

I remember when 11o flat was a great time. I'm convinced that the obscene time of 10:49 will never be approached, legally that is, and even cheating is problematic.

It generally conceeded that 10:49 jumped 3 generations in human development. It should have happened, perhaps, in 2030 {not '88}. It's roughly equivalent to 9:55 for men.

[basehead617]

Re: The record? It ain't approachable

i think its been discussed here that it was also a very windy time, though not in the record books officially

[ycn]

Re: Why did Marion Jones cheat?

>It's also not "cheating" if you think
>everybody around you is doing the same thing.

You call yourself a realist? Conformist is the correct word.

"Everybody was doing it..."

The world's most popular excuse for lack of personal responsibility.

[Kurt Francis]

Re: Why did Marion Jones cheat?

Basehead:

While FloJo's 10.49 time MAY have been windy, the official reading is still a legal time, as with OTHER records now in the books. I was there to witness her record, and I've been to the IUPUI many times since as a competitor, coach, and spectator. Stadiums in general produce varied wind speeds and directions depending upon the wind direction and location in the stadium. Welcome Stadium in Dayton, Ohio is another case similar to IUPUI where although a sprinter could definitely have an illegal wind at their backs for the first 40m, the actual wind reading for the race has often been legal due to the fact that the wind dies down in speed as you travel farther along the track down the homestretch of the stadium. These phenomena are due to what most of you are not very familiar with, fluid dynamics. Phenomena such as laminar and turbulent flow come into macroscopic analysis when looking at air flow vectors within different stadiums. Wind readings as defined by the IAAF unfortunately do NOT capture the entire picture of what is happening during a race. To merely slough off FloJo's WR as being "very windy" is not being fair to her and overlooks the same phenomena happening in other stadiums throughout the world. Your analysis is lacking.

Kurt

[Coach Barnet]

Re: Why did Marion Jones cheat?

Drug cheats are also pathological liars. Look at how many time Kelly White pronounced she was drug free.

[mrbowie]

Re: Why did Marion Jones cheat?

Kurt, excellent analysis.

I am a professional in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing.

We have similar trends at different race tracks.

Since betting takes place on horse racing, it behooves serious gamblers to have the best info available about performance. One company does nothing but specialize in analyzing performance for bettors.

Characterizing wind on a given day is one of their priorities.

Horse racing has more variables than track and field, because each track is composed of a different soil mixture, each race is timed from a pole set a varying distances from the starting gate and each horse carries different weight on its back.

Track is relatively free of variables compared to Thoroughbred horse racing.

[basehead617]

Re: Why did Marion Jones cheat?

kurt, i didn't even know about it until recently, the wind issues -- other people from the forum were there i believe and it seemed to be the consensus that the wind reading 0 was definitely wrong and that it was gusting up a storm. i wasnt one of those there, however.

[Powell]

Re: Why did Marion Jones cheat?

Kurt, your analysis is interesting, but I disagree with the conclusion. It's definitely NOT typical for wind to be 0 mps at one point on the track and 5 mps in another. I'm pretty sure none of the other records on the books (possibly none ever set) was set under such conditions. Well... maybe you can include Koch's 47.60 in that category (reportedly the wind was blowing in a circle, helping her the whole way), but it was probably nowhere near as extreme.

I also still think that by far the most likely theory about the 10.49 is that the wind gauge malfunctioned during that race, pure and simple.

[runninfool]

Re: Why did Marion Jones cheat?

However, cheating is defined as "seeking to
>gain an unfair advantage", and I would strenuously argue that such a situation
>has long since expired, that currently the majority of those taking drugs are
>"seeking to ERASE an unfair advantage", not to gain one.

Cheating also defined as: To deceive by trickery; to violate rules deliberately, as in a game.

Your point is taken: if everyone is cheating, then no one is. However, obviously, it's still violating rules deliberately, and it's deceiving we who would prefer to believe that the best athlete wins by dint of their talent and hard work, not by whether they have the best drugs.