USADA bans track coach Stewart for life

When an anti-doing agency talks about "aggravating circumstances," think of the following case...

 USADA bans track coach Stewart for life

(AFP) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — Raymond Stewart, who coached disgraced US sprinter Jerome Young, has been slapped with a lifetime ban, the US Anti-Doping Agency announced on Monday.

Stewart was kicked out of the sport for life by USADA for obtaining performance-enhancing drugs for his athletes. It was determined by an arbitration panel that he purchased drugs from Angel Memo Heredia who has been named in similar drugs probes of coach Trevor Graham and American sprinter Crystal Cox. Like Graham, Stewart was born in Jamaica.

"Violating the sacred responsibility and standards of a coach by aiding athletes with doping is truly reprehensible," USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said.

Steward competed in four Olympics for Jamaica, specializing in the 100 metres. He won a silver medal in the 400-metre relay at the 1984 Games. He was the first athlete to reach three straight Olympic 100 metre finals.

He joins Graham and Remi Korchemny as the third coach to be banned for life for assisting athletes in getting and injesting drugs.

Young was on the USA's 1,600-metre, gold-medal relay team at the 2000 Olympics but has since been banned for life for doping.

Others Stewart coached, include JJ Johnson, a member of the U.S. 2003 world champion 400-metre relay team; Kenny Brokenburr, a member of America's gold-medal, 400-metre team from the 2000 Games; and three-time Olympic medalist Jamaican Beverly McDonald. Stewart and McDonald eventually got married.

At the 2009 Penn Relays in New York, Stewart was honoured by Team Jamaica Bickle for his contribution to athletics.

And for a more nuanced view of "Aggravating Circumstances," (which should soon become a hot topic for British Cycling), see this legal opinion from WADA:

10.6 Aggravating Circumstances Which May Increase the Period of Ineligibility

If the Anti-Doping Organization establishes in an individual case involving an anti-doping rule violation other than violations under Article 2.7 (Trafficking) and 2.8 (Administration) that aggravating circumstances are present which justify the imposition of a period of Ineligibility greater than the standard sanction, then the period of Ineligibility otherwise applicable shall be increased up to a maximum of four years unless the Athlete or other Person can prove to the comfortable satisfaction of the hearing panel that he did not knowingly violate the anti-doping rule.

An Athlete or other Person can avoid the application of this Article by admitting the anti-doping rule violation as asserted promptly after being confronted with the anti-doping rule violation by an Anti-Doping Organization.

Comment to Article 10.6: Examples of aggravating circumstances which may justify the imposition of a period of Ineligibility greater than the standard sanction are: the Athlete or other Person committed the anti-doping rule violation as part of a doping plan or scheme, either individually or involving a conspiracy or common enterprise to commit anti-doping rule violations; the Athlete or other Person used or possessed multiple Prohibited Substances or Prohibited Methods or used or possessed a Prohibited Substance or Prohibited Method on multiple occasions; a normal individual would be likely to enjoy the performance enhancing effects of the anti-doping rule violation(s) beyond the otherwise applicable period of Ineligibility; the Athlete or Person engaged in deceptive or obstructing conduct to avoid the detection or adjudication of an anti-doping rule violation.

For the avoidance of doubt, the examples of aggravating circumstances described in this Comment to Article 10.6 are not exclusive and other aggravating factors may also justify the imposition of a longer period of Ineligibility. Violations under Article 2.7 (Trafficking) and 2.8 (Administration) are not included in the application of Article 10.6 because the sanctions for these violations (from four years to lifetime Ineligibility) already build in sufficient discretion to allow consideration of any aggravating circumstance.

Chatting with USADA

USADA to ME:

"The deadline for your Q3 2010 Whereabouts Filing is tomorrow June 30, 2010.

USADA’s office hours are from 8 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (MST). USADA will not be available to assist athletes with their username or password information after business hours. To ensure your success in completing your Q3 2010 Whereabouts Filing prior to the June 30th deadline, we encourage you to log on immediately to complete your USADA pool requirements in advance of the June 30th deadline.

To submit your Q3 2010 Whereabouts Filing, you will need to log into your USADA Online Account at https://www.usantidoping.org/athletes/login.aspx. If you have lost or forgotten your log-in information, please do not hesitate to contact USADA."

ME to USADA:

"..Athlete's residence is a single-family multi-story home with primary point of entry at front (NORTH) of house on first floor. However, there is NO functional doorbell or other notification system anywhere at the residence. Therefore, it is crucial that the DCO knock FORCEFULLY and REPEATEDLY on the front door in order to attract the attention of a resident. If unsuccessful, DCO should attempt to raise the athlete by phone (xxx) xxx-xxxx in case he is far from the front door and does not hear the knocking. Alternatively, DCO can circle to the rear (SOUTH) of the house, and identifying the second-floor bedroom window on the RIGHT (EAST) side of the home, should begin throwing pennies or other coins at the window in an attempt to roust the athlete, or otherwise attract his attention."

Jeannie Longo Wins French National Time Trial Championship

Jeannie Longo (pictured below with her husband Patrice Ciprelli; Longo is on the right) won her third-consecutive French National Time Trial Championship this week, beating long-time rival Edwige Pitel by 1:19.

