Doping in Sport - Bi-Weekly Press round-up #122
An ex-Real Madrid doctor makes controversial comments, an American footballer tests positive for nine banned drugs and questions are asked of Tadej Pogacar's team manager.
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Every Monday and Thursday, I send a newsletter to your inbox with the URLs to all the major doping stories in the press over the past seven days.
In case you missed it this week, I published an article on the recent doping case involving the US Olympic swimmer Bella Sims who tested positive for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide after consuming an FDA-regulated contaminated medication. The International Testing Agency has informed me that it has reported the incident to the FDA and will publicly release the outcome of any consequent investigation. “Sims, an Olympic silver medallist, is based at the University of Florida under the Men’s and Women’s Swimming team head coach Anthony Nesty, which is also home to the swimming superstars Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel. Nesty was the head coach of Team USA at Paris 2024, where American swimmers finished top of the medals table with 28 Olympic medals, including 8 golds,” (link).
I published an update on the US federal doping case involving the sprint coach O’Neil Wright who purportedly ‘provided’ a British Olympic sprinter with doping substances before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. “In 2017, an unnamed British athlete was charged with the 'Attempted use of a Prohibited substance’ and then cleared. US federal investigators suspect a British Olympian of similar offences,” (link). Meanwhile Watson (link) and Süddeutsche Zeitung (link) published articles on the involvement of Wright’s sprinter Alex Wilson in the doping network.
The Escape Collective claims that the manager of the UAE Team Emirates Cycling team Mauro Gianetti, whose star rider is Tadej Pogacar, has possibly edited his Wikipedia page to remove a section referring to ‘Doping Incidents’ during his career. “On at least 17 occasions over seven years, someone – possibly Mauro Gianetti himself – appears to have edited his Wikipedia page, repeatedly deleting an entire section headlined ‘Doping incident’ while padding the page out with other accolades,” (link). Last week, The Observer reported on the past scandals involving Gianetti in an article titled ‘A cycling prodigy plagued by his boss’s past scandals’; “As a rider, Gianetti spent 10 days in intensive care in 1998. A Swiss judge launched an investigation (subsequently dropped) into allegations of doping, which Gianetti consistently denied. And as team manager, he has been involved in several scandals. In 2008, his team’s rising star, Riccardo Riccò, was arrested after testing positive for EPO” (link). Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong commented this week on Pogacar’s dominant performances. “In the London Marathon are the best marathoners in the world. This is the equivalent of winning the London Marathon by one minute. This is the equivalent of winning the Augusta Masters by 15 strokes. These are things you don't see,” (link).
Perico Delgado, the winner of the 1988 Tour de France, who failed a drug test during the race, (link), says that cycling is the ‘cleanest’ sport. “But I think no one cares today. I'm a racer, and I don't even consider it because I'm not just seeking my sporting ruin with the controls in place, but also socially. I don't think it makes sense. I think there are, you could say, false positives. Often, you buy a series of nutritional supplements at herbalists, but not everything is real. Or, as has happened more than once with hair growth products. It's hard to avoid these things because you don't know everything. But these days, I believe cycling is a clean sport, the cleanest of all,” (link).
The former director of the Swiss anti-doping agency has called for the organisation’s current leadership to resign after the Swiss mountain biker Mathias Flückiger, who won silver at Tokyo 2020, was wrongly charged with a doping violation. “Kamber advised Flückiger during his trial. After this and his advisory mandate had been completed, he drafted a 25-page document with 51 suggestions for improvement intended to avoid a case like Flückiger's in the future. The ‘Blick’ newspaper was the first to report on it. Ride also has the document. It should be noted that Kamber is on Flückiger's side and was paid by him, although not for this report. It is therefore not an independent expert opinion,” (link). You can read in greater detail about Flückiger’s case here; “Due to the small amount of Zeranol, it decided that the test result was atypical and should not have been counted,” (link).
The Team Arkea professional cycling team posted an article about a recent case involving the British cyclist Lizzy Banks who was found to have been a victim of pharmaceutical contamination. “Lizzy delved into the scientific research of doping tests and discovered that the pharmaceutical industry wasn’t always 100% pure, but that anti-doping agencies had a zero-tolerance policy. This meant that contamination, even within the confines of pharmaceutical practice, could result in a positive test,” (link). Last year, Banks, who tested positive for the diuretic chlortalidone, was cleared of wrongdoing but WADA has lodged an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (link).
A German crime drama, ‘Marie Brand and the Dead Man in a Jersey’, about professional cycling aired on ZDF yesterday. “Coach Ralf Krieger (Johannes Kienast), on the other hand, paints a positive picture of the victim, suggesting that Stefan wanted to escape the pressure of his ambitious stepfather. But the facade crumbles when forensics confirm: Stefan Lürs was doping at the time of his death,” (link).
