
Swim. Bike. Cheat? - wallflower
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/sports/julie-miller-ironman-triathlon-cheat.html
======
randycupertino
I used to do triathlons pretty hard-core with a top tri club in NYC. The
amount of athletes I trained with who took illegal performance enhancing drugs
was surprisingly high. They would see sketchy anti-aging out-of-pocket
concierge docs for 5-10k a month who would prescribe them whatever they
wanted/needed.

It's a very ego-driven sport. You get a lot of rich mid-life crisis types,
generally uber Type-A Captains of Industry who achieve professional success
and then are like "now what, what is my next feather in my cap?" ... the
answer is Ironman/Kona. These dudes would drop 15k on a tri bike, swag it out
3 different sets of race wheels, rollers, power meter, carbon everything, $600
a month for the coach, $250 a month for the gym, $300 for pool fees and swim
stroke clinics, $350 for yoga classes, $500 a month for massages, 20k per
season for race entry fees and travel to races, training camps, etc etc etc.

I always advise to single women who want to meet rich dudes to join a tri
club. My tri club alone had like 5 marriages in the time I trained there.

Anyway, fun sport, but I couldn't take the egos. I've found ultrarunning to
have a much more down to earth and friendly crowd.

~~~
chefkoch
I always thought of triathlon of a sport where doping was not that useful?

~~~
jdietrich
EPO and HGH will provide a huge advantage in triathlon. Anabolic steroids
could be of some benefit to swimming performance. In a study of ~3000 amateur
triathletes in Germany, 13% admitted to doping. 15% admitted to taking banned
cognitive enhancers like modafinil.

[http://www.irishtriathlon.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/01/iro...](http://www.irishtriathlon.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/01/ironman-triathlon-doping-study.pdf)

~~~
GunboatDiplomat
What advantage does Modafinil, which I believe is used to treat sleep
disorders, offer?

~~~
jaaames
Check out the modafinal subreddit. It's like a 12 hour coffee without the side
effects. Improves concentration somewhat like Ritalin although less intense.

------
DarkTree
I mean multiple chip misplacements? What are the chances? Especially after
losing one, you would probably be more careful. However, it's this occurrence
that really looks shady in conjunction with the others:

>"Cyclists do not wear timing chips in the Test of Metal; they affix numbers
to the front of their bikes. Miller’s somehow became detached from her bike in
the 2015 race, the only such incident among more than 800 competitors"

~~~
alistairSH
Yeah, Test of Metal is a mountain bike race, where the numbers are typically
zip-tied to the handlebars. I can't think of a situation where the number
would fall off with no trace. A bad enough crash could tear the number, but
would be unlikely to tear it off completely. And a crash that bad would cost
time, and possibly cause injury or damage to the bike.

~~~
emcq
I've done at least one race where they gave you those twisty pipe cleaners,
but I would be extremely surprised if this was used at a big event. Those
things can be a bit easier to yank off.

With most wrecks it's really hard to have the center of the handlebars impact
something in a scraping motion, but I've had a hard wreck in a race sending my
bike tumbling through a stream into the side of a hill and the worst damage to
the number was getting covered in mud. The number tag was essentially
shoveling mud yet stayed perfectly intact.

If you look at her finishing picture there isn't even zip-ties left. No number
= DNF.

------
mikereedell
Losing her chip is major red-flag. I've raced 3 full IM's, 13 half-IM's, and a
bunch of sprints/olympics/etc. and have never lost a chip and know very few
people who have. Losing a chip while not losing the strap is also suspicious
since it takes effort to thread the chip onto the strap and effort to get the
chip off. I'm not saying it can't happen, but a history of losing timing chips
is very odd.

The image at the top of the piece shows her chip at her ankle, below her
wetsuit. Unless you plan on losing your chip, you ALWAYS wear the chip higher
up so your wetsuit covers it, making it harder to come off in the swim when
other swimmers grab your ankles.

------
ngoeke
The tactics might've gotten a bit sneakier, but the idea is over 100 years
old. Too bad she couldn't just've gotten a lift, like this guy :D

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Lorz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Lorz)

~~~
nkurz
Almost more extraordinary is the story of the winner after Lorz was
disqualified for his 'joke'. The trainers for the eventual winner, Thomas
Hicks, injected him with drugs _during_ the race. Twice!

 _While Lorz had used a car as a quick fix, Hicks had used, well, a quick fix.
His trainer afterwards admitted they had decided "to inject him with a
milligram of sulphate of strychnine and to make him drink a large glass
brimming with brandy". Hicks then "set off again as best he could". But one
hit was not enough. "He needed another injection four miles from the end to
give him a semblance of speed and to get him to the finish."_

 _Hicks kept his medal, a decision possibly influenced by the embarrassment
Lorz had already caused. The leniency also reflected the fact that doping, and
strychnine abuse in particular, was commonplace at the time. Now the drug
seems so archaic that Hicks 's story has a certain twisted humour. But the
ramifications of its use were just as obnoxious as those of HGH and steroids
are today._

[http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2008/may/30/drugsinsport.ol...](http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2008/may/30/drugsinsport.olympicgames)

~~~
ngoeke
Haha, no way, I wonder how many of all participants were on drugs!

------
sambe
Reminds me of Kip Litton:

[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/06/marathon-
man](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/06/marathon-man)

------
nkurz
_She was also disqualified from two previous races: Ironman Canada 2013, which
officials said she had not completed (and where she said she also lost her
chip), and the 2014 Vancouver Triathlon..._

 _Cyclists do not wear timing chips in the Test of Metal; they affix numbers
to the front of their bikes. Miller’s somehow became detached from her bike in
the 2015 race, the only such incident among more than 800 competitors._

What are the chances that the fastest athlete loses their chip in not just one
race but three? You'd think after the first instance the athlete would be more
rather than less vigilant, although perhaps not if they are no consequences.
Although it might seem unfair to the occasional real winner who loses their
chip, equating "No chip" with "Did not finish" seems like a safer practice.

