Armstrong all over again.
Every Sports editor in Britain saw her name on that list with abnormal blood values.
They all got the letters from her lawyers threatening lawsuits if her name was published.
And still they print Armstrong like bull**** like this.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/20/paula-radcliffe-defiant-doping-doubts-london-marathon
Paula Radcliffe defiant on doping doubts and ready for London Marathon
The female marathon world record holder is pleased to be running again, albeit not at an elite level, and says doubts of her achievements are ‘horrible’
“It’s horrible,” says Paula Radcliffe, Britain’s greatest marathon runner, staring you straight in the eye. “I get it all the time. People say: ‘She couldn’t have run 2:15 clean’ and I know I can be totally proud. I can’t understand how other people who have cheated can stand there and look their competitors and family in the eye.”
Radcliffe is talking passionately – as always – about how a spate of high-profile doping cases among distance runners has seeded an even greater amount of doubt and suspicion in the sport she loves. Cases such as Liliya Shobukhova, the second-fastest women’s marathon runner of all time behind Radcliffe, who was banned in 2014 because of irregularities with her blood passport. And cases such as Rita Jeptoo, the 2013 and 2014 Boston and Chicago marathon winner, who is one of around 40 Kenyan athletes who have been banned in the past two years.
Then there were the stunning allegations about systematic doping in Russia, broadcast by the German TV station WDR, at the end of 2014 but denied by the Russian athletics authorities.
“You knew there was some kind of problem but the scale of it was a shock,” says Radcliffe. “You have to be careful because it hasn’t been proven yet.”
The 41-year-old Radcliffe has been one of the strongest advocates for clean sport for more than two decades but such are the levels of distrust in the sport, she even hears whispers about whether her world marathon record of 2:15.25 was set cleanly.
“On the one hand you can say: ‘People can say what they want because I know inside’ but still it’s not nice to have people saying that,” she admits.
Does it get to her? “Yes. It does make you angry and it does make you think we have to put a system in place that protects those athletes. And also so that people watching can believe in it.”
As Radcliffe prepares to draw the curtain on her career she says she is willing to play a greater role with the IAAF or anti-doping agencies.
“You can’t just moan about something,” she says. “If you are going to have strong views you might as well get involved in actually doing something proactively to back it up.
“As an athlete you identify with what people are going through. There will be some Russians athletes who are not cheating, there are a lot of Kenyan athletes out there who are not cheating and they are all being lumped together. It spoils it so we have to do something to protect that and protect the sport.”
But Radcliffe says she will not be following the lead of the former sprinter Darren Campbell, who admitted this month that he would not encourage his kids to take up athletics because “it was very hard to keep believing in the sport” in the wake of the WDR documentary.
She says: “I want my kids to pick their sport but if they said it was athletics I would love it. I do think it’s a beautiful sport and it’s given me so much.”
Her seven-year-old daughter, Isla, is showing signs of promise, admits Radcliffe, although at this stage her preference is gymnastics. “It’s funny because my husband, Gary, thinks I’m a pushy mum so I asked Isla and she said: ‘No you’re not but you do make me do my homework a lot,’” she jokes. “With [her son] Ralph it is too young to tell but when he runs I can tell in his eyes it’s just basic pure pleasure in running.”
It is a pleasure that Radcliffe, who will make her valedictory appearance at the London marathon in April, is able to feel again after partly recovering from a foot injury that left her unable to run competitively for two years.
These days she admits that she will not be able to keep up with the elite runners in London but hopes to run a time of between 2:30–2:40 depending on the condition of her foot.
“I’m not going in there thinking I am going to be competitive because I am not,” she says. “I’ve got to be realistic. It’s just an achievement to be able to get round. When I’ve done longer runs my foot is sore the next day but during the run it is coping with two hours-plus now which is good.”
Meanwhile Radcliffe also wants to put something back into the sport by mentoring ordinary runners for the Great Manchester Run in May.
“Running is something that has given me a lot over the years, and I want to give as much as possible back,” she says.
