Was this “investigation” public or outed by anyone or was it just in the rumorville where he just decided to get out in front of it. It kinda sounds like he’s outed it himself by going on the offensive. I wouldn’t think anyone else would have been able to verify it other than just an “rumor” that he’s being investigated,

I’m not saying the offensive was or wasn’t the right play. Just more curious has this basically become an official “issue” because he’s made it so public?

---

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

JK went after Chartier with fervor bc he's American. Going after Laidlow doesn't fit the agenda.

JK is a company man now (PTO paid in full). Ever since his content is slow as Christmas or nonexistent. It used to be up in milliseconds when he was busy self promoting.

A full send tear down of one of the top ranked PTO athletes probably isn't in Jack's best interest now.

Don't expect objective content anymore like back in the day when he was in tears during the IM Hamburg Podcast.

I absolutely disagree 100% with this sentiment. At the moment Sam Laidlow is only guilty of posting some highly questionable social media posts, let's wait for the outcome of the ITA investigation. Everyone, even elite athletes, are entitled to be considered innocent until being proven guilty.

It's far better than it used to be, however, sometimes Slowtwitch can become highly toxic - as is the case in this thread.

Kelly had an already open line of communication (and friendship?) with Chartier when that broke and he (and Chartier) seized the opportunity (both their interests). Kelly did NOT go "after Chartier with fervor bc he's American" - listen to the interview.
Kelly slow content? See the pre-Kona interviews, which were very reasonable (allowing athletes to get a word in!).
How would Kelly "tear down" Laidlow, even if he got the chance. More likely he'd give Laidlow a platform to push the "other athletes/their parents are being beastly by even suggesting wrongdoing, and even answering ITA investigators' questions; they will be my sworn enemies forever" line.
"top PTO ranked athlete": Laidlow is #14. The PTO contracts for next year are in negotiation right now: so that's an extra factor Laidlow will have had to take into account when adopting this strategy.
"objective content . . . in tears during the IM Hamburg Podcast" Objective and 'in tears' don't really sit together, I suggest. Poor judgement when it looked like there had been a fatality to keep tearfully gabbling.

If he is innocent he has no problem going on the offensive and putting loud mouths in their place. If I was innocent and had people bad mouthing me and reporting me to doping officials I would tell them to their face as well.

If he has been up to something shady - or just downright doping it’s a pretty stupid thing to do.

Of course if he is guilty and had his blood values manipulated at a place where the likes of Jan Frodeno go as well - it does cast a shadow over a lot of athletes who use the same facility.

---

He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

How is this thread “highly toxic?”

Literally nobody would know about this if it wasn’t for someone doxxing the investigations target!

Oh wait, the target doxxed himself. What an idiot.

Pro endurance sports have always been tainted with doping. Always.

Triathlon has been more or less spared of big scandals, which doesn’t mean triathlon is clean.
The pros train hard, very hard, and sometimes they keep training insanely hard and win nothing. I would understand it can become incredibly frustrating. And iIt seems so easy to access doctors or products to improve significantly your performances without getting caught, I’d be surprised if no top triathlete has ever been tempted. Once again, passing doping control tests does not mean one is clean. It either means the athlete is clean, or he dopes smarter than the tests.. which is easy (take epo micro dosing as an example).

Are 100% of the top pro triathletes great-minded, hand on the heart, honest and pure sinless minds? That’d be absolutely wonderful. Humans cheat and lie in any professional environment, but all the pro triathletes would be knights of the truth and honesty. Do I trust them? Maybe. Maybe not.
Maybe they’re riding and running really fast at the moment. Maybe it’s the bike, maybe it’s the shoes, maybe it’s miraculous training methods. Maybe not.
Note that I’m not accusing anyone of doping. I’m just saying that it’s wonderful that pro triathlon is so pure and clean.

A couple of notes:

1.) I received a statement back from the ITA, which has been included in the updated story on the front page. https://www.slowtwitch.com/...estigation_8828.html It's actually pretty detailed on process and how investigations are usually handled, as well as their confidential reporting arm.

2.) We *do not* have any confirmation regarding whether this stems from the Center, or anything else, so let's please not paint that with a broad brush until we have something else in mind.

3.) Still have a couple of other requests for comment out there, which I'm trying to chase down this morning.

---

----------------------------------
Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

In criminal court. Which this isn't.

Of course, it's nice/fair to be granted the presumption of innocence in the court of public opinion. But in no way is anyone entitled to it there.

---

Greetings from the German Wine Route,
Roland

This was a dick move…if you’re going to take the time to reply and be a smart ass…at least answer his question at some point…

Why anyone would air their legal issues on Instagram baffles me. I think that either Sam needs a publicist or a lawyer to make a statement. It's not something that one should be blabbing about on social media. That is, unless you are a so-called multi-bazillionaire like 45!

