Doping in Sport - Bi-Weekly Press round-up #36
UK Anti-Doping embarrassingly sanctions a dead boxer, another US Olympic swimmer is caught blood doping and an investigation into 'secret' drug testing in Australian football is concluded.
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UK Anti-Doping have embarrassingly sanctioned a Mexican boxer for cocaine use who actually died several months ago. Moises Calleros, who fought on the undercard of an Anthony Joshua fight last year, was dealt a harsh four-year sanction because he did not respond to UKAD’s communications (link). Calleros did not respond because he had passed away. UKAD did not perform basic due-diligence as evidenced by the fact that news of Calleros’ death had already been published online (link).
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is considering whether to appeal the recent decision to clear the American sprint sensation Erriyon Knighton of all doping offences. A panel accepted that Knighton had eaten contaminated oxtail meat at a restaurant in Florida. “It is difficult to understand how Travis Tygart [USADA CEO] can declare with such certainty that ‘justice was served. In this case, given USADA had argued that the analytical result was incompatible with meat contamination and had originally sought a sanction of four years against the athlete,” (link).
The former Greek sprinter Konstantinos Kenteris, who was involved in a famous doping scandal on the eve of his home Athens Olympics, was part of the Greek delegation at the recent European Athletics Championships in Rome (link). Kenteris is now the vice-president of the Greek athletics association. You can read about Kenteris’ doping scandal here (link).
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned the doping sanction of the steeplechase world champion Norah Jeruto. CAS ruled, as they did in the case of the tennis player Simona Halep, that there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the abnormal variation in Jeruto’s Athlete Biological Passport had been caused by doping (link). You can read the CAS press release here (link).
Spe15 has published an article on the recent sanctions involving French Olympic hopefuls who have missed drugs tests. “Given the number of athletes who have seen their careers ended for such failings, the message should have been understood a long time ago for French Team level athletes,” (link).
A new book has claimed that the disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson once paid a bribe of $75,000 to the former World Athletics (IAAF) president Lamine Diack so that his lifetime doping ban could be lifted (link).
The Rio 2016 Long Jump silver medallist, Luvo Manyonga, says that he will return to track and field once his doping ban has elapsed. “It’s just a theory that people believe in, if you go back to 1991, Mike Powell and Carl Lewis broke world records when they were my age,” (link).
The US Olympic swimmer Michael Brinegar has been sanctioned for four years by USADA for blood doping. Brinegar, who competed in the 800m and 1500m at Tokyo 2020, was caught via the Athlete Biological Passport and becomes the second ever American swimmer to be caught blood doping (link). You can read USADA’s press release here (link). Earlier this month, USADA announced the first ever blood doping case in US swimming (link).
The American swimming great Michael Phelps told a US House of Representatives subcommittee that athletes worldwide are losing faith in WADA. Phelps appeared at the hearing, alongside the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, to address the concerns that WADA ‘covered up’ 23 doping cases involving Chinese swimmers. “The US contributes more funding to Wada than any other country, including nearly $3.7m this year. China has given Wada $1.8m more than its required dues since 2018, Tygart noted in his testimony. Tygart called on the US to condition its future funding of Wada on reforms at the agency, an idea that Republican and Democratic lawmakers said they supported,” (link). You can watch a replay of the entire hearing here (link). CNN have also reported on the hearing in detail (link).
WADA has reacted to the hearing held on Capitol Hill with an unusually vitriolic press release aimed at US anti-doping authorities. “Given what we know about the anti-doping system within the U.S., one can’t help but think about the words of the American politician, Adlai E. Stevenson: ‘A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation’,” (link).
USADA’s CEO Travis Tygart has released a statement condemning WADA’s decision to reject an invitation to testify at the hearing. “As desperate as they are to make this about two superpowers, the reality is the WADA system failed Chinese athletes as well as athletes from around world. When funding countries investigate the misuse of taxpayer dollars it isn’t politics, it’s called accountability,” (link).
