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news
Paula Radcliffe (right) at the 2007 Great North Run (CC BY 2.0 by Conor Lawless)Paula Radcliffe "the female version" of Lance Armstrong? His nemesis Betsy Andreu thinks so
Betsy Andreu, who played a key part in the downfall of her husband Frankie’s former team-mate Lance Armstrong, has thanked Paula Radcliffe for confirming what she had been told – that the women’s marathon world record holder was considered by some to be “the female version” of the disgraced cyclist.
Andreu had asked Radcliffe whether she was the British athlete who four years ago threatened to sue The Sunday Times over an investigation it was conducting into allegations of blood doping against British athletes.
On Tuesday evening, BBC News sports editor Dan Roan tweeted video of a segment of an interview by the channel’s broadcaster Gabby Logan with Radcliffe at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar.
"We talk about how much money has gone into (this investigation)...i think USADA were maybe trying to regain face after the Coleman fiasco.."
Wonder what the US Anti-Doping Agency will make of Paula Radcliffe's take on their successful pursuit of the banned Alberto Salazar pic.twitter.com/IQnzRSgBTX— Dan Roan (@danroan) October 1, 2019
Logan had asked Radlciffe her thoughts about the four-year ban handed to the athletics coach Alberto Salazar following his four-year ban by the United States Anti-Doping Agency for "orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct."
In response to that video, Andreu asked Radcliffe whether she had been the athlete who, in an August 2015 Sunday Times story under the heading, A dozen top British athletes have recorded abnormal blood scores, threatened to sue the newspaper. Radcliffe confirmed that she was.
I did say that.l was in a distressed state of shock at what they were threatening. I truly admired Walsh’s & your fight that exposed Lance for the bully and fraud he was. Now they were going to run a false, damaging story and I knew I was completely innocent.
— Paula Radcliffe (@paulajradcliffe) October 3, 2019
In response, Andreu said:
Thank you for answering at least this truthfully. I was always told you were the female version of Armstrong. Thanks for confirming.
— betsy andreu (@betsyandreu) October 3, 2019
The Sunday Times story was written by the newspaper’s Insight investigative reporting team, which said that it was not naming the athlete – who insisted they had “never cheated” – “because the source who leaked the doping data requested that athletes who had never been banned for cheating should be kept anonymous.”
The report added: “On three occasions during their career the athlete’s test results were so ‘abnormal’ that there was only a one in a thousand chance that they were natural.”
The newspaper listed a number of events where medals were under suspicion and, separately, the championships they related to. While the data related to all countries and not just Great Britain, the lists included both the marathon and the 2005 Helsinki IAAF World Athletics Championships, where Radcliffe won gold.
It said that it met the athlete in a hotel lobby to discuss the findings, adding: “In reference to this newspaper’s long-running legal battle with the disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, who was obliged to repay libel damages after admitting he had cheated, the athlete said: ‘You print it and I sue you [and] you won’t be getting any money back in future like Lance Armstrong — I promise you that’.”
In November 2015 UK Anti-doping, which had received Radcliffe's blood test history from the IAAF, said it had “come to the same conclusion as the IAAF review that there is no case to answer.”
Salazar’s ban relates to when he headed up the Nike Oregon Project, where Mo Farah trained during 2011-17, the period when he won four Olympic gold medals. Radcliffe remains an ambassador for Nike, and her husband Gary Lough, who was her long-time coach, now coaches Farah, potential conflicts of interest that were not acknowledged during the BBC interview on Tuesday.
Radcliffe, who at times appeared uncomfortable, told Logan that Salazar had “overstepped [a] line.” She also suggested that lack of sanctions against individual athletes meant that they were not guilty of doping.
She said: “We've all talked about in the past about how Alberto, in particular, will push it right up to that line. He's been very conscious of trying to find out where the limits lie and how close he can push it to get those last little bits of gains to compete with athletes that, in his mind, in other parts of the world, are really cheating. He's overstepped that.