In the case that a real winner is disqualified, they still know that they were
capable of winning the race, and (unless they have fantastically bad luck with
velcro and twist ties) will likely will go on to win other races. But
reinstating a potential cheater is demoralizing to everyone else, and unless
there is a correlation between going fast and losing chips, many of the
reinstatements are going reward fraudulent behavior.

------
cafard
See [http://www.runnersworld.com/races/marine-corps-marathon-
issu...](http://www.runnersworld.com/races/marine-corps-marathon-issues-
lifetime-ban-to-runner) for an interesting case.

(Full, ludicrous, disclosure: I once took shortcuts on the Marine Corps
Marathon course; but I was following the pack. The finishers' certificates for
the 1980 race went out with a finish time and an estimated adjusted time.)

------
darklajid
This reads like a witch hunt.

If the article's facts are correct, someone cheated, got caught and
punished/banned. The article doesn't have much more (hand waiving, ends in "no
clue what she did").

This sentence reads like harassment to me: "In several email exchanges, on the
telephone, and in a brief conversation at the front door of her house in
Squamish, Miller declined to be interviewed for this article"

~~~
trymas
This article could've been at least twice as short, than it is now.

Though there are too many facts against Miller:

\- Photographers have not seen her twice on the running laps

\- Competitors have not seen her

\- The photo evidence of 1.4/13.8 mile running checkpoint shows that she was
there in ~86 minutes from bike finish. Either she crawled those 1.4 miles or
she had a rocket pack on her back as the best male result for 13.8 mile run
was 90 minutes.

\- If she really would've seen after the bike stage, that she is missing her
timing chip, she or her assistant (if she had one) would've informed
competition staff. Because competitors know 'no chip - no time, means
disqualification'.

\- Not giving GPS data of her Garmin sports watch (athletes of this level save
their sports data and log in their diaries religiously, and they simply 'not
loose it' or their 'dogs eat it'). If you are clean, you will happily show
your GPS logs, easiest proof and everybody is happy.

~~~
yes_or_gnome
> \- The photo evidence of 1.4/13.8 mile running checkpoint shows that she was
> there in ~86 minutes from bike finish. Either she crawled those 1.4 miles or
> she had a rocket pack on her back as the best male result for 13.8 mile run
> was 90 minutes.

One of the things that I didn't like about the article is that it doesn't
provide Davis' reported times. Quote, emphasis added:

> Davis, who comes from Carlsbad, Calif., and is one of the top triathletes in
> her age group in the world, had been first out of the water and first off
> her bike — _she was sure of it._

It would be fairly easy, and more transparent, if the author would have simply
provided the data from other competitors to compare against the times that
Miller had registered from before the marathon portion.

About Miller's cycling end-time. As it seems, there is no photographic
evidence of Miller at that checkpoint, to me, that suggests that either A) the
time is correct and she took a 60-75min break from the competition, or B) had
an accomplice take the chip to the check-in before her actual arrival time.

The former is the more likely explanation assuming that is when(if) she
tampered with the device. She would have needed time to get out of eyesight,
lose the device, and then, have a rest.

The latter would be more insidious, but shouldn't be too hard to rule out.
There are records for every competitor at the location, and the volunteers
there should be recorded too; I would imagine coaches and bystanders are roped
off from the area. Did any of people have a close association with Miller?

Although, that may be beside the point because she has had several
questionable past events. You could look at these other events to see if there
is a correlation of volunteers or if Miller's time pairs too closely to
another competitor would be extraordinary.

EDIT: It hadn't occurred to me until after writing this up that there's
another possibility, in support of Miller's claim. That is, the chip could
have been found by another competitor and delivered to that checkpoint. I
believe the article states that Miller explains that it was lost between
changing from the swim portion to the biking section.

~~~
davros
If you'd like all those details and more its all online eg
[http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triat...](http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/IM_Canada_F40-44%3A_new_thread_P5674186)
which includes links to detailed analyses of the photo times and splits (which
I find convincing).

------
peter303
Recently some bikers were caught with small motor assists in the tubes of
their bikes. While small 100 watt motors dont sound impressive, they are about
a third of the sustained power of human bicyclist and can make a difference.

------
clickbyclick
Is the world's oldest profession prostitution or cheating? Cheating in sport
started as soon as people cared about the outcome, only now with ubiquitous
data sources has it become increasing hard to succeed at. Cheaters hope they
fly just between the fine line of amazement in their outcome and interest that
would invoke investigation and lead to their downfall. The bank robber whose
holdup note is written on the back of their deposit slip never thinks they'll
be caught, so is the athlete who fails to consider the power of the data and
dedication of slighted peers to unearth it. I'm not in disbelief that she was
caught, only that so many others weren't... Yet.

~~~
mbritton72
I find part of the entertainment value of sport to be the cat-and-mouse
between two factions: journalists and competitors, and cheaters. No matter how
much we deny it, this spectacle is the "meta-race" that gives these events
real human drama.

------
douche
Sounds like Rosie Ruiz winning the Boston Marathon by taking the T.

------
timwaagh
triatlon sounds very appealing until you realize the insane amount of effort
it takes. its no wonder people cheat. if i had to train 24/7 all year long id
want to at least see some glory too. 'just cycling' is good enough for me.

------
anonymfus
Obligatory London 2012 opening ceremony reference:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwzjlmBLfrQ&t=176](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwzjlmBLfrQ&t=176)