2010 French National Time Trial Championships

1. Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli (Rhône-Alpes), 24.7 km in 34:51
2. Edwige Pitel (Michela Fanini), at 1:19
3. Christel Ferrier-Bruneau (Vienne Futuroscope), at 1:31
4. Aude Biannic (Bretagne), at 1:45
5. Julie Krasniak (Lorraine), at 1:48
6. Delphine Pelletier (Centre), at 2:04
7. Mélodie Lesueur (ESGL 93), at 2:09
8. Caroline Mani (Vienne Futuroscope), at 2:19
9. Audrey Cordon (Vienne Futuroscope), at 2:21
10. Amélie Rivat (Rhône-Alpes), at 3:03

This year's event was seemingly devoid of the drama chronicled in 2009 by Cyclingnews.com:

"Jeannie Longo claimed her 56th French national title in the time trial championship in St. Brieuc on Thursday. Her victory came 30 years after she took her first blue, white and red jersey on the road back in 1979.

However, the day was less than fairytale as family troubles were made public and mechanical discord occurred once again with race commissaires.

She started five seconds later than scheduled because of a discussion with the judges over the conformity of her time trial bike. The bike was initially refused. She argued that she recently rode the Souvenir Magali-Pache with the same bike and she was eventually given the green light in extremis at the difference of her rival Edwige Pitel who had to race with her replacement bike that was four years old.

Asked whether or not this incident had favoured her, Longo replied to the reporters: "You would have preferred to see her winning, right? Well, I'm happy to have won once again. The incident prior to the race gave me a lot of adrenaline at the beginning of the race. I've suffered a lot but the huge crowd has encouraged me remarkably."

Despite her popularity and her winning status still at the age of 50, Longo cried a few times after the race. It was because of the revelation by L'Equipe that she was no longer coached by her husband Patrice Ciprelli who on the other hand gives Pitel training plans. It was Longo who attracted Pitel to her town of Grenoble. She even found a job for her.

Longo was quoted as not having "a great morale being alone and staying up until 2am sometimes". During the race, Ciprelli followed his wife in the car just as he has in the past and did not follow Pitel. Longo presumed he will follow her to their usual training camp in the USA in July as a preparation for the world championship in Mendrisio."

New Blog to Follow and Something New in the Works Here

Dear Readers, the Pappillon cupboard has been bare of late, owing in large part to the demands of real-life (it's a time consuming process, atoning for participating in a systemic doping program...) and the drain on resources due to a comprehensive redesign of www.joepapp.com. Yes! You heard that right! We'll be moving the Pappillon blog off of the Blogger.com hosting platform and integrating it into a new JoePapp.com website, and are terrifically excited about the chance to recontextualize these musings and centralize their location on the web.

The site redesign is nearly complete, but until it is updates here will be limited. But not to fear - Twitter is proving very useful for maintaining contact with all of you, and to a lesser-degree there remains the option of connecting via FaceBook. But if you're starved for good eatin' and quality cycling-related musing, check out the new Antipodean blog The Cyclingmuse, which is helping everyone Dig a Little Deeper! Their latest post, "Scuttlebutt," is excerpted below:

"Greetings cycling fans, with another blockbuster Giro behind us (one day everyone will wake up to the fact that it has always been more exciting than its bigger Gallic cousin) and as the days get shorter and colder (in my part of the world at least), it only serves to remind me that the Tour de France is just around the corner.

Not to long ago this was a time of joyful expectation, waiting for the evening highlights of a race which was the only cycling event which existed according to mainstream media. Alas things have changed since then and the sport is easily accessible to anyone who might be curious. Well it’s still a time of expectation for me but for different reasons. You see over the years as interest in the sport has slowly increased I have noticed a pattern. I’m waiting, waiting for the next doping scandal to break.

Of course we have already had Floyd Landis finally coming clean (after years of denial) about his doping experiences and consequently slinging mud in every direction to see where it might stick. When the story came out during the Tour of California I started to think why didn’t he wait till before the TDF? Of course soon after the Landis mud slinging Lance Armstrong had a nasty fall and had to abandon the race. According to some conspiracy theorists this was a clever ploy to avoid the media and there was even the suggestion of fake blood capsules being used by LA to feign the bloody facial injuries he received as a result of the crash! Well done to Floyd for finally coming clean, it would have taken a whole lot of guts. I just wish he had have done that from the start, he may have still had a career as a top cyclist if he did..."

UPDATED: Boonen Implicated in New Form of Motodoping!

Pappillon just received the following photograph and text from a friendly rival in the news media. "In addition to Cancellara's scandal the cycling world is shocked by another issue. We have received an info leak from a trustworthy source that the top sprinter Tom Boonen who rides under the colours of Pro Tour team Quick Step is also using unlawful means of powering his Eddy Merckx bike. Seems that the FFWD F5R [wheels] have a built-in hamster wheel, with what Boonen can use an extra power for sprints to the finish line.

In normal racing conditions the hamster is sleeping inside the rim. When the special button is being pressed, a carrot will be lowered into the vision zone of the animal. After that the effort put in by the hamster will increase the speed of the bike about another 5km/h according to the size of the carrot. Seems that the system is working, because the man is unusually successful. Is any other cyclist using this clever invention is not yet to be discovered."

UPDATE: Boonen has ALSO been accused of electro-motodoping, with this spy-video showing the Belgian pre-race testing the electro-motodoped bike: http://www.vimeo.com/1176776.