Did Floyd Landis Use External Testosterone?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the doping allegations against cyclist Floyd Landis, specifically regarding the presence of external testosterone in his urine samples. Tests conducted by the French national antidoping laboratory revealed that some testosterone detected in Landis's system originated externally, challenging his claims of innocence. The carbon isotope ratio test, which is controversial, indicated a mildly elevated testosterone level, raising questions about the reliability of the testing methods and the possibility of sample contamination. Experts suggest that the case against Landis may be difficult to substantiate due to the complexities of hormone testing and the potential for false positives.

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  • #31
Gokul43201 said:
I don't get this either. I think dope tests are performed on all track athletes before every heat in an Olympic event. Why not here? This random sampling business is just weird.
It's almost like an out, isn't it? If, hypothetically, everyone in the race was doping, and they're only testing the top 3 or so at each stage, plus a handful of randomly selected competitors, one could strategize and drop back to 4th place at every stage to avoid testing, and come out the winner while still doping.

Having only one or two samples during a race also more readily opens it up to challenge. You can argue almost any excuse you want to, and there's no evidence from earlier or later samples to prove otherwise.

From a scientific perspective, I'd also be really interested in seeing how the overall profiles look throughout the course of such a prolonged endurance challenge. With such physical and mental stress, I would predict you'd see quite a bit of changing hormone levels as the race progresses, or that you might see a change in the first few days that then levels off as the body compensates. If such changes weren't observed, it sure would toss a few hypotheses regarding stress/hormone interactions out the window. Having a good profile from a large cohort of athletes in a particular sport will also help validate the use of a single sampling procedure in the future if that's what they intend to use. But, before you can claim you know anything from a single sample, you really do need to know what happens over time in a series of samples.
 
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  • #32
This makes me feel a little better. Colbert is the only one who's jokes on the matter made me laugh.
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  • #33
Chi Meson said:
This makes me feel a little better. Colbert's jokes
:smile: Of course he's got high levels of testosterone . . . He's an American. :smile: :cry: :smile:
 

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