Doping in Sport - Bi-Weekly Press round-up #37
A 72-year old cyclist and an Italian politician are caught doping, the International Cycling Union will 'pay' whistle-blowers with evidence of motor doping and Jamaican sprinting is in the news.
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The 100m hurdles world champion (2022) Tobi Amusan, from Nigeria, has been cleared of whereabouts charges by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (link). Amusan was memorably involved in a tense exchange with a journalist who questioned her on the case at the last world championships (link). Amusan went to the University of Texas at El Paso (link), as did the Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare who is currently serving a ten-year ban for the possession of prohibited substances (link).
Stephen Francis, the coach of Kishane Thompson, the Jamaican sprinter who ran 9.77 in the final of the Jamaican trials, has complained that his sprinter was unable to complete his post-race recovery after being subjected to drug testing (link). In 2010, Francis was reprimanded after the double Olympic 100m champion Shelly Ann-Fraser-Pryce was banned for doping (link). Francis was also the coach of Asafa Powell (oxilofrene) and Nesta Carter (methylhexanamine, clomiphene).
Kishane Thompson, himself, has added more detail on the incident. “Apparently, they came to do a drug test, and we were saying it’s just the heats. We could understand if it’s after the finals, but they said ‘No,’ I hadn’t run from season and I opened with such a fast time in the heats, so they said it looks suspicious,” (link). A former doping control officer at the Jamaican anti-doping agency has responded to Francis and Thompson (link).
The Indian javelin thrower D P Manu, currently ranked 12th in the world, has been provisionally suspended after he reportedly tested positive for an anabolic steroid. Manu’s coach has now had three of his throwers fail doping tests. “Davinder Singh Kang, the first Indian javelin thrower to make the World Championships final in 2017 and 2019 Asian Championships silver medallist Shivpal Singh, both training under Naik, too were earlier sanctioned for prohibited substances,” (link).
USADA have sanctioned a 72-year-old runner for three years after he tested positive for two different substances. The runner, Robert Qualls, was the US Track and Field ‘Masters Road Runner of the Year’ in 2023. “Qualls has dominated his age group since turning 70 and became the world champion over 6k in Finland in 2022. In an old interview at the time, he said: ‘I was languishing at 69. I was doing the same times, but competing with a different crowd. It feels great to win again’,” (link). You can read the USADA press release here (link).
The Spanish world championship medallist Mo Katir will use a technical defence to argue why he should not be banned for ‘tampering’ in addition to his current whereabouts sanction. “The legal battle, from the defence, is centred on the principle of 'non bis in idem', according to which no citizen can be sanctioned twice for the same offence,” (link).
The Brazilian Olympic pole-vaulter Thiago Braz, who is currently serving a doping ban, has failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics even though he won a temporary appeal to compete at the Brazilian Olympic trials (link). You can read the initial decision in Braz’s case here (link).
Athletics Illustrated has discussed which sanctions could be effective at taming Kenya’s rampant doping problem. “One international coach, Renato Canova, who had dozens of top-rung East African athletes in his stable, declared that EPO does not work on them. The implication was, therefore, they don’t dope,” (link).
The International Cycling Union (UCI) will pay whistle-blowers to come forth with credible evidence of motor doping in elite cycling. “Sometimes you don’t know why they change their bike at 10k [to go to the finish]. I want them [cheats] to be 100% sure that we will catch them. We are not afraid to catch somebody,” (link). The podcast Ghost in the Machine has published the final episode of its series on motor doping (link).
An Italian councillor, from the political party of the former Italian Prime Minister, has been provisionally suspended for doping. “In fact, Alessio Grillini, a well-known triathlete, Fidal member, but above all a municipal councillor for Italia Viva in Faenza, also tested positive for doping. The politician from Matteo Renzi 's party was also suspended as a precautionary measure, pending counter-analysis,” (link).
I recommend this in-depth article in The Times on the recent case of the EF Education First-EasyPost rider who was found in possession of human growth hormone. “Vaughters also felt a deep antipathy towards Piccolo. Having human growth hormone in his possession meant instant dismissal. Piccolo would never again ride for EF. Vaughters’s other consideration was what to do next. Though it was late on a Friday, he wanted the news released immediately,” (link).
Lance Armstrong is promoting the controversial nutritional supplement ketones. “Been about a month since my last competition and I’m craving the sūffering again. Training daily, training hard. Ready for whatever’s next. My friends at @Ketoneiq fueling me until then…” (link). In February, I revealed that Sir Bradley Wiggins was one of the first cyclists to use ketones in the year he won the Tour de France and the Olympics (link).
The Daily Mail has written an article titled the ‘Dark Side of the Tour de France’ which revisits the major doping scandals in the sport. “The investigation also forced the Astana-Wurth team to withdraw, after five of its nine riders were banned from racing,” (link).
