Floyd Landis - What can Cycling do to Prevent Cheating? — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02[Music]
2. 0:04For TV, the world is thinking.
3. 0:21First of all, to be clear,
4. 0:24doping, if you're accused of doping,
5. 0:27you're accused of cheating. That's
6. 0:29assuming you have rules and you have a
7. 0:31defined uh set of substances which are
8. 0:34banned um or limits on those substances
9. 0:36as to how how much you can use. Then if
10. 0:39you're accused of crossing the line,
11. 0:41then you're accused of cheating.
12. 0:43Um if in the event that that happens,
13. 0:47you have um agencies who deal with it
14. 0:50and they're held to the same standard,
15. 0:52then you have respect from both sides.
16. 0:54you have uh racers and athletes who
17. 0:57respect the people doing the testing and
18. 0:59believe that they're doing the right
19. 1:00thing and have the right intentions and
20. 1:02on the other side you have agencies who
21. 1:04are trying to control it but also
22. 1:05respect the sport and what it stands
23. 1:07for. Um right now we have none of that.
24. 1:10My solution and my idea of how to solve
25. 1:14it begins with um the the agencies who
26. 1:18are enforcing the rules um being held to
27. 1:21the highest standards. right now they
28. 1:22are not. Um I am asked every day to
29. 1:26comment on what I believe the problem is
30. 1:28with the athletes and what I believe the
31. 1:31percentage of athletes is that they'll
32. 1:33and at this point having been through
33. 1:35what I've been through. I don't care
34. 1:37anymore. All I care about is the
35. 1:39agencies that are are enforcing ethics
36. 1:41are held to the same standard of
37. 1:43perfection to which they hold the
38. 1:44athletes. Right now, if an athlete is
39. 1:46confused or if an athlete is accused of
40. 1:51doping um and provided some evidence
41. 1:54against them, they're expected to
42. 1:56explain what happened. Regardless if
43. 1:58it's a mistake in the lab, regardless of
44. 2:00what it is, they're expected to explain
45. 2:03um what caused that event. Um and the
46. 2:07agencies themselves are not held to any
47. 2:10kind of standard at all. Um and this
48. 2:13level of perfection, this level of um
49. 2:16what do they call it? Um
50. 2:19I can't even remember at this point.
51. 2:21This whole thing is confusion to me. The
52. 2:23athletes themselves are basically given
53. 2:25the same u suspension or penalty
54. 2:29regardless of the offense and regardless
55. 2:31of
56. 2:33um the evidence against them, assuming
57. 2:34they can't demonstrate that they didn't
58. 2:37do it. Now, it's an impossibility to
59. 2:40prove that you didn't do something. I
60. 2:41don't know that most people have ever
61. 2:43been in a position where they've had to
62. 2:44think this through. Let's say in my
63. 2:46case, for example, I was accused of
64. 2:48taking testosterone. Um, two months ago,
65. 2:51we had this hearing. Uh, we proved
66. 2:54beyond any shadow of a doubt for anybody
67. 2:56who understands this test that that test
68. 2:58is wrong. That doesn't prove that I
69. 3:01didn't take testosterone. All it does is
70. 3:03prove that the test is wrong. So if
71. 3:05that's the standard that athletes are
72. 3:08held to, then athletes are never going
73. 3:10to respect the agencies who deal with
74. 3:12this. Um, so I if you ask me what the
75. 3:16solution is, the solution begins at the
76. 3:17top. If the athletes don't respect the
77. 3:20agencies enforcing the rules, then it's
78. 3:23never going to get solved. Is that
79. 3:24abroad or just domestically as well or
80. 3:26both? That's everywhere. If the if the
81. 3:30let me compare it to the way things work
82. 3:32in in a civilization.
83. 3:38This is not what we have here at
84. 3:42criminals
85. 3:45are
86. 3:46are
87. 3:48well we have a a law enforcement agency
88. 3:51in this country. They try to stop
89. 3:53criminals.
90. 3:55Um, if the law enforcement agency is
91. 3:57allowed to fabricate things and
92. 4:00basically just accuse anyone of
93. 4:01anything, the next thing you know, the
94. 4:03entire civilization is going to
95. 4:05disrespect and disregard anything that
96. 4:07the law enforcement agency says and then
97. 4:09you don't have any rules. Uh, we have in
98. 4:11this country an innocent until proven
99. 4:14guilty standard. What that comes from um
100. 4:17on a very basic level is the fact that
101. 4:20the law enforcement agencies and the
102. 4:22government is held to a higher standard
103. 4:25than the people are. If they can't prove
104. 4:27that you did it, then you're innocent.
105. 4:29And unfortunately, in that situation, a
106. 4:31lot of criminals go free and a lot of
107. 4:33guilty people go free. But it holds them
108. 4:35to a higher standard and then the people
109. 4:37respect them. And if you don't do it
110. 4:39that way, it doesn't work. And that's
111. 4:40what we got in cycling right now. the
112. 4:42the agencies enforcing the rules have no
113. 4:45respect whatsoever from the athletes and
114. 4:47that's not going to work.
115. 4:58[Music]
116. 5:03[Laughter]
117. 5:11[Music]
118. 5:16[Music]