Knauss out of Worlds as backup sample tests positive

http://www.skiracing.com/news/news_d...hp/2112/ALPINE

--
Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield, other days you're the bug.

"Mary Malmros" wrote in message
...
http://www.skiracing.com/news/news_d...hp/2112/ALPINE

I'm hoping that doping in Alpine Ski Racing is not a widely used performance
enhancing program. I'd hate to see what has happened in professional
bicycle racing happen in the sport of professional ski racing. But, where
there is one, there has to me be more. Maybe many more as there is money at
stake here.

"Knauss contends supplements he took were tainted with nandrolone, which was
not listed as an ingredient on the container."

Ya know, I really want to believe him and if this is true, it should be easy
to prove. We'll see...

Good luck Hans, I'd hate to see you go out like this.
--
Marty

Marty wrote:
"Mary Malmros" wrote in message
...

http://www.skiracing.com/news/news_d...hp/2112/ALPINE


I'm hoping that doping in Alpine Ski Racing is not a widely used performance
enhancing program. I'd hate to see what has happened in professional
bicycle racing happen in the sport of professional ski racing. But, where
there is one, there has to me be more. Maybe many more as there is money at
stake here.

"Knauss contends supplements he took were tainted with nandrolone, which was
not listed as an ingredient on the container."

Ya know, I really want to believe him and if this is true, it should be easy
to prove. We'll see...

Good luck Hans, I'd hate to see you go out like this.
--
Marty


Not to knock skiing, but a GS racer isn't exactly the athlete a touring
cyclist is. I'm not a ski racer, but skiing seems to be a lot more
about precision and technical skill than raw athletic ability.

Would doping really give you a significant advantage in skiing?

Jon C wrote:

Not to knock skiing, but a GS racer isn't exactly the athlete a touring
cyclist is.

Not the same _kind_ of athlete. Touring cyclists, mostly, are endurance
athletes, with that sort of wired-and-irritable-starved-greyhound look
that all endurance athletes have. The demands of the sport on the body
are different; the training is different. A ski racer won't do the huge
volumes of aerobic training that a touring cyclist will; instead, in
addition to aerobic training, he/she will train for strength, explosive
speed, balance and agility, using weights (a lot more iron than a
touring cyclist will pump), balance tools such as slackropes and the
like, or stuff like
http://www.gordbrownskiing.com/Movie...all%20Jump.WMV.

I'm not a ski racer, but skiing seems to be a lot more
about precision and technical skill than raw athletic ability.

Well, yes and no. Being able to execute that kind of precision and
technical skill at the speeds and under the stresses that a ski racer
undergoes, requires a lot of fitness (which may or may not be the same
thing as "raw athletic ability" -- I tend to think not).

Would doping really give you a significant advantage in skiing?

That's another question altogether. Some argue that
performance-enhancing drugs have to make a difference in any sport where
the difference between winning and losing is measured in a few
hundredths of a second. As logical as this seems, I have a feeling it
doesn't really work this way in practice, but I can't say why.

--
Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield, other days you're the bug.

Mary Malmros wrote:
Jon C wrote:

Not to knock skiing, but a GS racer isn't exactly the athlete a
touring
cyclist is.

Not the same _kind_ of athlete. Touring cyclists, mostly, are
endurance
athletes, with that sort of wired-and-irritable-starved-greyhound
look
that all endurance athletes have. The demands of the sport on the
body
are different; the training is different. A ski racer won't do the
huge
volumes of aerobic training that a touring cyclist will; instead, in
addition to aerobic training, he/she will train for strength,
explosive
speed, balance and agility, using weights (a lot more iron than a
touring cyclist will pump), balance tools such as slackropes and the
like, or stuff like

http://www.gordbrownskiing.com/Movie...all%20Jump.WMV.

True, but there have been plenty of problems with drug/steroid use in
sprinters, whereas distance runners don't seem to have teh same
problems.

Martha

On 2005-01-14, Mary Malmros penned:
Jon C wrote:

I'm not a ski racer, but skiing seems to be a lot more about precision and
technical skill than raw athletic ability.

