Drug Testing at US Halfpipe Grand Prix

"Exactly, these athletes are role models and in the public eye. Drug testing is supposed to even the playing field and ensure there is no cheating or performance enhancing supplement use. Also, it ensures the athletes are clean. As marijuana is illegal in most countries it makes sense that it is a banned substance. This goes for all sports across the board."

I would rather have my (future) kids to be influenced by someone who abuses marijuana than someone who abuses alcohol. Literally in every movie, edit, and webisode skiers are drinking heavily. (Not that I care, but the point is why the inconsistency if you are going to use the "role model" argument. Good luck on alcohol testing!)

"Athletes in every other sport manage to be clean, still perform/compete and have fun."

hahahahhahahahahhahahhahhahahahahahahhahaha...I can't tell if this is serious or not. Do I need to list the literally HUNDREDS of athletes with drug problems and have been in trouble with the law due to drug or other violent crime related issues?

All in all I don't really care. If you want to go to the olympics, then don't smoke for a while. Yeah it sucks, yeah it's just another restriction or way to control what is supposed to be a "free" sport but thats just the way it is. So fuck it.

But please stop with the self righteous moral parading and the leaps in logic through huge assumptions about large groups of people.

 
This. Alcohol is a drug, end of story. If they REALLY want to fight "drug use", then they should be breath testing around the time of the competition, to ensure all athletes are 'drug' free. Otherwise, they are just being inconsistent.
 
Olympic athletes? Show me your list of HUNDREDS of past Olympians with drug/crime problems, I seriously doubt this, and think you're pulling it out of thin air. Sure there's a few, but most have gone on to do speaking tours or become reps for brands and do advertising work which requires a squeaky clean image. Not your "pro football" players, or NHL/basketball or w/e. It's a different level of play. I know a lot of "athletes" out there have issues with crime or drugs. You can find a problem/issue with any demographic. Most of the Olympic athletes are clean for the period leading up to and during the games. (else they'd be caught by WADA's extensive drug testing, they show up at random, anyplace anytime and demand samples, you aren't allowed to refuse.) Why should there be an exception for halfpipe?

Even then, I'm sure once they know they're in contention for being on their countries Olympic team they make the sacrifice and take a break from whatever it is for a few months to stay clean.

Are you that naieve to think the IOC/FIS would approve marijuana useage? I'm just trying to explain the reasons behind it being a banned substance, not necessarily a standpoint.

As for your reasoning on alcohol, show me an alcoholic Olympic athlete. It must be pretty damn hard to train in the gym and do sport specific training while leading up to the games with a drinking problem that has you wasted every waking hour. Sure, they party after comps, and get hammered and have fun. But I can assure you they're not drinking and getting shitfaced every weekend prior/during. They'd be kicked off the team.

 
Oh yeah, because I'm sure all these high level Olympic athletes are chugging back a bottle of jack and getting hammered before they do their cross country race, hockey game, short track speed skating, or alpine skiing event. There's totally a need for breathalyzing, especially after they're willing to throw away YEARS of training and time getting ready for this one moment to get loaded/have a quick drink.

Are you serious?
 
Michael Phelps? Really fucking ruined his career...What a failure he is.

Domestic assault by Olympic athlete(in your city none the less):

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/olympics/whistler_olympic_athlete_identified_ok3ENuHU6mJrioWDEROkoN

Rape by Olympic athlete: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20000924/ai_n14509002/

Cocaine suspension for Olympic athlete:

http://www.examiner.com/gymnastics-in-national/after-cocaine-suspension-yuri-van-gelder-will-miss-2012-olympics

Not sure where you are thinking that I implied or said that I thought marijuana would be allowed. I think compared to alcohol, it should be though. Naieve? Says the person who thinks olympic athletes NEVER do anything wrong.

Lets face it, no one is using performance enhancing drugs in half pipe or slopestlye skiing. It's about smoking weed.

And here is your alcoholic world class Olympic athlete (a skier even):

“Talk about a hard challenge right there. ... If you ever tried to ski when you’re wasted, it’s not easy,” Miller told “60 Minutes” for a segment that will air Sunday. “Try and ski a slalom when ... you hit a gate less than every one second, so it’s risky. You’re putting your life at risk. ... It’s like driving drunk, only there are no rules about it in ski racing.”