---

Rav Dighe
Coach & Director
w: http://www.alohatri.com
e: rav@alohatri.com

And Laidlow presents the podiums with their winning medals at Challenge Vieux Bocau. Fortunate Pierré is racing to the win in IM Portugal, not here, because she might, politely, knee him in the balls when in range.

Assuming you want to be an as@#$ about it. Because according to the rules of this forum we should assume the spirit of this law just as we would the letter.

---

E-DUB
Chief Janitor @Slowtwitch
Life is short. Dont be mad all the time.

Why does everyone get his surname wrong? Is there a celebrity called Britney Laidlaw or something

Anyway the lad has full right to state facts and express he's upset if he knows he's clean. Also true is that most of the whistleblower/witchhunt athletes probably have a genuine belief he's doping, and they shouldn't be vilified for talking to ITA - only gossip and lies would warrant the attack on their character.

I personally don't get why so many people think ironman athletes must be on EPO. Oxygen delivery is not a limiter at the full distance. Some short course athletes that do the odd PTO race could well be on gear, but a guy like Sam trains specifically for the full distance - none of that aerobic capacity bullshit matters there.

And isn't there a big elephant in the room - the one reason why a 300w athlete would be so sure that 320w+ isn't possible clean? And consider who else is coached by the coach of ____?

Almost 24 hours later and not a peep from Pro Tri News and THH.

I think the discussion about EPO was mostly about a runner, Bol, not sure why you're picking on that. But while the evidence may not be conclusive on the benefits for sub-maximal effort, but I'd hesitate to call increase in VO2max "aerobic capacity bullshit." There's a pretty good correlation to VO2max and performance capacity across the aerobic spectrum.

Kudos for bringng out the old Lance thread argument #53, "But doping doesn't even work." :)

Cycling races' deciding moments happened at near VO2max. Same for almost all 'endurance' sports - even the marathon is only a two hour event at the top. But ironman races are won without exceeding 85% of peak ox.
In fact I bet VO2max is negatively correlated with performance at ironman among the top half of the professional field. After all, it's just a lab number representing how quickly your intermediate IIa fibres can burn your glycogen.

I’m convinced there must be more coming on this. It makes absolutely no sense for Sam to make this public, unless he’s trying to get ahead of something. If not for his Instagram post nobody other than a few insiders would have a clue this investigation was happening.

The fact that pundits who would usually be all over a breaking story like this are silent just has my spidey senses tingling even harder.

This…is an interesting conclusion!

Todd is an accomplished age grouper with lots of podiums and some overall wins in the various US championship multisport races (tri/ du/ aquathon) and good results at ITU age group worlds, including fastest overall time at the Gold Coast worlds in 2018.

He is neither a peacock nor a celebrity, just a good guy who got into endurance sport as an adult and discovered he had a talent for it. He’s also a PhD in exercise physiology and puts out some good content on training basics.

---

Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

Shh..."Nothing to see here"...Kelly giggles incessantly.

Friends my ass. You mean a "professional relationship"? Meaning a platform for Collin to tell his side and a platform for Kelly to promote his podcast/Name?

Do you think they still talk regularly like friends? Negative ghost rider...Collin set sail to South America on a bike and JK got a sweet gig with PTO, went silent on his podcast, and set up a pay wall. That pretty much sums it up.

Actually I think the pundits have to basically be careful in how they "break" news. Remember these pundits they aren't "news" sources telling us "just the facts, Ma'am". They are all using their inside connections to gain info and guests and that's what makes them popular. So I think they are just waiting on more actual info before they really break it down. The pro's are their whole platform, so they have to be "careful" how they tread with stuff like this, especially as nothing really is to see here *yet*.

---

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I’ve had suspicions about Sam since Kona last year, so maybe that jaded the way I listen to interviews/podcast etc. But the way pro Tri news, cam Wurf and others talked about Sam's Nice performance had me convinced they knew something I didn’t. I guess this was it.

Now I’m also thinking that the triathlon mockery podcast about the complexities of calling out dopers is about this too. I think it’s likely that the accusation is that Sam is or was using prescribed corticosteroids on a long term basis.

I also thought it was a bit suspicious when Jan got a stress fracture in his hip, keeping him out of Kona, right after he ran 1:06 in South Africa. Interesting that they are both linked to this center.

I thought 'he' was no longer coached by ___. Maybe this should be for another thread.

Thanks, he did finally answer my question a few posts later, as you've prob already seen.

---

"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."