“He probably should hold his hands up and say, 'I did, I overstepped. The rules were broken, I will now take the punishment for that'.
“Because no athletes have been sanctioned, have real anti-doping [rules been] transgressed by athletes? I don't think so. Otherwise we would have seen athletes banned at this point."
“The athletes themselves have done nothing wrong at this point.”
The 45-year-old also insinuated that USADA’s investigation had been motivated by Chris Coleman, who won the men’s 100 metres at Doha, escaping a potential two-year ban for missing three anti-doping controls within 12 months due to a technicality.
The inference seemed to be that by banning Salazar, the agency was trying to save face – even though its investigation into him had lasted four years.
Radcliffe said: "We talk about how long this investigation has gone on, how much money has gone into it, because people were waiting for something big.
"I think USADA thought it was something big, I think USADA are trying to maybe regain a little bit of face also for the Coleman fiasco and everything that's gone on.
"In going with this, they've maybe been thinking that it's something along the lines of a Lance Armstrong – which was huge.”
Armstrong, who was also sponsored by Nike during the peak years of his career, received a lifetime ban in 2012 and was stripped of results including his seven Tour de France titles he had won between 1999 and 2005.
Frankie Andreu admitted in 2006 that he had taken EPO when riding with Armstrong at the 1999 Tour de France and subsequently provided testimony to the USADA investigation into the US Postal Service team.
In a 2005 court case, Betsy and Frankie Andreu both testified that they had been present in a hospital room in 1996, when Armstrong was receiving treatment for testicular cancer, that he had admitted to doctors using performance-enhancing drugs, including EPO.
Armstrong won that case, but would finally admit to doping in January 2013, three months after he was sanctioned.
Today, he posted a response on Twitter to Roan’s post of the Radcliffe interview … a pair of eyeroll emojis.
— Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) October 3, 2019
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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49 comments
That's a pretty libellous statement from Betsy about Paula!
Could be an interesting few months coming up...
Andreu goes on to comment further on:
"There are many more questions to be asked, that's for sure. I think some investigative journalists should do their work and reveal to the public the threats, intimidations and quashing of stories that have gone on."
Not sure if this relates to Radcliffe specifically, or the wider problem, but it does suggest she knows more?
Until it turns out that Radcliffe was bullying colleagues into staying quiet there is no comparison.
I am sick of the cycling media ignoring that Armstrong wasn't just a cheat; he was a foul bully who ruined people's lives to keep his secret. That's why people fondly remember the likes of Pantani while knowing that Armstrong is utter scum.
I'm conflicted as to whether this is in cycling's "lane" or not, but never mind: athletics clearly has had, and probably still has, a problem with PEDs. The IAAF has been considerably less vocal and visible in its attempts to stamp out cheating - witness the number of athletes still being picked up only by delayed retesting of London 2012 results!
As with cycling, you must either make a choice: watch, enjoy performances for what they are, understanding that at some point in the future you might find out they weren't clean, or don't watch. With cycling I choose to watch but there are certain athletes whose performances I don't celebrate; with athletics I consider that so many of them are cheating I mostly don't watch. Certainly the distance running events are nothing more than a joke.
Either way - if I was looking for a British athlete with skeletons in the back of the fridge, it wouldn't be Radcliffe at the top of that list... someone who was a competent but not-quite-winning middle distance runner before training in Africa, picking up two golds and promptly retiring would get that prize.
Betsy: Abba or the Bee Gees, Paula?
Paula: Abba.
Betsy: I was always told you were the female version of Armstrong. Thanks for confirming.
I recall Paula's "positive" tests were rubbished because she was tested post event when still dehydrated thereby concentrating otherwise normal levels. Paula has no case to answer. Smear campaigns are nasty.
Paula Radcliffe's assertion that she would sue if named as a doper, and that the newspaper would not be getting its money back a la Lance Armstrong, is exactly what she would say, whether or not she had anything to hide. It reveals nothing other than a confidence that the paper would not be able to prove its claim. And that would either be because she did not dope, or testing could not prove that she had, which pretty much amounts to the same thing.
