The problem with the ridiculous over the top Pound rhetoric

[MJD]

And some of it is here. It has consequences:

"In fact, there were even threats on Dick Pound's life. "

http://www.torontosun.com/Sports/Column ... 8-sun.html

[gh]

I see no problem: the guy is the best thing that ever happened to WADA. He gave it balls (and teeth).

[bad hammy]

My problem with Pound is not the general zeal with which he has run WADA and the fight against PEDs in sports, it is that he condones the leaking of positive A test results long before the B samples have been tested, and personally discusses these cases (in a ‘they’re guilty as hell’ fashion) in the press before the B samples have been tested and/or the case has been fully adjudicated. His lack of discretion in such cases is against the rules of his organization and is HIGHLY prejudicial and damaging to the athletes involved. Good riddance to the blowhard – hopefully the next guy learns to follow the WADA rules of information disclosure and insures that everyone involved follows them.

[gh]

careful what you wish for....

[tafnut]

He gave it balls (and teeth).

So this is what DP looks like? :shock:

[gh]

There's no doubt that Pound has pushed the envelope, but at the end of the day I'm left with the inescapable conclusion that no track person I can think of has ever been hurt by his actions.

And more importantly, he has been one suit who has, to the best of my knowledge, never bowed to any special interest in the drug wars. Best of all, he has been a bulldog in going after the professional ball-sports and calling a spade a spade. I think they'd be hunkered down with far less effective programs if he hadn't been so vociferous in calling them out.

Many Americans seem to hate him because of some perceived anti-U.S. bias, but I would note that he also went after the national sport of Canada, in equally bulldoggy fashion.

Diplomacy ain't gonna clean up the dope mess; we've already seen 20 years of that go down the drain.

[26mi235]

gh If he had been able to constrain himself a number of times and keep his own ship operating as it should be there would be less concern about his actions on the drug front. Instead, he has created in a number of people the question about the objectivity and reliability of WADA. Those are unnecessary and costly errors that have and will hurt WADA and related organizations.

BTW, I would be flabbergasted if hockey, football (US), or baseball were anywhere near as clean as T&F, and I doubt they are as clean as cycling. If you were to apply the T&F random, OOC testing covering the array of drugs and add in the testing that cycling does, there would be very large numbers of athletes in each sport that would be banned for life. Of course, Paul Erdos took uppers too (I think my Erdos number is either 2 or 3).

[gh]

gh If he had been able to constrain himself a number of times and keep his own ship operating as it should be there would be less concern about his actions on the drug front. Instead, he has created in a number of people the question about the objectivity and reliability of WADA. Those are unnecessary and costly errors that have and will hurt WADA and related organizations. .....

This is clearly a matter of opinion, of course, but my take on the bottom line is that overall we're farther ahead in the drug-war curve w/ Pound than we would have been without him.

WADA has become feared, and that's a good thing. They're meant to be the Gestapo, not friendly Officer O'Malley walking the beat and whistling a fine Irish tune.

[EPelle]

Recall the article in january in Wired Magazine:

“It's confrontation,” Pound says about his style. “You're confronting a problem: People agree to certain rules of the game and then deliberately break them. You can't finesse it or isolate it or surround it. You have to confront it.”

gh sums it up about right.

[bad hammy]

People agree to certain rules of the game and then deliberately break them. You can't finesse it or isolate it or surround it. You have to confront it.

The problem we have had with Pound is that he condones and exacerbates rule-breaking within the PED-testing infrastructure he is responisible for, exposing athletes to public censure prior to the completion of the durg-testing process.

[gh]

I think you're equating (to perhaps stretch a metaphor and then hyperbolize it!) jaywalking offenses with murder.

[26mi235]

I think you're equating (to perhaps stretch a metaphor and then hyperbolize it!) jaywalking offenses with murder.

But it is unnecessary and diminishes the support that he gets and that is important. He has been effective, he could have been more effective if he had kept things in line at his end.

[bad hammy]

I think you're equating (to perhaps stretch a metaphor and then hyperbolize it!) jaywalking offenses with murder.

I'm not sure that athletes with leaked A positives followed by B negatives would agree . . .

[EPelle]

Agree about what? I don:t know how Pound would have been involved with that. USADA is the first body notified by the testing laboratory, followed by the athlete:s NGB. USADA keeps an air-tight lid on all open cases not granted exception by the affected athletes. One of the athletes to whom you may be referring had legal counsel which stated the NGB could have been responsible for that leak. Why do you contend that WADA would have had any hand in leaked results?

[gh]

I think you're equating (to perhaps stretch a metaphor and then hyperbolize it!) jaywalking offenses with murder.

I'm not sure that athletes with leaked A positives followed by B negatives would agree . . .

Has Pound ever leaked an A-positive?