Middle of the pack

[Guest]

What happened to a considerable amount of world talent this past World Championships? Athletes who had been atop the world in their respective events the past three-five seasons - and even showed great promise during an abbreviated build-up to the championships - suddenly fell off the pace, didn't make it out of their semi-finals, pulled muscles, whatever.

Was there an unseen drug scare (threat) surfacing at the championships that event winners knew they couldn't get around?

[Asterix]

Now that's a broad, sweeping, generalization. Unless you are going to get to specific events or athletes (in which case you'd better have something more than 'they didn't run as fast as I thought they should'), your questions have no basis. How do you account for athletes who did not peak properly, for those who missed training due to injury, for those who hit the pinnacle of their career last year? How about those athletes who are on the upswing, those who timed their season perfectly and beat out others they weren't expected to?

Was
>there an unseen drug scare (threat) surfacing at
>the championships that event winners knew they
>couldn't get around?

I'm pretty sure all event winners are tested. Or do you mean potential event winners?

[Guest]

it's not at all uncommon for athletes (particularly European ones who have government subsidies which allow them to do so) to lie low in the year before an Olympics, saving everything for the year that remains the biggest of all, no matter how many world championships they invent.