johnguinness's Diaryland Diary
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
camelot
I continue to just try to get through one day at a time with no expectations. I got to the store at 6:00 A.M. Friday to get some pancake mix to go with my beloved cherry preserves, and some ice cream and cookie dough.
I guess I watched bits and pieces of things on Justin TV again. Luckily, (for me) I have a fresh news story to follow for a while. Contador's CAS hearing about his clenbuterol positive was originally scheduled for Monday through Wednesday, but was postponed until August 1. A lot of people are whining because they wanted a decision before the Tour de France.
Anyway, two days after his hearing would have ended, a clenbuterol story that might blow the whole subject up took over the news. You've probably heard it, but five Mexican soccer players who were meant to play on a national team in the U.S. this week found out they tested positive on May 21. The fun thing is they were at the High Performance Center the day of the test, where everything supposedly passed strict controls to prevent this sort of thing. They say it must have been beef or chicken. Cycling journos of course thought it was hilarious, including one (rhymes with witch) who said she was going to write a clenbuterol cookbook.
Think about it. You've got five guys from different club teams. Soccer players are hardly ever drug tested, but it was guaranteed that these guys would be tested before going to the tournament. To think that the five of them would independently be stupid enough to show up for the test with something in their system that might have helped their body composition (muscle versus fat) before, but could do them no good now, is a stretch for me.
Anyway, they got their results much faster than Contador did, and they know the supplier of the meat. All five guys flew to Los Angeles where the lab is, to have their B samples tested, and to have other tests done. They can test hair samples for clenbuterol to see how long it's been in the system.
The Mexican government has issued a statement saying their meat is fine. Of course they did. Even though the same day, there was a story of six people, including kids, being sick from the stuff.
The fact that it's soccer players is a huge deal in terms of news impact. People hear about a cyclist, think that's a dirty sport, and laugh at the contaminated meat story. They haven't published the amounts yet, but the world is about to find out that WADA doesn't have a minimum threshold to declare a positive. They'll also be surprised to find out that there's something called Strict Liability, so if the five can prove that they didn't cheat, and that the substance was in food, they have to be punished anyway. Yes, they're innocent, so we'll only ban them for one year, and they're not allowed at the Olympics.
I've been living with Contador's positive since late September. I've fought for him in forums, and comments at articles. Now there are seven weeks left before his hearing, and I'm damned excited that the power of soccer might force WADA to make changes, and Alberto will be instantly innocent, because the crime won't even be a crime any more.
Spoiler alert. I just watched the season finale of Camelot. #1 If you can show the people the king's sword, they'll automatically believe he's dead. They won't want to go get his allegedly dead body, or give him a funeral or anything. Nope, long live the queen. #2 They killed off two of the few characters I respected, including the squinting hottie from Meet Joe Black. #3 They got the king to have sex with his half-sister because he thought it was Guinevere, whose husband had just been buried after dying to save Arthur's life. Yes, the Guinevere that Arthur had sex with on her wedding day, and continued to pursue.
I'm not counting down the days to season 2.
3:34 a.m. - Saturday, Jun. 11, 2011
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|