Asked if the risk meant he would never ski drunk again, Miller replied “No, I’m not saying that.”

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Stop making assumptions. Your "facts" and expertise are lacking to say the least. You seem very sure about a lot of things that are VERY debatable, and sometimes blatantly wrong.
 
Thats cool! Lucky they don't really or can test for shrooms, because trust you me nothing better than flowing like water through the pipe busting 10 feet out.
 
Thats cool! Lucky they don't really or can test for shrooms, because trust you me nothing better than flowing like water through the pipe busting 10 feet out.
 
You said you could find hundreds of articles on athletes who were using drugs while competing and I only see one. Where are all the rest? And yes, I'm willing to bet all that media over Phelp's marijuana use REALLY hurt his careeer/image/endorsements from sponsors. I said most, not all. Find where I said never.

Pretty sure the few athletes that do get into trouble don't continue competing in the Olympics. And most of the time they get dropped by their sponsors and not invited back on the team. I even said MOST, NOT ALL, Olympians maintain a pretty clean image. Most of these offenses are POST olympic competition, not priors during training or the actual event. It's years after, or they've retired. Generally speaking you don't have that many Olympic level athletes with on going substance abuse issues. It would be nearly impossible to maintain that training and competition schedule, plus i'm willing to bet the coaches would notice and kick their ass off the team. These guys are only human, and LIKE I SAID you will find these cases within any demographic.

I've trained with Bode down in SA in the summer when I was still racing and I can tell you he sure as hell wasnt getting high or drunk for those 4 weeks while training. He may have been late on hill, or refused to strip to spandex, ooooh rebel! Like I mentioned EARLIER AS WELL most athletes will party post competition, or in the off season. Find me an athlete who competed at the Olympics hammered. Not just Bode racing at spring series drunk (which is the end of the season and a points giveaway to younger racers, means nothing to him.) Nice try.

I'm sorry im so blatantly wrong, all these Olympic athletes are drunk and high all the time, especially while competing and training. WADA must be a joke, and everyone is using, hell most olympians are criminals or wife beaters too, which is probably why most of them go on talk circuits at highschools. Allowing them to smoke up and get high is a great example to send to children. Ski halfpipe is just that special it should be an exception to the rules that every other olympic sport follows.

You know, if this is the common attitude towards ski halfpipe, and that its not worth giving up marijuana useage to compete in the Olympics then maybe it's not ready yet? I feel sorry for everyone that pushed that hard to get it involved.
 
Are you straight up retarded?! They give out champagne at almost EVERY results/podium, and yes, guess what! The athletes spray the bottles at eachother and have a drink! I said multiple times that most athletes will party post competition. They're just not drinking during the event.

There is a BIG difference between them having a swig of champagne that was handed to them on the podium, after the event to spray and drink and them lighting up a doobie and getting high.

But... it seems you missed the boat on this one.
 
What is the difference? That 75,000 deaths per year are related to alcohol? While zero people die from smoking marijuana? Bode Miller is in more danger taking a swig of champagne then "lighting up a doobie and getting high"
 
You are putting words in my mouth that I didn't say. You are terrible at using LOGICAL arguments, I'm done with you.

I said list hundreds of athletes, not go and find you articles for each and every one. You on the other hand offer nothing but long winded opinion and assumptions.

And yes, I know they routinely give out champagne at events, thats the point...

HENCE THE HYPOCRISY OF SAYING THEY ARE ROLE MODELS AND SHOULD NEVER USE DRUGS, AND THEN GIVING OUT ALCOHOL FOR CONSUMPTION IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. How hard is that to understand?

As I said before, I think the drug testing is fine. I don't care at all. But your "role model" argument is a joke...

Done with this thread, peace!