Similarly, ABC News has revisited the Tour de France’s first ever doping scandal which took place in 1904. “This is the cocaine for the eyes, this is the chloroform for the gums," Henri Pélissier said. Ville now emptied his bag on the table, revealing an ointment that ‘warms the knees’. All three riders then revealed the three boxes of pills they had with them,” (link).
An Italian Gran Fondo cyclist has been sanctioned for eight years for ‘tampering’ offences (link).
It has been thirty years since Diego Maradona’s tested positive for the stimulant ephedrine at the 1994 World Cup. “Diego prepared himself like a superhero for his return to the tournament where he shone like no one else, under the orders of Fernando Signorini and personal trainer and bodybuilder Daniel Cerrini, who would have a leading role in the fatal outcome,” (link).
The US Olympic swimmer Michael Brinegar, who was recently sanctioned for blood doping, has protested his innocence in a lengthy post published on Medium. Brinegar has released the suspicious blood values that led to his ban. “They assert that my hemoglobin levels and reticulocyte percentages during this period could only be explained by the use of Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents (ESAs) or blood manipulation,” (link).
Indianapolis Monthly has profiled the British tennis player Tara Moore who was recently cleared of doping. A independent tribunal accepted that Moore had tested positive for two anabolic steroids because of meat contamination. “Following her suspension, Moore often woke up in the middle of the night, wracked with confusion. She coped by turning over rocks, researching boldenone, a strength hormone, and nandrolone, a recovery substance similar to testosterone. It didn’t take long for her to land on contaminated meat of cows injected with steroids as a possible culprit,” (link).
Billionaire businessman and trainer Luke Comer has had his appeal against the decision to suspend his licence for three years, after a dozen of his horses tested positive for anabolic steroids, dismissed by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's (IHRB) appeals body (link).
The Nigerian House of Representatives has passed the country’s new anti-doping bill (link).
The USADA CEO Travis Tygart has told US Congress that a Chinese whistle-blower informed WADA that Chinese athletes were doping with small amounts of trimetazidine just months before 23 Chinese swimmers went on to test positive for the same drug (link). The New York Times has released a podcast episode with the journalist who broke the China story (link).
Meanwhile, China’s anti-doping agency said it will ‘never’ agree to a United States demand to release details of its investigation into the 23 swimmers who tested positive. “Such request, without any legal basis, is in violation of the World Anti-Doping Code and the legitimate rights and interest of the athletes,” (link).
Conor McGregor has not fought in three years but he is the most tested fighter in the UFC. There is however no detail concerning which substances McGregor has been tested for (link).
The boxer Ryan Garcia was embroiled in a heated exchange with the father of Devin Haney, Garcia’s opponent when he thrice tested positive for ostarine (link).
The former UFC fighter Mike Perry has accused his next opponent, Jake Paul, of steroid use. “Well, he’s gotta be hot. If he went from, you know, 210, if he really did go to 230, he had to use something. He had to use something to get there,” (link). Paul has responded; “So after boxing, I'm gonna do a cycle of steroids to show people what Jake Paul on steroids actually looks like because I want to shut people the f*** up,” (link).
The co-founder of the Enhanced Games has appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast and discussed whether Lebron James has ever used performance-enhancing drugs. “Do they test him for testosterone placement? Not reefer, they can’t. It’s the same reason why it’s so good for the pool; it’s gotta be so good for basketball,” (link).
The Council of Europe has released a monitoring report on France's anti-doping system ahead of the Paris Olympics. The report includes ten recommendations aimed at improving anti-doping in France, which can be found on Page 5 (link).
UKAD has release its last testing report (link). As has the International Testing Agency (link).
An academic paper has been published in the BMJ on the ‘psychosocial’ predictors of doping intention (link). As has another paper on different methods used to ensure doping samples indeed belong to the athlete in question (link). And lastly a scientific paper on ionic leakage in red blood cells when kept in storage has been published in Wiley (link).
Brazil’s move to decriminalise personal marijuana use still does not exclude the drug from the WADA prohibited list (link).
The Swiss and Moroccan anti-doping agencies have initiated a two-year partnership which has been applauded by WADA. “The agreement, which was facilitated by WADA’s Africa office and signed in Rabat, Morocco, has the main objective of improving overall anti-doping capacity and expertise in Morocco,” (link).
Two assistants at the WADA-accredited laboratory in South Africa will be part of the Paris 2024 laboratory team (link). And eight doping control officers from Ghent will also be a part of the anti-doping team in Paris (link).
A distance runner, who sits on UK Anti-Doping and WADA committees, has been interviewed about several research project he is undertaking on the Partnership for Clean Competition podcast (link).
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).
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