Doping in Sport - Bi-Weekly Press round-up #30
A cyclist is dramatically suspected of motor doping in France, a 135ml blood transfusion can boost performance by 5% and a French Olympian's sex contamination doping defence is accepted.
I publish Long Reads on doping in sport, along with a bi-weekly press round-up in which I summarise all of the latest doping news from the last seven days.
The Town Square is a place where I cover recent anti-doping issues, and answer any questions my subscribers have about my longer doping investigations. The Town Square also has resources to learn about doping in sport (link).
In case you missed it yesterday, I published a new Long Read investigating why so many Italian sports stars, from tennis to football, are testing positive for an anabolic steroid once at the heart of the East and West German state-doping programmes. “The shot fills the tub. The cream keeps replenishing it every day to top it off,” (link).
A cyclist was dramatically suspected of motor doping before the final stage of the Routes de l’Oise amateur race. When the rider was confronted by the organisers he tried to escape and reportedly ran over the officials. The rider was initially suspected of motor doping after catching up with a breakaway in an abnormally fast period of time. Several people also mentioned hearing an abnormal noise when he was riding. “I wanted to hold him back, but he ran away. He ran into me with his car and I drove a hundred meters on his hood. It couldn’t have been more dramatic,” (link). The Beauvais public prosecutor has opened a judicial investigation (link).
The British cyclist Lizzy Banks has been found to have been at ‘no fault’ after testing positive for an asthma drug and a diuretic (link). Banks was unable to prove the ‘source’ of the drugs in her system, but has been notedly transparent about her case. Banks has published thousands of words detailing her story on her personal website (link). Banks says she was suicidal during the case. “It was just an impossible task and I really felt like my whole life was over because I'd seen these cases in the news and I knew that these cases always ended badly,” (link).
UK Anti-Doping has admitted it is concerned about Banks’ wellbeing and will review its support to athletes (link).
The Team Banco Guayaquil cycling team will appeal the UCI’s decision to suspend the team after two if its riders tested positive within twelve months of each other. The team claims that it bears no responsibility for the two doping cases (link). The team’s technical director is Víctor Hugo Peña who was implicated in the 2012 USADA Reasoned Report into doping on the US Postal team and was concluded to work with Lance Armstrong’s doctor Michele Ferrari and received blood transfusions during his Tour de France participations (link).
Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli’s cyclist Vlad Dascalu will not race at the Paris Olympics now that he has been suspended for 17 months for committing whereabouts failures (link).
The Spanish language podcast Sobre Ciclismo has released a podcast episode on gene doping. “Gene doping can enhance sports performance by between 5% and 10%,” (link).
A new study at the University of Copenhagen has shown that a blood transfusion, as small as 135ml, can have a drastic effect on performance. “A group of well-trained young men improved their performance in a cycling time trial by 4.7% via injecting just 135 ml of red blood cells, corresponding to ‘half a bag of blood,” (link).
The French fencer Ysaora Thibus, a reigning Olympic silver medallist, will be allowed to compete at Paris 2024 after it was accepted that she ingested an anabolic agent after sex with her partner (link). You can read about her defence here (link).
AS has interviewed the Argentine World Cup winner Papu Gomez who is currently serving a doping ban. The interview does not ask any difficult questions of Gomez (link). I wrote about Gomez’s doping case and inadequate drug testing in La Liga several months ago (link).
A horse racing expert has supported an American footballer’s claims that Secretariat, the greatest racehorse ever, was given steroids. “It wasn’t just Lucien Lauren, the trainer of Secretariat, that had access to this stuff,” (link).
Boxrox has interviewed three different individuals, including a professional bodybuilder, about what it is like to take anabolic steroids for 30 days for the first time. “I felt unstoppable, my confidence skyrocketed, and I was more assertive in every aspect of my life,” (link).
An Indian 800m runner has had her doping ban overturned after a DNA test revealed her urine sample also contained the DNA of ‘another female’. “Most people don’t know the difference between performance enhancing drugs and narcotics. ‘Nasha’ is a word that can ruin the image of a woman for good. In villages, it is difficult to get rid of the stigma,” (link).
The Chairman of the US Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has called on the US government to use the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act of 2019 to investigate the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive before Tokyo 2021. The ‘Act’ allows US law enforcement authorities to criminally prosecute individuals who engage in doping conspiracies that effect American athletes at international events. “This incident raises serious concerns and may constitute a broader state-sponsored strategy,” (link).
US Anti-Doping (USADA) has criticised the WADA president for ‘attacking’ US athletes in what it says is an attempt to divert attention from the China affair. “USADA stated that this comment was "particularly manipulative in an effort to suggest that 90 percent of US athletes are dirty,” (link). You can read USADA’s press release in full here (link).
Despite USADA’s criticism of WADA that the Chinese cases were not publicly disclosed, it must be noted that USADA does not publicly disclose when US athletes are publicly suspended (link).
The Washington Post has published an opinion piece on the China scandal. “But there has been no explanation for why the medication — dispensed as a solid pill, not a powder or liquid — was found in kitchen supplies,” (link). And David Howman, the Chairman of the Athletics Integrity Unit, has also been interviewed about the scandal (link).
Ultra Running has published a detailed article on doping, and drug testing, in trail running. “A couple of years ago, I had the distinction of working with USADA on some initial framework (which still can be used as framework today) for out-of-competition testing, complete with results management, adjudication of results and athlete education for the trail and ultra space. The tab would have cost $300,000–$500,000 annually,” (link).
The unbeaten Russian cruiserweight Soslan Asbarov has been banned for six years by Russian Anti-Doping (link).
T Nation has written about how some individuals respond better to anabolic steroids than others. “Based on the results, the men were classified as either high responders or low responders. The number of androgen receptors didn't change during the training but was higher at all times in the high-responder group,” (link).
The Anti-Doping Podcast has interviewed two doctors about a newly launched collaborative research project the pair are leading that is examining the experiences and perspectives of sanctioned athletes as well as clean athletes (link).
Coaches, government agencies, sponsors are having an influence on whether an athlete chooses to dope according to new research from the University of the Sunshine Coast. “It really exists as a clear example of how a system, which is supposedly designed to catch dopers, can be leveraged for illicit ends to facilitate doping and cover up positive tests,” (link). You can find the study here (link).
The University of Glasgow student paper has published an article titled ‘Doping or the Wrong Medication?: The Systemic Issue of Doping in Sports’. “Nobody enters sports wanting to take PEDs, but as you climb higher in the league tables, they slowly become a facet of sport that is inescapable,” (link).
WADA has begun its ‘Stakeholder Consultation Phase’ for the creation of the 2027 WADA Code (link).
The Oceania Regional Anti-Doping Agency has said that ignorance is no longer an excuse for violating anti-doping rules in the lead up to Paris 2024 (link).
Did I miss something? If so, please email me the URL on honestsport@substack.com and I will add it to the next newsletter.
If you have confidential information about doping in elite sport to share, please reach out to me, Edmund Willison, on honestsport@substack.com.