how good was Mary Slaney ...

[kuha]

Re: how good was Mary Slaney ...

The Letsrun website must agree with IAAF, since every time her name comes up they preface it with "drug cheat."

Of course, the ratio over there of idiots to knowledgable posters is astronomical. They mistakenly trust no one after, and everyone before, about 1970.

[4:24-miler]

Re: how good was Mary Slaney ...

First, about that 31:35.3(h) 10k time. She was younger than what might be implied above, as she ran that time on 16 July 1982 (so, 23 yo, just shy of 24 yo). It lowered the WR by ~42 seconds. I don't have any details on the event itself, but it must have been pretty much a solo effort, and -- I think it is correct that it's her only track 10k (unless I've forgotten something, which is always possible). She did run a 31:38 road 10km a couple of years later, which was not a WR/Best, but was in the range of where Waitz and Kristiansen had put the 10km road record at that point.

Decker ran her 10K world record in racing flats!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

[Powell]

Re: how good was Mary Slaney ...

Decker ran her 10K world record in racing flats!

But it's not that unusual, is it? I've certainly heard of at least a few other people running world-class times on the track in flats.

[huntinwr]

Re: how good was Mary Slaney ...

The Letsrun website must agree with IAAF, since every time her name comes up they preface it with "drug cheat."

Of course, the ratio over there of idiots to knowledgable posters is astronomical. They mistakenly trust no one after, and everyone before, about 1970.

True that, about the posters on the message board. But this is coming from the moderators of the site, the Johnson brothers or their employees.

[4:24-miler]

Re: how good was Mary Slaney ...

Decker ran her 10K world record in racing flats!

But it's not that unusual, is it? I've certainly heard of at least a few other people running world-class times on the track in flats.

Maybe it wasn't unusual back then? I don't see any 10K women wear racing flats today that I can remember.

[Powell]

Re: how good was Mary Slaney ...

In her case, "fail" is somewhat open to interpretation, as USATF says she didn't and IAAF says she did. Unfortunately, no WADA around in those days to properly adjudicate the differences.

The story I heard was that it wasn't a case of the USATF believing in her innocence as much as their being afraid of a multi-million dollar suit, so they were happy to hand the job of banning Slaney to the IAAF, knowing full well she would be found guilty.

I'd also note that the test in question came more than 20 years after she first World Ranked as a 14-year-old. If you'd like to believe she was dirty for that entire period, you're welcome to do so.

So she was winning world titles and setting WRs clean, then suddenly turned to drugs in her mid-30s when she was marginally world class. If you'd like to believe that, you're welcome to do so.

If she were indeed a user all that time, by all accounts still being in rather robust shape and having given birth to a healthy child, I'd say that's an argument that "PEDs will destroy you" is perhaps an overblown argument.

Marion Jones has 3 presumably healthy kids, and doesn't appear to be in poor health herself, so she must have been clean throughout her career, right?