Drug-testing?

[sharp_rower]

Is there a policy regarding world records and the use of performance-enhancing drugs? How do we know the records and other performances at competitions are "clean"?

[Bob S.]

Is there a policy regarding world records and the use of performance-enhancing drugs? How do we know the records and other performances at competitions are "clean"?

We don't know at all. But there's no money involved - quite the contrary - it costs money to compete. It would not make sense to use drugs just for an erg record. There is also no age check, so there may have been cheating on that item. Nor is there a gender check, but that is getting a little far out. Beyond that, does anyone really care that much?

Bob S.

[hjs]

Is there a policy regarding world records and the use of performance-enhancing drugs? How do we know the records and other performances at competitions are "clean"?

Its even the opposite, a guy Dan Staite, was caught using epo, his records are still valid.

There is no testing

[Cyclingman1]

Is there a policy regarding world records and the use of performance-enhancing drugs? How do we know the records and other performances at competitions are "clean"?

At the level where prestigious medals are awarded, there is drug testing. So when those OTW rowers come into erging, they don't have a history of using PEDs. It would seem that lying about age would be found out rather quickly. Concept 2 would take away any records where fraudulent data could be shown. At least I think so. I've asked that impossible times be removed from rankings several times and each time they were removed.

[Carl Watts]

Is there a policy regarding world records and the use of performance-enhancing drugs? How do we know the records and other performances at competitions are "clean"?

At the level where prestigious medals are awarded, there is drug testing. So when those OTW rowers come into erging, they don't have a history of using PEDs. It would seem that lying about age would be found out rather quickly. Concept 2 would take away any records where fraudulent data could be shown. At least I think so. I've asked that impossible times be removed from rankings several times and each time they were removed.

Can you please police the Challanges and the annual metres board as well ? I really look forward to the day your able to use a validation system as an option on these as well.

[Ergmeister]

Any system that can be exploited defeats the spirit of competition.

[Shabana]

At the end of the day, unless there is real money involved, which I understand is not yet the case with Indoor rowing, the person who cheats is the one who loses most. Fortunately, because otherwise it becomes a challenge to bend the rules, and cheats can always win (at least for a while, although the chances of getting away with it diminish over time).

I have an entry in my Concept2 log which reads:

64,794m 3:30.8 00:01.6 8/16/2013 9:26:00 PM 51 H standard C2Log

Of course, with a PB of just under 7 minutes for the 2K (of which I am very proud, because I am still a few seconds faster than my schoolboy son), it is unlikely anybody would believe that I could actually go faster than a jumbo jet for a distance of nearly 65 kms , but it does go to show that the PM3 logging is not infallible.

All that drug tests and validation can do is make it a little harder for somebody to twist their results, at the end of the day, we either must trust them or not believe anything we have not witnessed personally (and even then)....