We sometimes think the lines are well defined, but the Salazar evidence reveals someone who tried to see exactly how the system could be stretched - take a banned substance but not enough to be caught, or take something that is very likely to be banned but isn't yet, or something very similar to a banned substance, or get a handy TUE. These grey areas are a part of the rules and we don't have anything else to use.
But the problem for Radcliffe, Mo Farah and others is guilt by association. You don't want to sack a coach or move stable because of rumours of doping or getting too close to what may be a fuzzy line. But equally, working with some of these guys does smack of hanging out with the Krays, legitimate businessmen creating jobs in the East End night club industry, and ignoring strong hints that they might just, on occasion, have had a slightly darker side.
Cheeky Mare.
Has Paula tested positive?
Did she bully team mates into doping ?
Did she try and silence clean riders ?
Nope she actively protested against dopers.
Betsy knows nothing.
That's the kind of thing Lance's supporters were saying for years... until she was finally shown to be 100% right.
Betsy Andreu is no fool.
Yes, but Betsy was in the room when Lance admitted taking a variety of PED's to an oncolagist.
In this case she is far removed from Paula Radcliffe.
This is the thing that has always disgusted me about her tbh. A friend has been diagnosed with potentially fatal cancer. They are at a low ebb (to state the obvious) yet show love and faith to their friends by letting them in to their inner circle at a sensitive moment.
Then she goes blab about it to everyone afterwards. The fact her husband did the same cheating for a decade gets brushed under the carpet. The fact she and her husband has benefitted from the cheating is never mentioned.
Oh, she's a devout Catholic...but one that doesn't do forgiveness or understanding.
Lance is/was an utter dick...but she was too.
"Betsy knows nothing" yeah right, of course she doesn't. And she didn't know anything about LA, until she did.
Good to see that you've used a misogynistic epithet just as Lance would have done (and did...)
Good for you!
what a load of BS
1 Lance never tested positive ,I.e he never got busted while riding .Did you watch Oprah ?
2 Why the fuck would Radcliffe bully team mates . Fucking stupid logic . She runs for herself .
3 is just stupid and not applicable.
yeah and all those ducking riders who have been caught doping who swore they never took anything until they got busted .
Oh yeah Radcliffe runs the fastest time for a woman in a marathon by a long way and destroying the times of busted woman fellow doping competitors and you think she is clean .
You think she is going to admit it . Protesting against other dopers means she hasn’t doped .fuck me what fucking world do you live in.
by the way Armstrong never bullied anyone into taking PEDs learn the facts .
Armstrong was following the code of doping that is rampant in sport , shhhhhhhh .
every fucking rider he raced against has been busted for doping even simeoni who he chased down got busted . Besty never opened her mouth when her husband was part of the postal/Armstrong money train did she . No she fucking didn’t. Once that train left the station she opens her mouth because her husband lost his contract and she was pissed . Don’t see other postal teammates complaining do you ?
Oh yeah landis and once again because he was left behind the Armstrong money train .
you know shit .
Radcliffe doped up to the eyeballs simple as that . Go check some of the DR s she has visited, you wouldn’t know where to start your to busy watching the BBC etc and suck that bull shit up .
Radcliffe beat her own WR which she'd set in windy conditions in Chicago in 2002, a course that saw a sub 2:06 in the men's race (you understand what a 2:06 was at the time right right?) and many of the leading men setting PBs. Given her credentials it wasn't surprising, she also ran a negative split, the men were 40s up on WR pace at the half way mark but faded somewhat into the wind in the last 2 miles, this is were Radcliffe was a bit smarter otherwise the men would have broken the WR too if they hadn't gone off so fast, maybe they were all doped up to the gills as well, as well as everyone who ran a PB that day??