The Tokyo 2020 100m champion Marcell Jacobs commented on the recent scandal involving the brother of his teammate Filippo Tortu who hacked the sprinter’s phone in an attempt to obtain evidence of wrongdoing by Jacobs. “When I won the Olympics, I, in quotation marks, obscured a little what was the path that Filippo had taken since 2018. They thought that maybe I was using doping…The fact that they violated my privacy was the thing that really bothered me the most. From what I know him and from what I have experienced from Tokyo to today, I could never think that Filippo was aware of this thing,” (link). You can read in more detail about the scandal here (link). In 2022, Jacobs’ nutritionist Spazzini was suspended for fifteen years for doping offences but the decision was overturned on appeal (link).
Reuters reports that a lawsuit filed by the Florida sprinter Issam Asinga against the sports-themed beverage brand Gatorade has been dismissed by a judge. Asinga claims he tested positive for the unapproved drug GW1516 after consuming ‘contaminated’ Gatorade gummies. “She also found no proof that Gatorade intentionally caused him to ingest a banned substance, thereby undermining his athletic scholarship from Texas A&M University and agreement to abide by world anti-doping rules,” (link). In March, Asinga’s coach Gerald Phiri was provisionally suspended after allegedly being found in possession of the same drug Asinga tested positive for; “During Phiri’s career he was trained in Clermont, Florida, by the American sprint coach Lance Brauman. Brauman previously coached the 400m Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo and led Noah Lyles to the 100m title at the Paris Olympics last summer” (link).
The Athletics Integrity Unit suspended the Indian runner Rameshwar Munjal for five years after the athlete tested positive for EPO. “It was at the Indian Oil WNC Navy Half Marathon, held in Mumbai, where he provided a urine sample on December 8,” (link). You can read the full decision here (link).
The Spanish Paralympic champion Yassine Ouhdadi, who won gold in the 5000m T13 at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, has been suspended for three years after testing positive for the anabolic steroid clostebol. “It was what gave me hope, thinking I could trace the source to a massage, or contamination from someone who was using it and who had come into contact with me. The hopes of finding the source of the possible infection have turned into profound helplessness and disappointment. Searching for everyday contacts from seven or eight months ago makes this possibility difficult,” (link).
CNN asked the 22-time grand slam champion Rafael Nadal about the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s (ITIA) recent management of doping cases in the sport. “I really believe in the process, I have been there going through all the tests for 20 years, how the things are strict on every single movement…and I believe in the process. I can’t say another thing and I can’t think another way because, if not, I will think that we are not in a fair world, and I really believe that we are in a fair world in this matter,” (link). You can watch a clip of the interview here (link). In 2013, CNN posed questions to Nadal about doping after Lance Armstrong was banned for life by the US Anti-Doping Agency. “Even, I don't like to talk about it because it is something that damage a lot the image of the sport. And somebody like Armstrong was an idol for most of the people who love sport. At the end you see that it was not true, nothing, it is a big disappointment,” (link). During the Armstrong case it also emerged that the cyclist’s doping doctor Luis Garcia del Moral had worked with professional tennis players in Valencia (link).
The Wimbledon doubles champion Max Purcell has been suspended for eighteen months after he was found to have undergone two illegal intravenous infusions in the off-season in Bali, Indonesia. Investigators at the ITIA were able to access Purcell’s phone which revealed incriminating Whatsapp messages. “These messages indicate that: (i) the Player requested the Clinic staff not to keep receipts relating to his infusion; (ii) the Player discussed ways in which he could justify receiving infusions, including feigning illness; and (iii) the Player subsequently researched whether or not the infusion was prohibited under the WADA Code (specifically, whether it was the ingredient itself or the water that was relevant to the limit of 100 mL within 12 hours),” (link). You can read the official ITIA press release here (link). The Guardian (link), the Tennis Channel (link) and The Athletic (link) have reported on the story. Bounces has also covered the case in-depth (link). Intravenous infusions were used by professional tennis players, such as the seven-time grand slam champion Justine Henin, before they were banned in 2005 (link). The former US Open Champion Jim Courier says that infusions should not be prohibited (link).
Andre Agassi’s former coach Brad Gilbert has criticised the length of suspension dealt to Purcell. “They 1000% need a complete overhaul to the system, starting with any test that reads one billionth of gram, as warning like missing a test, time to get new company involved and start over,” (link). In 1997, Agassi tested positive for amphetamines but lied to authorities to avoid a suspension. “I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim's spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: Sincerely. I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself that this lie is the end of it,” (link). Gilbert’s comments were made in response to a tweet from the Australian tennis player John Millman (link).
