Get set for athletics

The Tour de France has come and gone, and the world's collective 'endurance-attention' now turns to athletics, whose showpiece, the World Championships, kick off on August 25th in Osaka, Japan. And here on the Science of Sport, that will be our focus for the best part of the next month. We're sure there'll be the usual diversion caused by doping in sport, be it remnants of the Tour or a new announcements in athletics, but we'll be sure to bring you the on-track science and off-track action of the IAAF World Champs.

To kick off, this weekend sees arguably the strongest half-marathon field in history gathered in New York for the NYC Half Marathon. Haile Gebrselassie, serial world-record breaker at track and on the road (apart from the marathon, where he's been inconsistent, but still incredibly fast) takes on Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya, Abdi Abdirahman of the USA, and SA's Hendrik Ramaala over 21 km. It's a fascinating race because it brings together athletes from the two extremes of the running continuum over a common distance - the track runner pedigree of Gebrselassie (and, to a lesser extent, Abdirahman) versus the marathon credentials of Cheruiyot and Ramaala should make for a great battle. The pre-race hype has focused on these four, and threw up a couple of great quotes.

The first is from Haile Gebrselassie, talking about whether his children will ever be great long distance runners. He says he doubts it...:

“You need a hard time when you are training, especially long distance,” he said. “My kids, they live a luxury life. Between my house and school, it’s 3K and they use a car. My age, it was 10K and you walked to school.”

One of the most interesting debates in track and field athletics is in fact whether the dominance of the Africans in the long-distance events is a genetic or a lifestyle issue. We alluded to this briefly in our previous post on Ethiopian running, but in future posts, now that the athletics season is upon us, we'll delve into this in a bit more detail.

The second quote is from Hendrik Ramaala, referring to the marathon event:

"I'm still afraid of it (the marathon). I think all the guys deep down, they are scared of the marathon. I'm scared of the marathon. If anything goes wrong after 30k, you know what is going to happen. You're going to have to drag yourself to the finish line... I'll always respect the marathon because it can humble you."

Comforting words for all mere 'mortals' who tackle the distance...we'll look at the event in more detail in the next few weeks.

Finally, on the tracks of the world, a busy time lies ahead, with the culmination of the Golden League series soon after the World Championships, and the promise of some 100m races to savour between Tyson and Powell, who have so far managed to avoid one another.

Let's hope it's a clean month for the sport, and we'll do our best to report on the science behind the performances.

R & J

The Barry Bonds dilemma

The tour is finished, and even though this year a breaking news (ok, doping!) story might emerge at any moment, we are going to turn to America for this post. Baseball fans or not, some of you may know that Barry Bonds (of BALCO infmay) will most certainly break baseball's most hallowed record any day now. Henry Aaron holds the record for the most number of home runs in the game at 755, but currently Bonds is at 754, and with over a month remaining in the 2007 season he is almost assured of being the new home run king.

This is such a charged topic that we could write a book on it, and in fact, two sports writers already did. In 2006 Mark Fainaru-Wana and Lance Williams published "Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports" (follow the link on the left to buy this book). It is a must read for those not only interested in baseball but other sports as well since many sports had "BALCO athletes" in them. So we will leave it to them to explain the intricate details of that story, and will focus rather on Bonds' record for now.

Reaction to Bonds is mixed in this country. To be sure, many many fans boo him and taunt him at ball parks across the country. He is greeted by crowds chanting, "Steroids! Steroids!" and "Cheater! Cheater!" Yet in the San Francisco area, where Bonds' team is from, people still line up at batting practice just to try to catch one of his practice home run balls. In addition, the commissioner of baseball has always tried to dodge Bonds, and until recently had been skipping Bonds' games while he creeped ever closer to the record. Apparently he has decided to be present during the record, although you get the feeling that he really wishes it was not Bonds to break the record.

Recently at his book launch in Chicago, Floyd Landis (“Positively False,” also on the left up there) was asked about Barry Bonds and what he thought of him breaking the record. Landis’ response was that during the years when Bonds was taking steroids, these drugs were not banned in Major League Baseball, and there was no testing policy. Therefore, shouldn’t we get off of Bonds’ back? Did he really do something against the rules? After all, he was not violating the rules of baseball as they were at that time.

This is a shocking response but probably illustrates the ambition of athletes like Bonds and Landis. For those athletes who possess such a will and desire to win, the ends justify the means. Although taking performance-enhancing drugs is morally and ethically wrong, and likely a health risk, providing it is not literally against the rules, then it must be ok to do it.