The London 2003 WR is clearly a bit too subtly different for people like you to understand, in that she ran with male pacesetters, that can positively effect a time particularly when you're often running to win not beat records, she set out to beat the record from the get-go, that doesn't happen that often in competition racing ( the multiple 800/1500/mile WR efforts in the 80s with Coe/Ovett etc was an exception). London has always been seen as a fast course with many WRs set there as well as Chicago and latterly Berlin (which is the place these days for WR marathons) and on the day in 2003 there were also favourable conditions.
The longer races certainly suited PR, the fact that she excelled at cross country as a junior always gave you an indication she was going to be strong in the longer races, she was usually caned in the 5 and even 10ks due to having no finish. She struggled with illness and her asthma at times and sometimes you only get to peak a few times in your career, London was one of them, she'd been in form, healthy, pace-setters, fast course, good weather conditions, and even her age (30 and just about at her peak for the longer distances) so a perfect maelstrom to beat the record, again, this rarely ever happens that everything is right for you as an athlete and with favourable conditions/setting to boot.
Did Radcliffe like all other athletes push the boundaries of the help they could legally get, of course, it would be naive to assume otherwise, but given your remark I presume you have a lot of data on her systematic doping regime you can produce and can be ratified?
As an aside, I happen to agree that the data with regards to climate change is shall we say somewhat disnegenuous and pulling up a graph saying this is what xx has said doesn't convince me. However we have clear signs that some things are not right and changing the environment quickly in some places so we do need to change how we go about things on the planet.
People riding bikes more is something we all want to increase for so many reasons, producing less pollution and heat should be seen as a good side effects of that right? Reducing plastic production/consumption, producing fewer motor vehicles, using less energy/filling the pockets of the super rich less, eating less food, killing fewer people and/or displacing them due to operators of certain conveyances, weather changes etc are all good things no?
You stick to your body building Xena.
So all you have on Paula is that she ran fast. No whistle blower. No positives.
Betsy knows nothing about athletics. To infer that she's like Armstrong because she threatened to sue a newspaper from printing lies is a huge leap.
i write what the fuck I want , on any subject I choose . Wtf experience do you have of athletes at a high level . Lance had no positives , infact loads of athletes passed countless tests . What I do know and it’s a fact , no fucking clean athlete can run nearly 2 minutes faster than her doped up rivals , most of Paula’s rivals were busted . Paula also made visits to well known Drs who don’t have a clean reputation , this is documented. Why is it that you want to believe that sport is clean , yet thousands of athletes have been busted . It’s ridiculous to think she is clean especially the times she has put together. You have every right to think she is clean but your deluded . I suppose you think bolt is clean as well ? Everyone of his teammates got busted for doping . You think he was clean, was he fuck . He visited the same German dr as Paula when aged 15 in Munich because he had a cold ! Seriously a cold . Could you imagine the effect of athletics if bolt was outed . It would be a disaster same with mo . He trained in Kenya , nearly all his teammates, infact I think it may be all them got busted but somehow mo was clean then he s with Salazar seriously ? By the way team Oregon sponsored by Nike .,,,,,who was being paid a shit load by Nike , Seb Coe that’s who . See how it goes . Corrupt as fuck . Wake up mate .
She also actively promoted Nike and just this week spoke glowingly about NOP. Those of us who know athletics and have been involved with it for, in my case 25 years+, have always had our suspicions over Paula. They super human results, the disappearing for months and then coming back and smashing records, the fairly steady progression and then BANG a huge improvement. She may not have been demanding these things but her coach (husband) was not exactly a supportive influence...and now he coaches Mo. Betsy may not know about athletics...or she may. She may not need to, she has been in and around drug taking athletes for a long time and I bet can spot the signs.
Oh, Paula would do well to publish her data...if it was all fine and dandy it would shut us all up wouldn't it?
Interesting. At L'etape du tour this year 52 year old Edwige Pitel finished in 5 hrs 25 mins. The next fastest female was 31 years old and half an hour slower. Is Edwige taking performance enhancing drugs?
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