Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Rafa Retires - Conspiracy Theory(?)

In the wake of the much publicized recent world champion banned for two years, I hate to be a Descartes and feel the waves out doubt but Rafa's seemingly out of the blue retirement leaves me not so much just sad but suspicious. This isn't an attack on him as fanboys will assume simply that the timing means he's retiring before the one time per year he'd be tested for steroids if even selected. 
(Can we just stop pretending testing ten black belts once a year is cleaning up the sport?)
At any rate, having watched a ton of documentaries on cycling, Lance Armstrong, the recent Russian Olympics systemic cheating fiasco...it's not at all improbable that Rafa got word he would be among those selected. The IBJJF has been accused by Caio Terra and others of protecting its golden boys based on old alliances to storied teams and all the nepotism and friendships that exist, to say nothing of the conflict of interests that result. 

This is a long winded way of saying if the USADA showed up 6 months before Worlds and tested all the brown and black belts it would be a very different group of guys on the podium/even eligible to compete. 

You can call me anything you want but the testing that currently exists is a band-aid on a gaping wound that is PEDs in competitive grappling. 

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