[sumo] [spoilers]Takanohana and steroid abuse

["Jürgen Buder"]

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 14:05:39 -0800 (PST)
> Von: Charles Beauchamp <beauking1 at yahoo.com>
> An: Sumo Mailing List <sumo at webtrek.com>
> Betreff: Re: [sumo] [spoilers]Takanohana and steroid abuse

> Anyone taking the logic that you go so far with is
> either very ignorant or flat straight out trying to
> mislead.  There is a reason why every credible
> sporting authority on the planet now bans such drugs
> outside of legitimate prescription use.

First of all, I am not saying that use of steroids is harmless. I wouldn't mind if they punished rikishi who use or used them. I just wanted to point out that where you and Scott see a clear causal connection, I just see a lot of (sometimes) weak links leading from a still unproven allegation (steroid use) to a fact (missing bashos and jungyos). 

> It
> is very simple to surmise that if Taka was using roids
> he could very easily have fallen into very poor health
> causing directly the missing of 7 consecutive basho.  
> 
> SO! cause and effect are direct and obvious if the
> activies being guessed and rumored about were ever
> true to begin with.

Takanohana's knee was damaged because it was dislocated on day 14 of Natsu 2001. That's a clear causal link IMO. There might literally be hundreds of reasons why this happened: the general wear-and-tear of rikishi, bad luck, use of steroids, and so on. I fail to see how you can conclude with such a certainty that the sole reason for Takanohana missing out bashos and jungyos alike was steroid use.


> Asashoryu was suspended because he is disliked.  There
> really is nothing beyond that.  The punishment was
> silly in the extreme and as I stated months ago
> damages the image of the sport itself worldwide.  I
> don't frankly put much weight in the fantasy wishes of
> a handful of foreign observerver apologists on a tiny
> email list.  Common sense tells the story clear
> enough.
> 
> The excuse..that Asa engaged in physical activity is
> rather silly and screams of grasping for any reason to
> remove him.  

I will not rehash something that was already discussed ad nauseam on this list, so I'll leave it at a deep apology for being a foreign observer. I'll try to improve on that.

Kind regards,
Randomitsuki


> --- "Jürgen Buder" <j.buder at gmx.net> wrote:
> 
> > -------- Original-Nachricht --------
> > > Datum: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 14:09:42 -0500
> > > Von: Scott Kahn <smk1 at columbia.edu>
> > > An: Sumo Mailing List <sumo at webtrek.com>
> > > Betreff: Re: [sumo] [spoilers]Takanohana and
> > steroid abuse
> > 
> > > 
> > > I bring up Takanohana only because he missed many
> > Jungyo and was given a 
> > > pass, whereas Asashoryu, who had lived up to his
> > Jungyo billing in the 
> > > past, was not.  If, as is suspected, Takanohana
> > deprived his fans from 
> > > seeing him at Jungyo because of steroid abuse,
> > even if he was the most 
> > > upstanding citizen and was the most dedicated
> > Kyokai employee, it is my 
> > > opinion that he should have been, or should be
> > equally punished.  
> > 
> > If I understood you correctly, your argument goes
> > that (alleged) steroid use led to muscle build-up
> > which joints, ligaments etc. could not bear, and
> > this led to a knee injury which in turn led to
> > Takanohana missing several jungyos. Now that is
> > quite a long causal chain, and I am pretty certain
> > that such a line of argumentation would never have a
> > chance to be validated if the case were ever
> > investigated (which, as we all agree, will not
> > happen anyway). 
> > 
> > As far as I know, the main motivation for steroid
> > use would not to build up muscle, but to have a
> > faster recuperation time. In other words, steroids
> > are often taken to heal injuries faster, so some
> > experts could probably even take Takanohana's injury
> > as "evidence" that he was not using illegal
> > substances.
> > 
> > In any case, comparing Takanohana's multiple
> > absences from jungyos with Asashoryu's absence, or
> > even demanding a proportional suspension for
> > Takanohana is moot because as we all (should) know
> > by now, Asashoryu was not suspended for going kyujo.
> > 
> > Kind regards,
> > Randomitsuki
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> 
> 
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