Well, yes and no. Being able to execute that kind of precision and
technical skill at the speeds and under the stresses that a ski racer
undergoes, requires a lot of fitness (which may or may not be the same thing
as "raw athletic ability" -- I tend to think not).

It seems to me that you need a lot of strength, both in your big muscles and
your stabilizers, as well as quick reflexes to ski race.

Or, to put it different, those race suits don't leave much to the imagination,
and I've never seen a racer I'd kick out of my bed for eating crackers =)

I suspect that "raw athletic ability" is a pretty meaningless term. There are
a lot of different ways to use your muscles.


--
monique
Longmont, CO

"Jon C" wrote in message
...
Marty wrote:
"Mary Malmros" wrote in message
...

http://www.skiracing.com/news/news_d...hp/2112/ALPINE


I'm hoping that doping in Alpine Ski Racing is not a widely used
performance
enhancing program. I'd hate to see what has happened in professional
bicycle racing happen in the sport of professional ski racing. But,
where
there is one, there has to me be more. Maybe many more as there is
money at
stake here.

"Knauss contends supplements he took were tainted with nandrolone, which
was
not listed as an ingredient on the container."

Ya know, I really want to believe him and if this is true, it should be
easy
to prove. We'll see...

Good luck Hans, I'd hate to see you go out like this.
--
Marty


Not to knock skiing, but a GS racer isn't exactly the athlete a touring
cyclist is. I'm not a ski racer, but skiing seems to be a lot more
about precision and technical skill than raw athletic ability.

Would doping really give you a significant advantage in skiing?

http://www.skiracing.com/profiles/ne...file.php/2043/

bicycle racing/EPO = ski racing/human growth hormones

The added strength would help. Remember, these are not 20 second courses.
You definitely need lots of endurance at the WC level. Maybe not as much as
you may need for a TT up Alp d'Huez, but, then those athletes don't need the
strength that a WC ski racer needs.

BTW, you know those shows where they have pro athletes from different sports
compete against each other in all different events. Bode took 1st and
Johnny Mosely was 2nd. Both guys are WC level skiers (racing and freestyle)
beating out pro football players and other such great athletes. Interesting
huh?
--
Marty

Yes, real shame about Hans Knauss. He is one of the most popular skiers
in Austria. However, I fear he (and in particular the mighty ÖSV)
might not be as innocent as I hope ...
--
Florian Ederer
http://www.mit.edu/~ederer/

Jon C wrote:
Marty wrote:

Good luck Hans, I'd hate to see you go out like this.

Not to knock skiing, but a GS racer isn't exactly the athlete a touring
cyclist is. I'm not a ski racer, but skiing seems to be a lot more
about precision and technical skill than raw athletic ability.

Would doping really give you a significant advantage in skiing?

A few years ago a physiology report was published wherein a researcher
had instrumented various world class atheletes and had them perform at a
top level. IIRC, the GS racer was tied with the weight lifters for
maximum total applied force while performing; the difference was the
weight lifter exerted the force momentarily, while the GS racers exerted
just as great a force but over many tenths of a second during turns. The
physiologist hadn't believed it was physically possible to exert that
much sustained force.

Plus the GS racer, as others have pointed out, have to control the
force, and symultaneously respond to random conditions such as ruts and
hitting gates. It's as if the someone was waas attempting to push the
weight lifter over during a clean and jerk.

Plus two, the ski racer has to do this every few seconds during a race -
compare a weight lifter clean and jerking a near world record weight,
dropping it, and running 10 feet to do it again; for 2 minutes straight.

Ski racers are phenominal atheletes. No other sport requires such
sustained physical effort while conditions are violently atttempting to
knock you down. Every other sport that comes near is performed on a
prepared artificial course; compare a bicyclist on a hill climb with
someone assigned to atempt to kick him over every 2 seconds - whoops -
doesn't happen.

I wish I'd spell checked this; but the very question peeved me.