Is the investigation BS? I'm betting it was.
Do I think PEDs should be legal? Sure, but in the long run, if you want to have a PED-free contest, more power to you. I for one would be interested in making a contest for openly enhanced athletes available - I want to see just how far we can push human ability with all the powers of science behind it. (Would it be dangerous? Yes. Athletes are volunteers.)
But the real problem is that bans on the use of these products in competition are often followed by government bans on their possession.
I am not an athlete, I will never compete anywhere, I wish to have PEDs avaialable to me.
And yeah, purge the bioethicist.
We have classes in racing (GT, prototype, formula, etc. or like supersport and superbike in motorcycling) I think we should have the same thing in athletics, namely 4 classes:
1. Provable organic--constant monitoring, equivalent of super stock class--with a defined rule book stating what you CAN ingest and what food/liquid preparation methods CAN be used (e.g, early 20th century agriculture and preparation methods but modern nutritional knowledge and measurement) . Minimum of 1 year monitored before competition and genetic comparison to early childhood genome of sample cells from major muscle groups, lungs, and bone marrow. (I predict low participation in this one, but call this "the best of generic human ability--basically, diet and exercise, but all ingested things must be prepared in conventional ways, and be biologically as they were grown...no supplements)
2. Supersport--basically where we are now, a list of what you CAN'T do. Plus All competitors must be entirely biological and genetically identical to when they were born.
3. Biological augmented (think of this like superbike, ie "production derived hardware")--anything goes, provided it is entirely biological in nature and matching your own genome (no implantation or cultivation of material not of your own body). Basically every PED plus blood doping, etc etc.
4. Unlimited--anything goes, "run what ya brung" including cybernetics, with the only caveats that the general mechanical configuration (5 fingers/toes per limb, two legs, two arms, articulated spine, general skeletal and body geometry preserved) must be maintained, and no external control interface is allowed (ie actuation of an arm must not require control by actuation of an embedded limb...so no exoskeleton, all activations must be neurological/myological without intermediary mechanical movement interface). Basically, amphetamine augmented nervous systems controlling cyborg bodies. Basically, minimal rule "can-am" style...where e rules were basically "car. As defined by having 4 wheels and a fuel powered engine for drive with a single driver"
"world records" would for that point on be synchronized, existing ones would be used as the basis for class 2. New records for 1,3, and 4 would have corresponding caveats. E.g. Class-1 100m dash, 9.7s, Class-2 etc, class-4 3.5 seconds, etc.
I would totally watch that. Especially since class-3 would be like the SNL skit "steroid Olympics" and class-4 (especially Olympic boxing) would be like the end scenes of robocop-2 mixed with fightclub and avatar.
Class-1 would be boring, but would prove a point to granola eating hippies who think "organic" means better and reject centuries of scientific advancement.
Also, add in a "spec" class where cloned bodies can be rented/purchased for avatar-like operation at a defined biological standard, thus only the neurological side (technique) matters. This would be good for gymnastics and other sports where the "control" component is more important than raw muscle or cardiovascular performance. Of course, you could do this one virtually with the appropriate interface as well.
But I digress. Regarding lance, it's entirely possible he was doping, and probably likely, BUT without any conclusive evidence of the specific "you can't" aspects, he shouldn't be stripped of anything, as rules were not broken (the problem with a "you can't" rule book, anytime you define what can't be done, creative options become legal. This is why most motor racing organizations learn to make "allowable" list based rules rather than "unallowable" for the classes intended to be mechanically competitive and thus emphasize driver skill).
Of course the other possibility is he is just a statistical abnormality. All human attributes exist on a continuum, with various tolerance ranges. An example from Motorsport is why factory "super stock" teams always have way more horsepower than privateers. all of the parts must be production, but all production parts have tolerances, so if you have access to the entire production run, you can cherry pick (BMW did this with the E36 M3 lightweight where all the engines were dyno'd before installation, all the spec-meeting "normal" (240hp) ones went in the normal m3's, and the 286hp ones went in the LTW). Basically, pick pistons that are a little tall and wide, cylinders a little short and fat, heads with chambers on the small side of the tolerance and boom, a little more dispose,ent and higher compression.
Same thing for people, with enough people, you'll find someone who is a six sigma case in VO2max, has an atypically strong skeleton, super-fast twitch muscles, massive glycogen storage, etc etc. give them proper training and of course they will win. Perhaps lance is just a human Secretariat.