 
Yes, a HUGE difference. How many people do stupid/violent things while drunk, compared to high? How many glasses of champagne could you drink and drive a car? I can honestly say I have NEVER been too high to drive. You must not have ever smoked pot before...
 
why not?

no one cares but mormons and mamas kids

if people smoke pot its their own private business, olympics, FIS bs doesnt have to know nor should they care because its a personal choice. as for using performance enhancing drugs, all the other athletes are little bitchs cause they cant compete so they blame it on drugs, smoking weed does not in any way enhance ability according to every health book ever written

i guess my point is i dont care

i like to smoke weed

i like to ski

so do several other people

go take your gymnastics skiing olympics argument to the pooper

 
Doubtful. It's not about the legality of the drug, it's about a level playing field. Just like Lance Armstrong used drugs that promote blood cell growth during his 2 years of cancer to stay alive, and then when he started competing again he got tested for them because they were popular with pro athletes too.
 
drug tests are fucking stupid. almost all drug tests only show that a person has smoke weed. all the hard drugs are out of your system within 3 or 4 days.

 
One is legal, the other is illegal, what part of that is confusing? If you want to ensure all athletes are ''drug' free then you better hope none of them get sick, or they may die. If weed ever becomes legal, for recreational use, then it would not be an issue. But until then, this competition upholds the law, which in my eyes is completely reasonable.
 
So then theres no reason why you or we can simply branch out and keep doing whatever we want as high as we want. Just because a few knuckle heads want to start drug testing dose not mean anything until the skiing community also agrees.
also the legality of weed at least to some degree will not be the same in 5 years time.
 
You're full of shit.

Piss and moan all you want but here's the deal the World Anti-Doping Agency is running the show, don't like their rules, too fucking bad.

You're also giving shit to someone that has more than likely been subjected to WADA rules and testing so I'm sure she knows a hell of a lot more than you do.
 
gay why do they care what this athletes do outside of competion so what if they want to go out and have a good time its not like nug is gonna effect there performance any differently. would you rather them ass wasted or baked out of their mind
 
Ya! i think our sport idolizes pros probably more than any other sport! like in other sports does how you talk or dress depend on the pros! all of my heros are pro skiers haha! sammy, tanner, tom and the list goes on
 
Is that a joke?
What about football? American football? Formula 1? Hockey.... To name a few.
Pretty sure those are beyond idols. Nice one though
 
You aren't very smart are you? I said I was for the inevitable drug testing. I don't really care. I am allowed to state my opinion that any moral argument on drug testing for the "role model" is a joke however... Which it still is.

Giving shit to her? She won't stop making brass assumptions and over generalizations all the while calling other people stupid... she hasn't offered a single shred of argument reasonable argument, and hey look, neither have you!
 
what surprises me most is how so many of you didn't see this coming. With halfpipe all but accepted into the Olympics, what did you think was going to happen?

Also - why the fuck is it such a big deal? I'd say most of the pipe jocks are either a) not chronic pot smokers, or b) willing to quit for a chance at an Olympic medal.

For all you highschool kids who think pot is the biggest thing in your life right now (other than skiing - of course)... you'll grow up one day and realize that it's really not as big as you might think. For those that are grown up and still think you HAVE to smoke it... well, grow up.
 
That`s quite true
But at the same time it`s this free do whatever you want(taking drugs and all)that makes freestyle skiing what it isjust like surfing, skateboard,etc.
I've always been agaisn`t Olympics because it always impose to the people doing the sport a terrible life until they get to the topa thing that commercial sport, don`t impose.I feel that`s the most terrible thing about Olympics, that not a guy without 20 000$ a year to spend oncoaches and all can get at top level You gotta have money to get to the top level of freestyle skiingbut you don`t need to be UBER rich.
As for drug testing I'm all for drug enhancing performance test but got nothingagains't someone who somes once in a while..
 
winner.

Athletes who are living their dream out skiing professionally have enough luxuries already. Sure its a tough lifestyle with tons of travel and stress but EVERY profession has stress and most professions involve some sort of travel. Personally I think that athletes should stear clear of drinking AND drugs during the 6 months of competition a year because we all know they get BUCK during the spring shoots and summer camps.

/rant
 
I'm pretty sure FIS considers pot as a performance enhancing drug... That said, no serious association can afford to be related to any kind of drug for the simple reason that it's illegal. Sure it sucks, but it has to be done if we want park and pipe skiing to be considered as a high level competing sport that's suitable for the olympics.

