The oldest track & field blog on the internet

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Anti-Doping News

EDIT: Please see the new post, "Corrections and Retraction".

The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport announced two doping suspensions on Thursday. One of them was a former Canadian hammer throw champ and current Adams State assistant coach named Derek Woodske. Woodske refused to take a test in November, which counts just like a positive result.

There are a number of interesting items in this story. One of them is the fact that Canada even has a national sports-ethics program. Another comes from the other drug bust, a lifetime ban handed out to a top bobsledder--which indicates winter Olympic sports are a big enough deal in Canada that an athlete is willing to risk a lifetime ban. But the really interesting item is US-based.

Woodske came to Adams State after serving a stint as a volunteer assistant at Ashland University while throwing in Eagle head coach Jud Logan's Ashland Elite program. Logan, as you may recall, ended his career with a doping ban in 1992 (clenbuterol), just as his coach Al Schoterman's career ended with a 1984 doping ban. Woodske was not the first hammer-thrower from Ashland Elite to earn a doping suspension; John McEwen was caught up in the BALCO/THG sweep of 2004 and linked to fellow THG-user Kevin Toth. And Adriane Blewitt, a D-II national record setter while at Ashland, was diagnosed in late 2003 with Hodgkin's lymphoma, an rare type of cancer.

Now, in Logan's defense, none of these athletes tested positive while actually in his program but after they left. Blewitt's disease is most common among people in their early 20s and there's no known link between it and performance-enhancing drug use. But the whole state of affairs does arouse some suspicion, and forgive us if the last few years has left us in a cynical mood.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just a quick corrction, Logan's career did not end with the doping suspension. He did qualify nd participate in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

The Track & Field Superfan said...

Thanks. After looking it up, I see he resumed US ranking in 1997 after a six-year hiatus, only some of which was forced.

rlasorsa said...

It is very disrespectul to write comments on a blog when the author does not have his facts correct. Freedom of speech does not give a blogger the right to write false information about people. Jud Logan and Al Schoterman have been a tremendous benefit to the sport of track and field and have had a positive effect on the development of athletes at all levels. We should all be thankful that brilliant men such as these two are involved in our sport. If proper research was performed you would have had the correct details before writing such slanderous material.
Additionally, to insinuate that that Ms Blewitt's cancer was related to drug use is one of the most unprofessional, inaccurate, and moronic things that I have ever heard. I hope you correct your facts and apologize to Ms Blewitt, whose courageous fight against her disease is one that makes all of us enormously proud.
Rob Lasorsa
President
National Throws Coaches Association

Anonymous said...

I would also like to state that this article has a lot of misinformation in it aw well. Secondly that is flat out slander to insinuate that Blewitts’s battle with cancer had anything to do with performance enhancing drugs. That has lawsuit written all over it… Secondly Derek Woodske never, ever tested positive in competition or out of competition. He passed his drug test at the last track meet he ever competed in which was the Canadian championships. He denied the test in November after being officially retired with Athletics Canada for 3 and a half months. As of this week AC has contacted Derek and given him a formal statement that he was not to be tested and that it was a mix up in the paper work that he was still in the testing pool. Yes he got a two year suspension for the missed test but that is a far and I mean a far cry from a positive test.
I stand proud beside my brother Derek and my Coach Jud Logan any day.
-Joe Woodske.

Anonymous said...

At some point in his career, Jud thought winning was more important than winning fair. He risked his name and his sport for a chance to cheat and got caught and has to live with that the rest of his life. It is unfortunate that his athletes must live under that shadow

Anonymous said...

Once again your facts are incorrect. Clenbuterol was a LEGAL IAAF drug until April of 1992. It is used for people suffering from respiratory problems and diseases. Many athletes were legally taken Clenbuterol (along with millions of other Americans) for respiratory diseases such as asthma. If an athlete was legally taken Clenbuterol until April of 1992 and then had to suddenly stop because of an IAAF / USATF ruling - it is very possible that portions of the drug could stay in someone's bloodstream for several months. This has been proven over and over again by many researches. You, obviously, have not read any of the research articles published on Clenbuterol and have jumped to moronic conclusions.
Additionally, testing procedures were very suspect 15 years ago - a fact recently supported by the IADA. Your conclusions about Jud Logan and other athletes is completely inaccurate. RESEARCH THE FACTS BEFORE YOU WRITE FALSE AND SLANDEROUS MATERIAL.
Furthermore, to reiterate what Joe Woodske states, Derek Woodske did not test positive. He missed a drug test as he was already RETIRED.
I hope the next letter you receive is a court ordered subpoena.
Rob Lasorsa
President
National Throws Coaches Association

Anonymous said...

Mr. Squire.

It is incumbent on you personally to get your facts right before you publish your "News". Your uninformed speculation and open field innuendo are not acceptable.
After you admitted your multiple errors you see fit to leave the original text unedited? You simply link to a half hearted apology and retraction. Is this typically how you run your site? Patch and piece together misinformation, some truth and a whole chunk of personal conjecture and then attempt to market it as the truth. Do you have any indiscretions in your past that we might find interesting? No skeletons? Really?
Write about those first or we can help by flushing them out for you.

You simply need to do a much better “blog job” and do the right thing or get off the web.