So the debate will rage on for many years as it does now, and that is first whether or not Bonds’ record, together with is single-season home run record, should have asterisks next to them in the record book, and second, should he be allowed into the hall of fame? Regardless of this debate, though, the one conclusion at which we can safely arrive is the drug testing policy in baseball, even today, is a joke. Here is what happens to repeat steroid offenders:

1. First positive: 10 day suspension OR up to a $10,000 fine


2. Second positive: 30-day suspension OR up to a $25,000 fine


3. Third positive: 60-day suspension OR up to a $50,000 fine


4. Fourth positive: One year suspension OR up to a $100,000 fine


5. Any subsequent positive: “Any subsequent positive test result by a player shall result in the Commissioner imposing further discipline on the player. The level of discipline will be determined consistent with the concept of progressive discipline.”

We do not need to elaborate on this to explain why it is a joke when compared to the stringent and tough penalties that apply to all other international athletes, and the take home message here is that although now the spotlight is on cycling, it is not alone in its abuse of performance-enhancing drugs in sport. At least cyclists face a much tougher penalty system, although currently this does not seem like much of a deterrent.

Ross and Jonathan

See also:

Tom Verducci story on the record at SI.com

Results of poll on fans reactions to baseball and Bonds

Recent and very funny article about Bonds at 754

Baseball-reference.com - Fully searchable stats on all players

Jemele Hill's article on doping

Excellent article on drugs and (American) sports

We came across an amazing article during our daily visit to Letsrun.com. If you want to find out what is happening in running, track and field, or anything related to doping, the brothers Weldon and Robert Johnson scour the web and post all the running news in the web. They run an awesome site and have become the place to go for running related news.

Their quote of the day was from an article written by Jemele Hill, who is a writer for ESPN's "Page 2" website. Jemele is sublime in her description of drugs in American sports, and our outlook on the drugs as a society and culture. She really nailed the current state of affairs and should be lauded for her candid assessment of the situation. For even more insight into the American outlook on this issue, be sure to read thru all the comments that readers have left in response to her article.

Go there right now to read her article!

What Happened to South African Cyclist Ryan Cox?

Breaking news on Wednesday from Team Barloworld was that one of their South African cyclists, 28 year old Ryan Cox, passed away in Kempton Park following complications from surgery he had in France three weeks ago. The actual cause of death is unclear at this point.

Cox complained of powerlessness and pain in his left leg at the end of some races. He sought the help of a French doctor who correctly diagnosed Cox's vascular lesion in his left external iliac artery. The problem was first documented in the scientific literature, mostly by a French Canadian doctor named Francois Mosimann, and for the first time in 1985.

It is unclear why the artery in the thigh undergoes this change, but several morphological changes take place that result in the artery becoming thicker, elongated, and when the hip is flexed (as during cycling), the artery becomes kinked or looped upon itself. The primary problem is that the thickening of the artery causes stenosis, which is is a narrowing of the of the artery diameter. The consequence of this is that blood flow becomes limited to any limbs or tissues that are downstream of that artery.

In the case of Ryan Cox, the external iliac artery was excessively long, which predisposes it to this kinking/looping - think of a hosepipe that gets small kinks that obstruct flow of water down it. The result is that the cyclist experiences pain and powerlessness in the affected leg during high intensity exercise, although the symptoms subside when exercise is stopped or the exercise intensity decreases. The condition occurs in quite a high proportion of professional cyclists - a study published in 2004 reported that "one in five" had some evidence of a flow limitation! Not all require surgery, however.

A big problem with this condition is that it apparently goes undetected by physiotherapists and medical doctors because they are unfamiliar with it. In addition, they cannot reproduce the symptoms by physical examination, as only cycling at high intensities will cause the onset of the symptoms. So the medical practitioner must first know about this condition, and second really must know exactly what they are looking for to diagnose this condition as diagnosis requires sophisticated imaging techniques such as echo-doppler, arterial digital subtraction angiography, magnetic resonance imaging and angiography.

Again, it is unclear what causes this, and at this point it is unclear why Ryan Cox experienced complications from the surgery, as normally the outcomes from surgery appear to be positive. To expand a little on the surgery, he apparently had a 6 cm section of the external iliac artery removed, with the resultant two ends being anastamosed (joined) to reform the artery. The possibility is then that this weakened area was damaged, perhaps through excessive activity soon after surgery. Apparently, Cox was doing some gardening and light static exercises, both of which would involve bending, possibly damaging the the repaired area of the artery. As a result, it would rupture, and he'd bleed into the pelvis, causing Cox to lose enough blood to pass out.

We mourn the loss of this young cyclist and offer our condolences first to his family and friends, and also to South African (and all) cycling fans.