Meanwhile, the Italian press criticised Nick Kyrgios, who has been outspoken about Jannik Sinner’s case (link), for now criticising the length of Purcell’s suspension, who is also from Australia. “Honestly, how ridiculous is Purcell’s suspension? Vitamins? Can we really justify it? Or can we just admit that the whole system has failed? Moral of the story: take steroids, but not vitamins,” (link).
The Italian broadcaster Rai interviewed Sinner about his case, amongst other topics. “When I arrived in Australia in January, I was uncomfortable, also because it seemed to me that the other players looked at me differently. For a moment, I even thought about giving up everything,” (link). The Guardian reported on the interview (link). Despite the intense scrutiny over Sinner’s clostebol case, an Italian cyclist has again tested positive for the drug (link). You can read about the prevalence of clostebol positives across Italian sport here; “I suspect that they use creams. Because creams as clostebol, or testosterone by cream or by gel. The detection window it's very, very short” (link).
The 20-year-old Russian tennis player Aleksei Mokrov, who has a career-high ranking of 1413, tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone (link). You can read the ITIA press release here (link). At the turn of the millennium, seven tennis players tested positive for the same drug but their identities were never disclosed. “A World Anti-Doping Agency report also concluded that the failed tests could not have been caused by a mass contamination event. The tennis authorities never reopened the cases,” (link).
The ITIA CEO says that more tennis players are contacting the agency for advice on supplement use (link). Earlier the director of the ITIA’s anti-doping programme said she believes the ‘vast majority’ of tennis players are ‘clean’. “30% of anti-doping rule violations in tennis over the past 15 years can be attributed to contaminated supplements,” (link).
The former Head of Medical Services at Real Madrid Niko Mihic was asked by Marca for his opinion on why several FC Barcelona players have been playing with bandages on their wrist. “I don't know what's going on, but what I'm saying is that any doctor knows that if you want easier venous access, it's in the hands and wrists,” (link). Eurosport has reported on the interview in an article titled ‘Barcelona player Pau Victor's viral response to the former Real Madrid doctor's doping allegations’ (link).
AS interviewed the director of the Spanish anti-doping agency, which included questions concerning the ‘cover up’ of doping cases in the country under the organisation’s previous directorate. “No case is in a drawer. Some have been slowed down. There was also an order from WADA that passed some biological passport cases to the international federations. Another, for example, because there was a doubt about a signature in the chain of custody. We're taking a risk and opting to close everything,” (link).
The American footballer Darien Newell, who plays for the Edmonton Elks in Canada, has tested positive for nine different anabolic agents; GW501516, Ibutamoren, Ostarine, Ligandrol, testosterone, nandrolone, drostanolone, clostebol and oxandrolone. “The Queen’s University Golden Gaels football team defensive lineman was Edmonton’s second-round pick in Tuesday night’s draft. All nine CFL teams were made aware of Newell’s situation before the draft and that he had a hearing pending with an arbitrator on the matter,” (link). You can find the official press release here (link).
The US Anti-Doping Agency suspended the PFL MMA fighter Taila Santos, from Brazil, for six months after she tested positive for several anabolic steroids, as well as clenbuterol. “Under Section 10.2 of the current version of the PFL ADP, the period of ineligibility for the use of a prohibited substance is six months,” (link).
The British boxing promoter Eddie Hearn responded to claims made by Chris Eubank Jr. that 50% of boxers are doping. “If you look at the amount of testing that goes on in boxing now, especially for major fights, it's exhaustive. There has been a real improvement in testing, and I think we're in a good place,” (link).
A professional bodybuilder from Salzburg, Austria was handed a suspended sentence for supplying anabolic steroids. “According to the indictment, he sold anabolic substances, including testosterone, nandrolone, and other, partly unknown substances, to a fellow bodybuilder for more than three years,” (link).
The Italian bodybuilder, and influencer, Rugero Caso was arrested after anabolic steroids were seized from his home in Milan. “In the apartment Caso allegedly also kept precision scales and material suitable for packaging the narcotics in doses. Finally, 3,720 euros in cash were also found: it will be ascertained whether the money was evidence of drug dealing,” (link).
Three scientific papers have been published titled ‘Implicit doping attitude and athletes' accuracy in avoiding unintentional doping when being offered beverages with banned performance-enhancing substances’ (link), ‘Barium titanate nanoparticles for Clomiphene Sensing as a banned doping agent in sports activities’ (link) and ‘Pooled Sampling Technique to Improve the Monitoring of Medication Use in the Racehorse Industry’ (link).
Play the Game has called for submissions on the topic of ‘Anti-doping: Can trust and transparency be restored?’ for its upcoming conference in October (link).
The International Testing Agency will hold its next ‘Doping Control Officer Foundation Training Program’ on 2-4th July in Lausanne, Switzerland (link).
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