Doping in Sport - Bi-Weekly Press round-up #79
Five-time grand slam champion Iga Swiatek tests positive for the same drug as 23 Chinese swimmers, the Boston marathon will re-distribute prize money dating back to 1986 and a Polish cycling EPO case.
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Apologies for not posting yesterday, the Iga Swiatek news came later in the day.
The three-time winner of the Polish U23 time trial championships Kacper Gieryk tested positive for EPO at the World Championships in September. “Currently, he has a contract with the Continental Lubelskje Perla Polski team until the 2025 season but it is not known whether this will be terminated following the news that broke out,” (link). The rider’s team has released a statement (link).
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has called on WADA to clarify its stance on the practice of carbon monoxide inhalation by athletes to enhance performance. “The UCI clearly asks teams and riders not to use repeated CO inhalation. Only the medical use of a single inhalation of CO in a controlled medical environment could be acceptable. The UCI is also officially requesting the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to take a position on the use of this method by athletes,” (link). You can read the official UCI press release here (link). Rumours began that Tour de France cyclists were inhaling carbon monoxide to boost their blood values after the Escape Collective published an investigation into the matter earlier this year (link). Le Dauphine (link) and El Observador have also reported on the topic including quotes from Tadej Pogacar; “We blow into a balloon for one minute for a test that we have to do every two weeks . I've only done the first part, because for the second part, the girl who was supposed to do it never came. It's not like I breathe that every day,” (link).
The sports director of the W-52 FC Porto cycling team says that the former president of FC Porto Football club was unaware of the team’s systematic doping programme despite being present at most important races. “Former W52-FC Porto sports director Nuno Ribeiro said in court this Thursday that ‘all’ of the team's cyclists ‘doped’,” (link).
The former Kelme sports director Vicente Belda, who continues to live in his own reality, has again denied that he had knowledge of doping on the team despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. “I was declared innocent in court, but I also want to say that Operation Puerto condemned me in practically every aspect of my life. It did terrible damage to my image, but also to my professional and family life. And, of course, it has prevented me from returning to cycling,” (link). Only a fortnight ago, a former Kelme mechanic revealed that he had to transport blood bags for the riders around the Pyrenees. “He explains that Manzano's version of the doping practices allegedly directed by Vicente Belda and Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes is completely true,” (link).
The Argentine cyclist Laureano Rosas failed a doping test at the recent National Championships in Cordoba (link).
The former ONCE cyclist Igor González de Galdeano says that Lance Armstrong, apart from doping, also employed bullying tactics in the peloton. “At first, for me, he was a champion. And he was. Then, his way of winning, without talking about the doping cases he had, was very controlled. To win, he used the physical and psychological part. I have had experiences with him later, in those years, that showed me that he was someone...Let's say that he did not play fair. And I am not talking about doping,” (link).
The World number two tennis player Iga Swiatek, a five-time grand slam champion, has been banned for one month after she tested positive for the drug trimetazidine (link). Trimetazidine is used to treat heart conditions like angina and improve overall performance in people with heart disease (link) and it is also the same drug that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (link). The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted that Swiatek had taken contaminated melatonin pills. Swiatek provided receipts of the purchase in her psychiatrist’s name and negative hair test results, however she did not mark down the product on her doping control form, the ITIA was unable to contact the manufacturer and the ITIA was also unable to source the product independently to be tested for contamination. The ITIA instead tested the sealed container of melatonin pills provided by Swiatek which showed the presence of trimetazidine. You can read the reasoned decision here; “The ITIA sought to independently source a container from the same batch but that was not available given the Product expiry date and the non-response of the manufacturer (see paragraph 33, below). However, the ITIA verified that the sealed container obtained by Player was from the same batch as that used by the Player (the batch numbers matched) and the sealed container had a tamper-evident seal,” (link). Only two weeks ago, the ITIA accepted a contamination defence from a Junior Wimbledon finalist who had twice tested positive for the same drug trimetazidine but the agency was also unable to contact the manufacturer; “On the same day and subsequently, the ITIA contacted the manufacturer of the Supplement. The manufacturer failed to respond to the ITIA despite numerous attempts,” (link). Swiatek, along with Simona Halep and Jannik Sinner, is now the third tennis World number one to failed a doping test since August 2022.