The ARD journalists who broke the China story have published new detailed information on the cases which includes claims that some of the Chinese athletes were not informed that they had failed drugs tests. “The source also states that at least large parts of the Chinese national swimming team were repeatedly stationed in Beijing for longer periods of time in the weeks before the positive tests and trained together in the so-called National Sports Complex in the capital,” (link).
Two leaders of the US senate have written to the WADA president demanding that his agency releases key documents that detail why 23 Chinese swimmers were secretly cleared (link). The Athletes’ Group has also written a letter to WADA (link).
Meanwhile, the Chinese anti-doping agency has accused the New York Times of a violating “media ethics” in its reporting on the scandal. “We have noticed the unauthorized disclosure of unpublished documents and information, and the privacy of the athletes (including minors) by media like the New York Times,” (link).
The Daily Mail has written about the secret ‘magic potion’ (pickle juice) which England football players have been seen taking at the ongoing European Championships in Germany. “The manner in which Trippier swiftly recovered prompted investigative fans to question the secret potion and its contents, with some going so far as to falsely accuse the full-back of 'doping live on television’,” (link).
The Australian anti-doping agency (SIA) has cleared the Australian Football League (AFL) of any wrongdoing after completing its investigation into the ‘secret’ drug testing programme run by the organisation. In March, an Australian MP used ‘parliamentary privilege’ to reveal that top Australian footballers were feigning injury to avoid failing doping tests. “The AFL has dodged a WADA breach on a technicality, but the fact remains that secret tests were conducted, which facilitated illegal drug use and helped ensure there were no positive match-day tests,” (link). You can read the SIA’s 38-page report (link), and watch a short news report on the story (link).
The EF Education-EasyPost cyclist, who was recently caught in possession of Human Growth Hormone, was already under investigation by the International Testing Agency at the time of the seizure (link).
The former German cyclist Jan Ullrich, who was caught doping in 2006, says he wants to make peace with the Tour de France organisers. “We can sit at the table and talk about the future,” (link).
A respected boxing journalist has written an exhaustive article about the Ryan Garcia doping case, which also addresses whether Garcia should have even been cleared by psychiatrists to fight. “Garcia’s behaviour was so troubling that attorney Pat English decided to telephone Kim Sumbler to suggest that the NYSAC undertake a thorough psychiatric evaluation to determine if Ryan was fit to fight,” (link). I also strongly recommend reading this longform article, by the same journalist, in which he investigated whether the American boxing great Floyd Mayweather doped before his super fight versus Manny Pacquiao in 2015 (link).
The Youtuber-boxer Jake Paul, while connected to a lie detector, was asked by his brother Logan whether he takes performance-enhancing drugs. “Jake has been hit with accusations of steroid use for years, which first rose ahead of his fight with mixed martial artist Tyron Woodley in 2021. Jake denied the claims, saying he was getting drug tested regularly and it’d be impossible to fake false results,” (link). On the Logan Paul podcast earlier this year, the professional wrestler John Cena denied he had ever taken steroids (link).
An undisputed ONE jiu-jitsu champion has criticised the rampant steroid use in his sport. “I grew up with a lot of coaches that were on a lot of steroids, and they're all bipolar and nuts now. It fucks up your brain. So growing up in this environment, of all these ex-steroid users, it made me instantly never want to do it,” (link).
Major League Baseball has suspended a Toronto Blue Jays rookie for 80 games after the player tested positive for the female fertility drug clomiphene (link).
An illegal steroid distribution network in Réunion has been dismantled. “In Reunion, five men suspected of having imported or resold illicit merchandise are placed in police custody. In particular the manager of a sports food supplements store established in Sainte-Clotilde,” (link).
A scientific paper has been published on detection methods used to identify the doping substance hypoxen in urine (link).
The US Supreme Court has refused a challenge to recent horse racing anti-doping laws (link).
An interview with a Polish anti-doping agency official about doping controls in billiards (link).
WADA has announced the ‘ADO Benchmarking Project’ which will allow anti-doping agencies to compare their performance with each other (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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