Plus, there might be some sort of insurance issue over that, but don't ask me, I'm just bringing it up to discussion
 
You're french, so I won't hate on your for the horrible grammar. If I understand correctly, you are against halfpipe skiing joining the ranks of Olympic events, right? Well, I can't argue with opinion - even though your opinion of the Olympics seams a bit askew, I do have one issue with your post. "free do whatever you want (taking drugs and all) that makes freestyle skiing what it is" I'm sorry, but skiing is what makes skiing what it is. It's not like people ski because they are allowed to smoke weed, and it's not like people smoke weed because they ski.

Everyone here saying that "freeskiing" broke off from traditional freestyle (moguls) because of the strict rules and grouping that with being allowed to smoke pot... that is adolescent bullshit. They quit moguls and did their own thing because of the skiing, not because of drug tests. You guys have to get your heads out of your ass' and look at the world in the big picture.
 
I'm interested by this point. I'm not saying you're wrong, but what about other prescriptions that would otherwise be illegal? For example, Adderall is just amphetamine salts, a Schedule II drug with known performance enhancing effects. Without a prescription, it is a felony to be in possession of it, while almost all states treat simple possession of marijuana as a misdemeanor. Are they going to allow athletes with ADD or ADHD to compete on speed? What about if an athlete is injured but wants to compete anyways, and has been prescribed Oxycodone? Are those guys going to be allowed compete on opiates?
 
thank you. I realize I'm really in no position to know this, but I think most people with their priorities straight will put a chance for an Olympic medal over getting high.
 
I was thinking about this last night as well. Really interesting stuff..

"The prescribing of stimulants for athletes with ADHD has been considered formally by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and by the Medical Advisory Panel (MAP) of the Australian Sports Commission. With the approval of the IOC Medical Commission, MAP advises that athletes with ADHD may continue their stimulant medication and compete in sports competitions until the age of 14 years. They propose, and are seeking IOC approval, to extend the age to 16 years. The MAP must adhere to IOC rules (IOC 1996) and are unable to recommend to any athlete of any age who wants to participate in national or international sporting competition, to compete while on stimulant medication, as they will incur severe penalties. It is recommended that 72 hours is an appropriate time to cease stimulant medication prior to competition. The MAP understands that the cessation of stimulant medication may expose an athlete with ADHD to inferior sports performance and to some the possible risk of injury."

http://www.mental-health-matters.com/adhd/938-adhd-age-specific-issues-for-preschoolers-adolescents-and-adults?showall=1
 
FIS is taking pipe events way too seriously... like it really matters, it's just a funk-ditch. and before people start hating on me for not thinking it matters too much, let me just say that I'm in the event and will be stoked to compete at copper
 
Good find. Bored at work, so did some half-assed research. It looks like there are some serious organizations that are against the use of any type of performance enhancers, regardless of prescription status. WADA is the World Anti-Doping Agency, and they publish a list of officially banned(or opposed? it's unclear who really plays by these rules) substances every year. The 2010 list is split up into a few parts. The 'prohibited in or out of competition' list includes steroids and all that other shit Mark McGuire took. The 'prohibited in competition only' list includes all stimulants, narcotics, and, of course, cannabinoids.-http://www.wada-ama.org/Documents/W...hibited-list/WADA_Prohibited_List_2010_EN.pdf
the trouble with cannabinoids is how slowly your body metabolizes them. those other substances stay in your system for a few days; a chronic pot smoker will have dirty piss for a month. so, as per the MAP/IOC/WADA, you could just stop taking your ADHD meds 72 hours before competing, and you'll be fine, but if you smoked a joint a few weeks before, you'd be fucked come competition time.
I think that's the argument for random drug testing before: you shouldn't be able to use performance medications for any length of time before competition. A kid that's constantly on speed might train way way harder for weeks and then just go off them a few days before competition and still reap the benefits. But at what cost to the athletes do we level the playing field? Do you take a kid off prescriptions for maybe months so that he doesn't get any more performance enhancement than a kid without ADHD? That would be more than we do with academics, but we strangely seem to take academics as a competition much less seriously than sports.
And if anyone is still wondering if THC is performance enhancing in a subjective/style-based comp, you ever hear of Candide Thovex? Nobody in their right mind would grab blunt so long if they were sober. Or do sw cork 7s onto rails.
 
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